AmIRC is an MUI-based

IRC IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat ...

client for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

. First released in 1995 as a shareware, it was later open-sourced. AmIRC offers large degree of configuration with an easy to use interface.

History

Developed by Oliver Wagner (VaporWare) and first released in 1995, AmIRC was then in a direct competition with fellow Amiga IRC client, Grapevine. The application was originally distributed as a

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer. ...

product: as such, it allowed the user to run the software, but only for 30 minutes at a time over a 30 day period. AmIRC was included in the Amiga Surfer Pack, a package containing several Internet related applications, released by the Amiga Technologies in 1996. Last major AmIRC version released by VaporWare was 3.5 in 2000, beta releases continued until 2002. Development restarted in 2007, when Nicolas Sallin introduced with a consent of VaporWare an unofficial AmIRC port for

MorphOS MorphOS is an AmigaOS-like operating system designed for Power and PowerPC based computers. The core, based on the Quark microkernel, is proprietary, although several libraries and other parts are open source, such as the Ambient desktop. The p ...

and later also for AmigaOS 3.x, a keyfile was no longer necessary. Another development branch was started in 2011 by Costel Mincea for

AmigaOS4 AmigaOS 4 (abbreviated as OS4 or AOS4) is a line of Amiga operating systems which runs on PowerPC microprocessors. It is mainly based on AmigaOS 3.1 source code developed by Commodore International, Commodore, and partially on version 3.9 develop ...

, this fork was

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

d in 2012.

Features

The software permits a large degree of configuration, with users having control over text styles, colors, and sound effects. It requires MUI (Magic User Interface) and supports

ARexx ARexx is a Rexx interpreter for Amiga, written in 1987 by William S. Hawes, with a number of Amiga-specific features beyond standard Rexx. An ARexx script can communicate with software that implements an ''ARexx port''. An Amiga application can ...

scripting language allowing other applications to integrate with it. Among other features, it is possible to log-in to selected IRC channels at startup. The software also supports IRC-like Arcnet chat system created by the same author and used by the Amiga Technologies for their internal communication.

Reception

AmIRC was well regarded in its time. By words of the ''

CU Amiga ''Commodore User'', (also referred to as ''CU'') later renamed to ''CU Amiga'', is a British magazine initially published by Paradox Group before being acquired by EMAP. Timeline ''Commodore User'' was launched in October 1983 with an initial pr ...

'' magazine reviewer: "one of the most polished Internet clients ever seen on any platform" Commended were its easy to use interface, high degree of customization and good documentation. On the downside, ''CU Amiga'' review mildly criticized inclusion of only a few entries for the United Kingdom market in the default phone book. There were also some limitations despite the rich features, although AmIRC (version 2.0 reviewed) could connect to multiple channels, it was not able to connect to multiple channels on multiple servers.

References

External links

AmIRC homepage
{{IRC clients IRC clients Amiga instant messaging clients simple:AmIRC