Current version: 0.0.1
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About the program

nsirc (Nathell's sirc) is a tiny IRC client for Unix-like systems, available under the terms of the GNU General Public License. It is based on sirc version 2.211, written by Roger Espel Llima. Unlike the original sirc, it has a full-screen multi-window user interface, somewhat similar to the well-known irssi. On the other hand, it retains all the great features of sirc, namely the small size (the full installation takes about 130 KB - consider using nsirc if you are tight on disk space, or, better yet, if you are creating a tiny Linux distribution), its power and overall simplicity of usage.

Version 0.0.1 is still very experimental and lacks many features. However, it seems to provide a functionality good enough to be successfully usable. That said, it's probable that it contains bugs. Should you spot one, let me know.

Requirements

You'll need the following things in order to compile and use nsirc:

A C++ compiler. The one used by me was GCC, versions 2.95.3 and 3.2.2; I think all versions starting with 2.95.x should work. I don't know whether other compilers are suitable; I've got no means of checking it.
Ncurses. Perhaps you might also use other curses. Again, I don't know.
Perl, at least version 4, with the library getopts.pl (available in most standard installations).

Installation instructions can be found in the file INSTALL from the tarball.

Technical blah-blah

nsirc, just like original sirc, consists of two programs:

dsirc (Dumb-mode Small IRC client) is the client proper, written in Perl. It was adapted from the original sirc with only minor changes. In fact, you might use it on its own, but - to put things euphemistically - it's not very comfortable: this program lacks any user interface (it just reads data from standard input and writes to standard output).
fei (FrontEnd to sIrc) is an overlay for dsirc. Its task is to provide a generic IRC-like interface for the programs similar (at least in the way they're used) to dsirc. In particular, when the two are run simultaneously, fei intercepts the output of dsirc, formatting it on the fly and distributing the texts to various windows. It is a replacement for the utility ssfe (split-screen user interface), written from scratch in C++.

This approach makes it possible to use various tricks, unavailable in most "classic" programs like irssi. Suppose, for instance, that you've got two Unix accounts: the one on computer X has no access to IRC ports (666x) due to the firewall, whereas computer Y is not blocked by a firewall but you can't run your own binaries on it (the disk containing /home is mounted with noexec flag). Then, if Y provides Perl, you might execute on X:

      $ fei ssh Y
      [fei] perl -f dsirc.pl yournick your.irc.server

And this is precisely the way I can use IRC from the laboratory on my Faculty :)

Download

Download version 0.0.1.

Feedback

Should you have any remarks, suggestions, find a bug, make an improvement to nsirc, or would you like to develop it - by all means drop me an e-mail!