One of the best areas of the internet for chatting with people who have similar interests as you is IRC - Internet Relay Chat
In particular, the channel #acorn is excellent for chatting with other users of Acorn computers, who appreciate the sheer technical genius behind the ARM processor, and the simplicity of Risc OS!
You can either work through this guide from top to bottom (the sections are in a sensible order) or you can jump to a specific subsection from below.
Before you can do anything else you need to connect to the IRC network. There are basically two main choices for Acorn users - telnetting to a server, or using custom software known as an IRC client.
Demon users are able to telnet to their own server, dismayl, by first connecting by telnet to irc-client.demon.co.uk port 23. There they are prompted for a nickname, and a terminal type - this should be entered as vt100
A more pleasant, user friendly way of using IRC is with a client. There is a freeware client available which is compatible with Acornet, ANT and Argonet. Termite users must use telnet. This client, !IRClient, by Matthew Godbolt, can be downloaded for free from his website. Also under development and beta testing is a new commercial client from QuadWorks. Both clients, and a number of others being written allow you to choose a server to connect to - and enter preferences such as nickname into a RiscOS window. All common commands are accessible from menus.
So, you've connected to IRC, telling the server a nickname and a terminal type (vt100) - how do you start? The first thing you need to do is understand the principle of channels. On the IRC network, there are several hundred channels, which each have a name up to 8 characters long. Each channel is like a room, and the name is like a name on the door. Every name begins with a hash (#), and signifies the topic for the chat which takes place inside the room.
The channel I shall concentrate on for this guide is #acorn - which you may be surprised to hear is concerned with Acorn computers! To join a channel, you must use the command 'join
When you join the channel, you are told the current topic for that channel, and all the other people currently in that channel. If any of the user's nicknames are prefixed with a @ symbol, they are operators of the channel.
The operator of the channel is a user who has control over other users in the channel. They have access to commands which are only they can use such as 'kick' and 'ban'. The former allows you to throw someone out of a channel for unacceptable behaviour (see the section below), and the latter allow you to ban a user from the channel so that they cannot rejoin until you unban them. This is only used when someone demonstrates very bad behaviour. Channel operators also have the ability to change the 'topic' for the channel. The topic is just as the name suggests, and could be something like 'Is Risc OS better than Windows 95' or a just a longer title than the channel name, for example 'The Acorn Computer Channel!'
Once in a channel, you are free to chat to the other users. To 'say something' simply type in the text, and press enter. If you are telnetting you will see some thing like:- > Hi everyone!! How are you all?
This then appears on all the other users' displays. If someone else 'says something' then the text will appear prefixed with their nickname:- <skiff> Fine thanks, and you?
The nick prefix allows you to tell who is speaking.
If you wish to address a comment to someone, make sure you mention their name, as remember it is difficult to tell if someone is addressing you. The best way is to start your comment with <nick>:. If someone is addressing you in this way it may look like:-
<skiff> Jonix : You're joking!!!
As with many other areas of the internet there are several rules of etiquette, which are not enforced, but which keep things polite, and prevent people getting very irritated!
You may from time to time wish to know a little about another user on IRC. The easiest way to do this is to use the command '/whois <nick>. This will give you information about the host name of their computer (sometimes with their real name in brackets), the channels they are currently connected to, and the number of seconds (or minutes) they have been idle for.
Sometimes you wish to send a message privately to one user, without any other users being able to read it. The command for this is /msg <nick> <message>. The message will be displayed as such:-
> *Jonix* Come to #acorn2
*Skiff* Come to #acorn2
The message is only displayed on the specified user's screen.
A fairly important part of IRC is the implementation of smilies (:-). In IRC an exclamation mark could mean a joke, sarcasm or deadly seriousness! To eliminate this problem the smiley was created. The two main smilies used are:
:-) and ;-)
The former indicates a joke, hence the smiling face, and the latter sarcasm hence the winking eye. There are many different interpretations of the smiley around, a few common ones are: :) ;) (shorthand of the one above) and :_( (nose out of joint). Basically as far as smileys are concerned, anything goes.
An emote is used on IRC like a stage direction. It indicates an action taking place, and is usually surrounded by * symbols.
<skiff> *grins* <skiff> *opens window*
/me grins /me opens the window
These become :
* skiff grins * skiff opens the window
IRC is a network and as such experiences the same sorts of problems as any other sorts of network. Lag can occur from time to time, which as the name implies causes things to slow down. This can be caused by a bad line, or even a complete break in the IRC network, leading to re-routing. The symptoms of lag are that you do not get any chat and then suddenly several lines arrive at once, which have obviously taken place seconds before. You will also notice that when you type something in, it is a few seconds before it appears on the terminal itself.
Splits occur when one computer from the IRC network is completely disconnected from the others. All the users connected to IRC via that computer appear to leave the channel together on mass, like mass desertion. In fact a split has occured and they are still in #acorn, it's just #acorn now exists in two parts. Those not affected by the split can still chat as normal. Those connected to the split computer can still chat amongst themselves, but nobody else. To them it also appears like mass desertion as all the users leave together. Eventually the split will mend itself and the users who had left will all join together again (this always looks a bit suspicious when 10 odd users all appear at once!) and this is a way of telling splits have occured. (plus most of the non split IRCers will be moaning about the split!)
Many channels on IRC have a bot. These are basically computer programs which regulate channels automatically. They appear to be normal users of a channel, however they never say anything - unless they have been programmed to respond to certain words.
For example, the #acorn channel almost always contains one of two bots maintained by zarni (Alex Howarth) and Gerph (Justin Fletcher), called Slarty and Subetha. These bots will automatically make some users channel operator if they privately message the bot the request, including their password. Slarty and Subetha both require people to register with them before any services can be used. They both also contain a message system, allowing users to leave messages for each other. The bots automatically kick people off the channel if they are flooding, and also keep information about each user registered with them, such as when they last logged on, and their email address.
Bots are quite important in the fight against channel take-overs. Sometimes people will join a channel when there is no-one on it, and take it over, preventing the regular users joining etc. If there is a bot present all the time, who is channel op, then this cannot happen.
Some channels have bots which people just use to give themselves absolute control, but in general Slarty and Subetha are very friendly, and useful. If you have a query about one of the #acorn bots, please talk to either zarni or Gerph in the channel.
Channel Operators
So how do you become a channel operator? Well there are two main methods :-
Chatting
Etiquette
Finding Out About A User
for briefer information on users in a channel, use the command /who <channel>. This will give you a list of the nicks of all those in the given channel, along with their computer host name (and possibly their real name)
Private Messages
At the Jonix's end this is displayed as:-
Smilies
Emotes
It is also possible to use an emote with the /me command, followed by an action you are carrying out.
IRC Lag And Splits
Bots
Simon Kiff
