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IRC Hacks is a collection of tips and tools that cover just about everything needed to become a true IRC master, featuring contributions from some of the most renowned IRC hackers, many of whom collaborated on IRC, grouping together to form the channel #irchacks on the freenode IRC network ().Like all of our Hacks books, there are many different ways to use IRC Hacks. And IRC is more than just a simple chat system it is a network of intercommunicating servers, allowing thousands of clients to connect from anywhere in the world using the IRC protocol.While IRC is easy to get into and many people are happy to use it without being aware of what's happening under the hood, there are those who hunger for more knowledge, and this book is for them.
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With a simple, clearly defined protocol, IRC has become one of the most accessible chat environments, with clients written for a multitude of operating systems.
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Millions of people from all over the world now use IRC to chat with friends, discuss projects and collaborate on research. That would not have been possible without learning from code examples and hacks from others".IRC has continued to grow in popularity since its inception. I have found many of my friends through IRC and learnt a significant part of my present software engineering knowledge while using and working with IRC. A hack grew into a software development project that hundreds of people participated in, and then became a worldwide environment where tens of thousands of people now spend time with each other. As he says in his foreword, "IRC started as one summer trainee's programming exercise. In 1988, Jarkko Oikarinen wrote the original IRC program at the University of Oulu, Finland. IRC (Internet Relay Chat) may very well turn out to be the world's most successful hack.
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