Ircle (formerly rendered as "IRCle") was an

IRC Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for Many-to-many, group communication in discussion forums, called ''#Channels, channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via instant messa ...

client developed by Onno Tijdgat for the

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

computer platform. Ircle was

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 ...

, with free

upgrade Upgrading is the process of replacing a product with a newer version of the same product. In computing and consumer electronics an upgrade is generally a replacement of hardware, software or firmware with a newer or better version, in order to ...

s. The client was scriptable with

AppleScript AppleScript is a scripting language created by Apple Inc. that facilitates automated control over scriptable Mac applications. First introduced in System 7, it is currently included in all versions of macOS as part of a package of system aut ...

, supported multiple channels and servers, and up to ten simultaneous connections. It was discontinued in 2009. Since 2012, Ircle was not compatible with most recent versions of OS X, and no updates were available. In December 2017 the Ircle home page displayed a poll, to end Q2 2018, to determine whether a new version should be released on OS X and

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

. The results of the poll were 311 votes in favor of a new Mac OS version, 43 votes for an iOS version, and 117 votes for both a Mac OS and iOS version, out of 528 votes cast.

History

Ircle was originally written in THINK Pascal by Olaf Titz and released in 1993, with the source code licensed under the

GPL The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general us ...

up to version 1.56. Titz then gave up on the project and Tijdgat took over. Tijdgat continued development privately, rewriting it in C under Metrowerks

CodeWarrior CodeWarrior is an integrated development environment (IDE) published by NXP Semiconductors for editing, compiling, and debugging software for several microcontrollers and microprocessors ( Freescale ColdFire, ColdFire+, Kinetis, Qorivva, PX, Free ...

Pro and updating it for the then-new Power Macs. Ircle 3.0 was released in 1994. The Talk City internet chat service supported Ircle, and as of 2000, negotiated for a custom version called "Talk City Ircle", free for subscribers, with "comparable features without the disruption" from flood attacks. Tijdgat announced in December 2005 that extensive work was underway to update Ircle for x86 based Macs. The upgrades were to be

backward compatible Backward compatibility (sometimes known as backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with input designed for such a system, especially ...

with older CPUs, while development for Mac OS 7, 8, and 9 would cease. On September 21, 2006, the Intel compatible (

universal binary The universal binary format is, in Apple parlance, a format for executable files that run natively on either PowerPC or Intel-manufactured IA-32 or Intel 64 or ARM64-based Macintosh computers. The format originated on NeXTStep as " Multi-Archit ...

) version was released with a number of new features.

Features

Ircle supported up to ten simultaneous server connections, and comes configured with a "long list of servers". The "channelbar" feature simplified managing the otherwise large number of windows in Ircle.

Applescript AppleScript is a scripting language created by Apple Inc. that facilitates automated control over scriptable Mac applications. First introduced in System 7, it is currently included in all versions of macOS as part of a package of system aut ...

allowed detailed control and modification of the client. Third party developer Public Access Software hosted Ircle Scripting Resources, Applescript scripts for Ircle-based tools, applications and even games, until 1999. The Ircle "faces" window displays updateable images of chat contacts.

Reception

Ircle was once described as "the most widely used IRC client for Macintosh computers", "stable, full-featured", with "good user support," and "one of the best" Mac IRC clients. The "one downside" to Ircle was "a rather intimidating preferences dialog". One author described it as "the godfather of Mac IRC clients. It has been around the longest and has the most features, making it the de facto gold standard against which all other clients compare themselves."

References

External links

*
Ircle 1.5.1 code at the Info-Mac HyperArchive

{{IRC clients Internet Relay Chat clients Classic Mac OS Internet Relay Chat clients MacOS Internet Relay Chat clients Discontinued software

History

Features

Reception

See also

References

External links