X-Chat

X-Chat is quite techie in nature. There are no graphical smilies and the interface is is plain and filled with functionality. Its great if you know what you are doing and simply want a convenient way to do it quickly. Its not so good if you want buttons for everything unless you want to configure it to have buttons for everything. Its extensible and expandable and you can even write you own plugins in Perl,TCL or Python.

X-Chat started life in the X-windows system so it tends to be used on unices. It is available for RedHat GNU/Linux and Windows (experimental version) on the X-Chat site and packaged with many linux distros. OSX/Darwin packages are available from OpenDarwin. The source is also available to compile on other unices.

X-Chat is fairly simple to configure but there are a number of steps.

After opening up the program select Server List from the X-Chat menu or press CTRL-S. If you see a simple list and Edit mode is not selected. Select it.

Once in edit mode click on the Add button at the top of the Networks pane. This will create a Network called New Network containing a Server called newserver/6667.

Click on the text in the Network pane on New Network to edit it. Rename it to Thunder's Place or something else you will remember. Then click on newserver/6667. Change this to irc.thundersplace.com/6667. If behind a firewall that blocks IRC change it to irc.thundersplace.com/4667.

Now account info needs to be added. Deselect the Use global user info checkbox, this should cause a number of new fields to become active. Put forum username in the boxes titled Nick Name and User Name. In the Real Name box put whatever seems appropriate but it will be visible to other users. If in doubt repeat the username here. In the Server Password put the password used to log into the forum. In the Join Channels box put a list of channels you want to join as a comma separated list. A good default for this is #main. For those new to PE maybe #newbie,#main would be a good start.

Below is how the settings should look after they are complete. In this example the user has the username dorian and the password wilde

Once the configuration is complete, simply hit connect to start chatting.

This is not the place for a detailed exploration of the features of X-Chat, simply a few pointers.

Window->Channel List will pop up a list of channels allowing you to click to join.

Window->Notify List allows you to add the nicknames of people you want to be notified of when they enter the server

If you are unused to commands and sometimes miss out the initial slash. Switch to the main connection window and then type the command, errors won't show in any of the channels.

X-Chat FAQ

User Documentation

To extend X-Chat to control xmms or add various other bells and whistles the X-Chat site has a plugins page.