DCC CHAT

[tou...@googlemail.com]

Hi
I began using Limechat a few days ago. It is highly readable, and has
many features that I really like. I prefer the two column lay-out, and
the 'Deep Ocean' theme.

The 'Synoptic' window (bottom left) that shows recent lines from all
the backgrounded channels and chats that aren't in focus is very
useful. It's a feature I've seen in only one other IRC client, Ircstep
which was also written in Japan.

The show-stopper is the absence of DCC CHAT. This is indispensable if
you are a channel @ who needs access to a channel protection Eggdrop
Bot which you don't have shell access for. You absolutely depend on
DCC CHAT to gain party-line access to the Eggdrop bot console in order
to set or edit perm bans or +K flag handles against hostile users. I
simply can't do my job as an an @ without it.

I downloaded the Limechat source code and found that there are code
stub definitions for ":dcchat" in several of the ruby modules, but the
handlers are missing. I'm not sure if they have never been written or
whether perhaps they have been removed for security reasons ? ( A
Google search on "Limechat DCC" disclosed at least one Perl exploit
written by a vandal that specifically targeted Limechat 0.18 via DCC
chat). Sadly I don't yet know enough about Ruby or RubyCocoa to fix
the problem myself.

Some points that may be useful to new users:

i) Tab completion on commands is available (once a connection is
active). If you type /p then keep hitting hit TAB you will be offered /
part /ping /privmsg etc.
By working through the alphabet I found the following commands
available in Limechat:
action away ban clear ctcp ctcpreply cycle dehalfop deop devoice
halfop hop invite j join kick kill leave list leave mode msg nick
notice op part ping privmsg query quit quote raw rejoin t timer topic
unban voice weights who whois

I'm quite curious about '/weights'. Can it be used as a form of flood
control by altering the prioritization of incoming and outgoing
messages ? if so what is the usage?

ii) You can edit the Plist for Limechat directly. It's in ~/Library/
Preferences
This turned out to be the only simple way of correcting a confusion
between my primary and secondary nicknames, and of halting the
client's enthusiasm for auto-joining channels.

iii)The /ctcp command works slightly differently from normal.
It's /ctcp ping nick rather than /ctcp nick ping etc

I did manage to invoke a passive reverse DCC CHAT connection with
/ctcp chat botnick
The Console even showed the incoming DCC chat offer from the bot as an
'unknown DCC' , but Limechat offered no interface or window to
respond to it !

Best Wishes :)

[Satoshi Nakagawa]

Hi,

Thanks for the helpful comments :)

> The 'Synoptic' window (bottom left) that shows recent lines from all
> the backgrounded channels and chats that aren't in focus is very
> useful. It's a feature I've seen in only one other IRC client, Ircstep
> which was also written in Japan.

Good.
Also you can move around channels by doubleclicking on each line.

> The show-stopper is the absence of DCC CHAT. This is indispensable if
> you are a channel @ who needs access to a channel protection Eggdrop
> Bot which you don't have shell access for. You absolutely depend on
> DCC CHAT to gain party-line access to the Eggdrop bot console in order
> to set or edit perm bans or +K flag handles against hostile users. I
> simply can't do my job as an an @ without it.

I didn't know Eggdrop needs DCC CHAT.
It's not implemented yet, because I don't need DCC CHAT recently.
But I'll consider to add DCC CHAT.

> I'm quite curious about '/weights'. Can it be used as a form of flood
> control by altering the prioritization of incoming and outgoing
> messages ? if so what is the usage?

It just shows weight of nicknames for tab completion.

> ii) You can edit the Plist for Limechat directly. It's in ~/Library/
> Preferences
> This turned out to be the only simple way of correcting a confusion
> between my primary and secondary nicknames, and of halting the
> client's enthusiasm for auto-joining channels.

What do you mean with "the client's enthusiasm for auto-joining channels" ?

> iii)The /ctcp command works slightly differently from normal.
> It's /ctcp ping nick rather than /ctcp nick ping etc

Are you used to /ctcp nick ping?
I think /ctcp ping nick is more natural.

--
Satoshi Nakagawa

[tou...@googlemail.com]

Thank you very much for the replies Satoshi.

> What do you mean with "the client's enthusiasm for auto-joining channels" ?

When I used Limechat for the first time, there was a set-up dialog box
for choosing nicknames. I then set up a connection to DALnet and
joined some channels. I tested the client on IRC and then shut down.
When I restarted Limechat the next day, it selected my alternate
nickname instead of my primary nickname. It also remembered and
automatically re-joined each channel I had visited the previous day,
and did so before I'd had any chance to identify to Nickserv. I wasn't
sure how to re-run the set-up dialog or change this within the
program, so I shut down Limechat and looked at the Plist file in ~/
Library/Preferences. I found that the channels I had joined the day
before were flagged for 'autojoin' on connect and that my alternate
nick was wrongly set as my primary nick. So I changed those details
there and then in the PList using Apple's own PList editor (I have
found out how to toggle channel autojoin inside Limechat now)

> Are you used to /ctcp nick ping?
> I think /ctcp ping nick is more natural.

It is more natural it terms of how CTCP messages are encoded at low
level, but there seems to be a lot of variation from one IRC client to
another as to how the user is expected to write them at the command
line. Quite a few clients I have used in the past expected '/ctcp
nick command', others used strange hybrids like "/Cping nick' etc.
I don't really mind how, as long as I know *which* way round they are
expected to go. There are some users on IRC who willfully register
nicknames like 'Ping' and 'Version', so you can get some rather odd
results if you guess wrong like ---> "ctcp reply - Version is away"
etc.

[Satoshi Nakagawa]

Thanks for your reply.
I would ask other users about the CTCP commands and gather more impressions.

--
Satoshi Nakagawa