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

Title	The Book of IRC: The Ultimate Guide to Internet Relay Chat
Author(s)	Alex Charalabidis
ISBN	1886411298
Language	English
Published	December 1999
Publisher	No Starch Press

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'The Book of IRC: The Ultimate Guide to Internet Relay Chat':

Reviewer amazon.com wrote:
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).
Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
As you can see from the subtitle, the author is quite certain that no hyperbolic claims for this book could be unjustified. Generally it is publishers who are to blame for book jacket hype, but this assurance, and even arrogance, carries on inside, as well. A chapter zero provides a brief and basic guide to computers and the net before chapter one gets into IRC (Internet Relay Chat) itself. Unfortunately, this introduction only gives a limited presentation of IRC, sticking strictly to social chat, and mentioning none of the related IRC technologies such as automated information services and file transfer. Starting with "safety" (a warning about online con men with no mention of malicious software), chapter two touches on a variety of topics, with a lack of organization that might be frustrating to newcomers. Minimalist reviews of Windows, UNIX, and Mac IRC clients appear in chapters three, four, and five. The mac material provides the best information, and the UNIX content might be troublesome for non-administrators. On the other hand, this is one place where the author is justified in claiming more comprehensive coverage than in other works: it is nice to see a range of systems covered. Chapters six to ten provide somewhat more detail, delving into troubles and functions, channels and channel operations, various unrelated points, finding people, and channel operator tips. It is in chapter eleven that the book's claim to cover more of IRC than anyone else becomes more apparent. At this point the text starts to cover highly technical areas, in this case scripting. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that intermediate users of IRC will be able to use this material, since, aside from mentioning some canned scripts that are available, there is no tutorial content before the book jumps straight into advanced tips. A terse few pages on server operators is the content of chapter twelve. Scarcely longer is the material on Client to Client Protocol (CTCP) commands in chapter thirteen, Direct Client Connection (DCC) in fourteen, and server commands in fifteen. Then we are back to a grab bag of topics, with that description fitting chapter sixteen to a "T." Chapter seventeen looks at a wide variety of security topics, but not in any detail. There are limited particulars of running servers in chapter eighteen, a superficial coverage of "bots" in nineteen, and miscellaneous social points in twenty. Of the appendices, there is a brief list of nets in A, and some online resource pointers in D. While the book covers many technical areas omitted by others, this tome is definitely not for beginners. The structure is decidedly odd, and has glaring gaps, regardless of the avowal of comprehensive coverage. Despite its relative age, "The irc Survival Guide," by Stuart Harris (see reviews), is still a much better introduction. Even Kathryn Toyer's "Learn Internet Relay Chat" (see reviews) will get you into IRC faster than will this book. For technical experts who want some information about the deeper details of IRC this volume will be valuable, but still needs extensive work. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2000
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Book description:

Unlike some newer real-time chat media, IRC can be tricky to operate and trickier to master. The Book of IRC is the most comprehensive guide to date on using IRC effectively. Alex Charalabidis provides instruction and answers for users at every level. He covers the advanced topics that make IRC so unique and popular - scripting, robots, client authoring, and more. In addition, he offers complete coverage of mIRC, the most popular IRC client. Key chapters explore the IRC operator, IRC channels, and the use of commands.