This is IRC-mode Version 2.1, a GNU Emacs interface to the Internet
Relay Chat.  

The standard IRC distribution can be retrieved via anonymos ftp to:

128.214.5.6	tolsun.oulu.fi:irc/irc2.2.tar.Z
128.189.102.10	salmon.ee.ubc.ca:pub/irc/irc2.2.tar.Z

European ftp'ers should use tolsun while North Americans should use
salmon.  I don't know what the Japanese and Australians should use.

Once you have a server to which you can connect, then this client can
be used.

Installation of the Emacs client:

A GNU Emacs with the function ``open-network-stream'' is required.
This was added in version 18.38 back in Spring 1987, so if you've not
upgraded by now, do it.  The client might actually depend on newer
features of Emacs, but I'm not aware of any.

Edit the first two ``defvar''s in irc.el which provided default values
for irc-server and irc-port.  You probably won't even have to change
irc-port.

Put irc.el in a directory where Emacs can find it easily.  This is
controlled by the variable load-path in Emacs.  As distributed, the
tar file automatically sets up an irc/ subdirectory with a symbolic
link from irc.el to irc/irc.el; this arrangement can be put as-is in
one of the load-path directories.

Byte-compile irc.el.  The irc.elc file produced should be in one of
the load-path directories.  If the above mentioned arrangement is
used, this means you should name the symlink for byte-compile rather
than the real irc.el in irc/.

You can autoload irc.el from $(EMACS)/lisp/site-load.el or ~/.emacs
with the following line:

(autoload 'irc "irc" "An interface to the Internet Relay Chat" t)

I also have it bound to a key for ease of getting to the buffer when I
want it; the following puts M-x irc on M-*, a key which is normally
undefined in Emacs.

(define-key esc-map "*" 'irc)

Suggestions, questions, problems, et al can be sent to me, David C
Lawrence <tale@turing.cs.rpi.edu>.
