[plug] mIRC style irc clients for X

[Christian]

At 18:11 18/07/98 +0800, you wrote:
>Christian wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 16 Jul 1998, Peter Caffin wrote:
>> > Probably the sort of IRC client I'm eventually after then :). At the
>> > moment, I've been persevering with ircII in an xterm.
>>
>> Don't persevere!  Try ksirc. :)
>
>  ugh.. what is wrong with BitchX/ircII/EPIC? they have all you need.
>GUI irc clients suck (IMO, of course), who needs point-and-click crap for
>chatting??

Probably the same reason that people want GUI interfaces to most
applications - they make it very much easier to use.  CLIs are fine if you
know all the commands available, all their possible options etc. however
with a GUI you don't need to remember all these details because the
available options are presented to you in a graphical form.  I found BitchX
very frustrating because doing *trivial* things were quite clumsy and
awkward - if I'm chatting on two different channels, I have to type several
different commands to arrange the windows and then type other commands to
swap between the two - much easier to point, click and drag.  IRC clients
that provide power/flexibility through scripting and ease-of-use through
point-n-click interfaces are, IMHO, the perfect sort of client for chatting.

I don't think that CLIs are totally out-dated and impractical for every
application - I'd rather work in a Unix shell that the Windows filemanager
9 out of 10 times - but I see no point in putting myself through a ringer
and remembering hundreds of obscure commands and key combinations just to
do something like chatting.