FlChat is a IRC client using FLTK 1.3.0 as a GUI tookit.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a system for live interactive Internet text messaging (chat). It is mainly designed for group communication
"in discussion forums, called channels. To take part in a discussion you connect to an IRC server using an IRC client program like FLChat

FlChat has a big window to display the discussion in the selected channel plus other messages received, a line below to enter your
message you want to contribute and a window on the right side showing the users currently connected to the selected channel. The
colors indicate the voice status of the users, usually showing whether they are logged in. The "Whois" button will display additional
information about a selected user from the list above. The "PrivMSG" allows to send a private message to the selected user. Below 
this window there is another window listing the channels currently joined. The CTCP commands allow to check the IRC-client the user is
currently working with and the local time on his PC. The output is shown in the _ircserver_ display.

To connect to a server please first check the user settings in the file menu and select your nickname and/or username. If the nickname
is already in use FlChat will try again adding the number two to the defined nickname. 
Then select either "Select server" to select a server from a list or "Open server" if you want to specify a server directly. Then
establish an connection - this can take some time. You first get three or more AUTH messages and then you have to wait for the 
server trying to check your identy. Sometimes the screen stays black during this.  After you get the greeting of the server select 
"Join" in the Channel menu to enter the desired channel. Often the IRC servers are so busy that it is very difficult to connect to 
one of them, especially after working hours or on weekends.

If you do not know a channel to enter, select "List" in the Channel menu to find a channel. Either list all channels which will be
a long list or specify a pattern e.g. "win*" for all channels with "win" in their name. You can also look for channels with a minimum
number of users to get a lively discussion. The channels retrieved will be listed in the big window and you can scroll that to find
a channel that is of interest to you. Then select "Join" from the channel menu to enter the name of that channel there.

If you connect to several channels at the same time you can switch the display between them by clicking on the channel in the list
on the right side of the screen. Selecting the first line named _ircserver_ will display the server messages in the big window. If
you select "Mixed view" from the File menu all received messages will be displayed in the ircserver view. This way you can monitor
several channels with little traffic. If you scroll all to the right, you will see the channel the specific message is directed to
and you can select this channel if required. Currently there is a problem with the _ircserver_ display that the lines sometimes
scroll out of view.

In case you have operator status you can use the commands in the "User admin" menu. Select a user in the user list and the command
will apply to that user. The "Format" menu allows to select the text size in the display window.

Commands not available via the menu can be entered in the input field. So "/nick flchat2" (without quotes) will send "NICK flchat2"
to the server and thus change the nickname used to flchat2. Only the first word is converted to upper case. If you send send 
commands that require uppercase parameters you have to enter them as uppercase letters.

There are also options which you can list by passing "-h" on the command line.

December 2013 Georg Potthast

