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68 lines
3.6 KiB
68 lines
3.6 KiB
15 years ago
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/*
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@doc: kvircintro
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@title:
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Introduction to KVIrc
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@short:
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Introduction to KVIrc
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@keyterms:
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KVIrc
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@body:
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[big]Introduction[/big]
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In really simple words KVIrc is a Chat client: you use it to talk to other
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people over the internet. More specifically KVIrc is an IRC client
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and if you haven't readed it yet please take a look at the [doc:ircintro]IRC introduction[/doc]
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then come back here. Now that you know what IRC is then you already know
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that an IRC client acts as a relay for the informations that you
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exchange with your IRC server. KVIrc also acts as a filter and provides
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an user-friendly interface for the communication protocol that is a bit complex
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and rude when seen in its original form (by using telnet for example).
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KVIrc also contains a sophisticated scripting language that allows you to
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implement automated reactions to the network events. This is something similar
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to creating a robot that acts spontaneously after you have told him what to do.
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The scripting language allows you to enchance the KVIrc's interface and
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to handle special IRC network features that KVIrc itself isn't aware of.
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[big]History[/big]
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The original meaning of the name "KVIrc" was, more or less, "K Visual IRC Client".
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The initial K is a common prefix for the applications written for the KDE
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desktop environment: this was the case of the initial versions of KVIrc.
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Starting from version 2.0.0 the absolute KDE dependancy has been dropped (for several
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valid reasons) and the support became optional.[br]
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"Visual" was (and is) one of the client goals: having an user-friendly interface to the IRC world.
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Many extreme-unix users have misinterpreted the "user-friendly" interface and have tagged
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KVIrc as a client for "newbies". Well... that is partially true: KVIrc is ALSO a client for newbies:
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A total IRC novice should be able to "chat" in few minutes after installing the program,
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preferably without bothering to read any manual. Yes ,I know that it is not in "unix"-style.
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On the other side, KVIrc contains a whole bunch of compex features that can be discovered
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only by reading the documentation and experimenting. I bet that you can also
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find a lot of undocumented tricks :)
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[big]A bit of "philosophy"[/big]
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At the time of writing (Feb 2005) KVIrc approaches release 3.2.0. The small
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[b]one-man-project[/b] has grown to the level of a small [b]community[/b].
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People from around the world have joined our development efforts and are
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constantly donating their time, eyes and bandwidth in order to make KVIrc
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a really good IRC client. Besides of simply giving you a free (as in freedom!) and nice
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program for chatting, they are giving you the great opportunity to see what's behind
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the scenes: you have the source code for the whole application.
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In practical terms this means more or less 300.000 lines of tested, debugged and
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commented C++ code, several perl scripts, dozens of makefiles and all the means
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that you need to produce a working KVIrc executable on all the supported platforms.
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There is a lot of knowledge (some people call it "technology" because it sells better)
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inside, ready to be acquired by an attentive reader. Don't forget that the freedom of
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building your own executable from the sources gives you the opportunity
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of verifying the source itself: for example you might be interested in verifying
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that KVIrc will not run any malware code on your machine nor will collect
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your private data and sell it to someone while you're happily chatting with a friend.
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[b]We call it freedom, please respect it.[/b]
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[big]Well...[/big]
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Have fun :)[br]
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[br]
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Szymon Stefanek and The KVIrc Development Team
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*/
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