DMDircthe intelligent IRC client

Guide to DMDirc 0.2

Introduction

Welcome to DMDirc 0.2. This is the second major release of DMDirc, and we believe that the client now has enough features that it is usable as a client for basic day-to-day use. We still have a long way to go before we're finished, and if you have any ideas for improvements, please join us in #DMDirc on Quakenet.

Getting Started

To start using DMDirc 0.2, you will need to download and decompress the zip file available from the downloads page. As DMDirc is written in Java, you will also need a Java Runtime Environment (JRE), which can be downloaded from http://www.java.com. DMDirc requires that you have the 1.5.0 JRE or newer (also known as 5.0).

Once you have Java installed, and have extracted the DMDirc files from their zip file, you can start the client by executing the bash or shell script in the main directory (Windows users: double click on the batch file, Linux/Unix users: run the .sh script from a terminal). You can also run DMDirc from the command line, by issuing the command java -jar DMDirc.jar. The main DMDirc window should now be open.

Connecting to a server

To connect to a server, click on the File menu, and select 'New server'. Here you can enter a server name (or IP) and port, along with a password if the IRC server requires it. The default settings should connect you to a Quakenet IRC server - feel free to stop by #DMDirc and say hello to us! If you use the client regularly, you may want to change the default server, port and password in the client's configuration file - details below.

When you click on OK, two windows will open - a server window, and a raw window. The server window will display messages from the server (such as the message of the day) in future versions, but at present it provides very little information. The raw window shows the raw text that is being sent and received by the client. This allows advanced users to see messages or other data that is being received but not yet handled by the client.

Commands and Configuration

You may issue commands to DMDirc from any server, raw, channel or query window. Commands by default start with a / character. To view a list of commands that are applicable to the current window, you can type /help. To join a channel, you can issue the /join command in a server or raw window (or another channel window, if you have one open), for example /join #DMDirc will join the #DMDirc channel. Because there is an obvious shortage in commands in this release, you can also send commands directly to the server by typing them in the server or raw windows without the initial '/'. For example, to issue a whois for a user, you could type WHOIS MD87, or to change a channel topic, TOPIC #DMDirc :this is the new topic.

DMDirc's configuration is stored in a file called dmdirc.xml, located in the '.DMDirc' directory in your home dir (for Linux users: /home/yourusername/ by default, and Windows XP users: C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername\ - note this is not the same folder as "My Documents", it is the parent folder). The XML format should be fairly easy to understand. Some of the options that you may be interested in for this version are listed below:

• general.server, general.port, general.password - default server settings
• general.defaultnick, general.alternatenick - default primary and alternate nickname
• ui.maximisewindows - whether to start with the internal windows maximised or not
• ui.backgroundcolour, ui.foregroundcolour - the default colours for windows

In the next version of DMDirc, we will be adding a proper user interface to allow you to easily modify these settings.

Text formatting and advanced text features

This release of DMDirc introduces support for bold, underlined and coloured text. You should be able to see formatting and colours sent by any other IRC client that supports them, and you can also send them yourself, by using ctrl+b, ctrl+u and ctrl+k in the input box. For colours, you need to follow the symbol by a foreground colour and optionally a comma followed by a background colour. The colour codes used by DMDirc are the same as those used by mIRC (i.e., 0 is white, 1 is black, 4 is red, etc).

This release also includes tab completion, and text history. If you start typing a nickname, channel name, or one of DMDirc's commands, and press tab, the client will complete it for you. If there is more than one possible match, the client will complete as much as possible. You can also use the arrow keys to browse previous lines that you have entered into the window (up goes back in time, down goes forward in time).

We have also introduced a new text formatting ("text theme") engine that allows you to customise how text appears in the client. You can modify the output by editing the format.properties file in the client's configuration directory (see above). A sample file can be found on the DMDirc wiki: http://code.google.com/p/dmdirc/wiki/FormatExample

Future versions

We have many plans for future releases of DMDirc. Version 0.3 will focus on various immediate usability improvements (such as a preferences dialog), as well as adding several backend features which are required for some of the more advanced functions we have planned for later releases.

Beyond version 0.3, we have plans to integrate plugins, allowing additional functionality to be implemented seperate from the client, an identity manager, allowing you to specify different client settings for each server or network, support for 'Actions' - a way of "scripting" the client without actually having to write a script, and many more features.

You can see some of our plans on our issue tracker. If you have any suggestions, or ideas of your own, please feel free to join the #DMDirc channel on Quakenet to discuss them with us.