[ This file contains the lengthy strings which used to appear in irc-news. ]

27 Sep 89 -- This release is a mixture of changes in aspects of the interface
   and added support for the latest IRC servers, which use a different reply
   format for some messages.  The changes are listed here.  I have to admit
   that the version has not had as much testing as I would have liked to have
   given it, but I have been very busy lately.  I expect that any bugs found
   will be primarily due to typographical errors or some minor oversight.  As
   usual, bug reports and other questions can be sent to me <tale@pawl.rpi.edu>
   and I'll take a look at it for the next release.

   The client used to be very messy about inserting a whole glob of text
   when it didn't understand the first line.  It should be a little cleaner
   now by just inserting the line it didn't understand and a message to report
   it to me.

   The 'topic' event is now handled by /SIGNAL and /NOTIFY; it occurs when
   someone changes the topic of a channel you have joined.

   I fixed a bug in the channel joining routines that made the client think
   you always made it to a channel you /JOINed, which isn't true if the
   channel is full.

   The default for irc-message-stamp has been changed from nil to private and
   the default for irc-time-stamp has been made 0 rather than 10.  This means
   no *** It is now HH:MM *** messages.

   C-c C-c (the binding for /NAMES) works now with a prefix argument.  There
   was also a bug in formatting the output of /NAMES where a name would not be
   shown on a very full channel; it has been fixed.

   /LUSERS has been added; it shows how many people are on IRC.

   KILL messages are now shown to the client; they indicate who was being
   removed from IRC and who did the removing.

   One space will be stripped from after the : or ; that ends a sendlist.
   That is, \"tale: hi\" and \"tale:hi\" will both send \"hi\" as the message.

   Word-wrapping used to be done with an 80 column screen in mind; it now uses
   the width of the window within Emacs instead.

   Had to fix a pattern to match the message when a nickname change failed;
   it changed in newer servers.

   If display-time is running then it is piggy-backed to give better accuracy
   to interval time stamps.  Additionally, the time is included in the
   \"IRC Session finished\" message.

   irc-conserve-space is a variable that was added for users who want messages
   which somewhat mimick the style of the C client.  It is not completelyy
   true to that style (for example, it still does word-wrapping) but I'm
   pretty sure it will appease them.  It is useful for short screen, slow
   terminal speeds and chatty channels.

   The IRCNICK and IRCSERVER environment variables are supported when irc.el
   loads.  They set the default nickname and server, respectively.

   If /WHO is given a non-numeric argument it will call /WHOIS instead.

   There used to be a bug that an alias would sometimes get executed rather
   than an exactly matching regular command; it has been fixed.

   The buffer is by default in auto-fill-mode with a fill-column of 75.  This
   means that when you are typing a long message and want to move around in it,
   C-p and C-n are much more useful.  Along with this the handling of the
   input-region when RET is pressed has changed.  It is now handled as though
   it is all one line, rather than on a line-at-a-time basis.

   Aliases now have a no-frills function, irc-change-alias, for the setting/
   removing of aliases in non-interactive elisp, as in the irc-mode-hook.
   See the documentation of that function regarding how to use it.

   Last but certainly not least, the numeric messages from the newer servers
   are parsed correctly.  You should be getting a lot fewer \"This might be
   a bug ...\" message.

10 Aug 89 -- This was just a couple of fixes of typing errors.

 2 Aug 89 -- IRC-mode has gotten some enhancements and a few small bugs
   fixed.  The bug with sending messages greater than 255 characters to
   an implicit sendlist was fixed.  A small bug with setting the window
   point of a non-selected *IRC* buffer was fixed.  The command parser
   was cleaned up a little so the commands /WHO and /WHOIS can live happily
   together.  

   M-x irc now makes a little bit more sense to have bound to a key.  By
   default it will just go to the buffer of the IRC process if one exists.
   If none does then buffer *IRC* will be used or re-used and a new connexion
   opened.  With a prefix argument then a new IRC process is created in
   addition to any pre-existing ones.  Multiple IRC sessions should be
   able to co-exist peacefully in one Emacs.

   Public messages which were sent by the server as private messages are
   now represented as public to lower the confusion level.

   New commands were added:
    
     o /NAMES to show the nicknames of users on a per-channel basis.
     o /TRACE for IRC Operators to monitor the links between servers.
     o /STAMP for including time-stamping in IRC messages and at intervals.
     o /ALIAS to add preferred names for commands.
     o /REHASH for IRC Operators to reread their server configuration file.

   /HELP for commands has been improved.  Each command now includes a
   \"Usage\" line to show any arguments for the command.

   : now behaves differently than ; when typed as the first character on a
   line in the input region.  It will insert the name of the last person who
   sent a private message.

   Now when you are ignoring someone a message to that effect will be sent
   out if that user sends a private message or invitation to you.
 
   If a message recipient's name is not found it is now sent to whatever
   was provided.  This should make sending to people hiding on channels
   less than 0 a slightly less aggravating experience.

   Many of the functions have been changed to improve the way they get
   called interactively.  For commands expecting a channel number (optional
   or not) a prefix argument will do.  Most commands which take a user's
   name as an argument will now accept it via a completing-read.

   There are more default bindings for commands.

   A texinfo manual on IRC and IRC-mode should be available shortly.

   My thanks to Scanner, Nathan Glasser, Fred Douglis, Geoff Goodfellow and
   Chris Davis for their helpful comments regarding IRC-mode.  Further comments
   are welcome.

22 Jun 89 -- I would have to put everything in here for the first entry in
   order to have something to reference against \"Latest changes\".  I
   shan't do that.  This first entry shall just say that this is IRC-mode
   version 1.0Gimel, in its first distribution to testers.  Play with the
   /HELP command to see what it can offer you.  Send comments/bug reports
   to me (Dave Lawrence, <tale@pawl.rpi.edu>) and I will try to tend to 
   them as quickly as possible.

   One thing to note that I don't think is documented in any functions is
   is how sending works.  Basically, any line that you send which does not
   start with a / gets processed in the following way: if you have a string
   which is all alpha-numeric characters (with items seperated by commas)
   up to and including a colon or semi-colon, it is called your explicit
   sendlist.  The elements of that list will be processed for sending to the
   recipients you name.  Partial matching of names is also done.  If a line
   starts with a colon or semi-colon then that last used explicit sendlist
   is considered the sendlist for the message.  If no such prefix list exists
   then something called your implicit sendlist is used.  This list is set
   with /SEND (aka /QUERY).  In all of these lists the character \"*\" is
   recognized as meaning \"whatever channel I happen to be on when I am
   sending\".
   
   Look at some of the bindings in C-h m (describe-mode).  Since C-p is a
   normal movement command, scrolling through your message history is
   instead bound to C-c C-p (and C-c C-n for going the other way).  C-c C-u
   will always kill the current line of input no matter what your position.
   While a user-variable (irc-max-history) is available to determine how
   many messages should be retained in the history, only the last command
   is remembered for command-history.  It is available with C-c p.

   One last suggestion -- try M-x edit-options followed by a search through
   the options buffer for irc.  This should put you in an area where the
   available irc user-variables are all together, with their documentation
   strings and current values.

   I hope you enjoy my implementation of an IRC client.
