The Book of IRC: The Ultimate Guide to Internet Relay Chat

ICQ and other new-fangled chat applications may get most of the press, but Internet Relay Chat (IRC) remains the Wild West of real-time online conversations. Populated by the most diverse collection of characters this side of the Mos Eisley cantina scene in Star Wars, IRC will keep you up late chatting with people all over the world. The environment can be intimidating to newcomers, though, so Alex Charalabidis has written The Book of IRC, a fine guide to the products, procedures, and customs you need to understand in order to participate in IRC.

The book is marvelously comprehensive, touching on aspects of IRC technology (such as IRC assistance for vision-impaired people and IRC clients for the Amiga computer) that have to do with only small parts of the community. He emphasizes things you'll want to do (selecting and connecting to a server, kicking out unwelcome users, and managing your own channel) and the tools and procedures you'll need to get them done. He's also big on commands (common and obscure), so if a task can be accomplished in IRC, you're likely to find out how in these pages. Though he doesn't really explain how to program your own bots, Charalabidis documents a few of the popular ones that already exist. --David Wall

Topics covered: Using and enjoying Internet Relay Chat (IRC), with emphasis on the software you need to get connected from a variety of platforms. Lots of space goes to IRC commands and their appropriate use, plus the ins and outs of IRC safety. There's coverage of more technical stuff too, including Client To Client Protocol (CTCP) and Direct Client Connection (DCC).