Net::IRC 0.72 README        T.J. Eckman           Mon Jul 02 00:00:00 GMT 2000
==============================================================================

Table of Contents
------------------------

0.  Deprecation notice
1.  Introduction
2.  Availability
3.  Prerequisites
4.  Installation
+-  4.1  Windows Installation
5.  Demonstration Script
6.  Bugs
7.  Disclaimer
8.  Copyright
9.  Developer Information



0. Deprecation notic
------------------------

    This module is officially DEPRECATED. It has been abandoned in favor of more
modern approaches, including Bot::BasicBot and POE::Component::IRC. This release
only serves to warn current and new users about the status of this distribution.


1. Introduction
------------------------

    Welcome to Net::IRC, a work in progress. First intended to be a quick tool
for writing an IRC script in Perl, Net::IRC has grown into a comprehensive
Perl implementation of the IRC protocol (RFC 1459).


2. Availability
------------------------

	CPAN, of course. http://www.perl.com/CPAN/modules/by-module/Net/
	Also, Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/project/net-irc


3. Prerequisites
------------------------

    Net::IRC requires Perl version 5.004 or higher to install and run.
Hypothetically, it could run on 5.003_9something with IO::* installed, but
you may as well upgrade anyhow. The latest version of Perl can be found at
http://www.perl.com/CPAN/src/latest.tar.gz (for UNIX), or at
http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports/ for various non-Unix machines.

    Net::IRC tries to use the Time::HiRes module by default, but will fail
silently if you do not have it.  If you have Time::HiRes pacing settings
and calls to schedule() can be fractional.


4. Installation
------------------------

    Same old, same old. If you get through all these steps without anything
emitting horrible dire warning messages, you're all set. In particular, the
"perl Makefile.PL" will barf if run with older versions of Perl, but if you
read the Prerequisites section of this README, you already know that, right?

Do this, in the following order:

        perl Makefile.PL
        make
        make install

We don't have any automated tests yet, but they might be in the not-too-
distant future. You may instead wish to play around with the...

=> 4.1   Windows Installation

    If you don't have a copy of 'make' on your machine, the easiest way to
install this module is to unzip the file into a local directory, and
copy the component files like this:
	IRC.pm		=> path.to.perl/site/lib/Net/IRC.pm
	Connection.pm	=> path.to.perl/site/lib/Net/IRC/Connection.pm
	Event.pm	=> path.to.perl/site/lib/Net/IRC/Event.pm
	DCC.pm		=> path.to.perl/site/lib/Net/IRC/DCC.pm

5. Demonstration Script
------------------------

    A sample Net::IRC script is included with the distribution, under the
creative name "irctest". It doesn't do much more than connect to a server and
print annoying messages to anyone who talks to it, but that should be enough
to give you an idea of how the whole enchilada fits together until we actually
get some real documentation written. Just don't be surprised if IRC admins get
a clue about it and start killing it as soon as they see one log on...

	Oh, and by the way... if you say "Send me <filename>" to an irctest
bot, it will send the specified file (if it can) as a demonstration of
Net::IRC's DCC and scheduler interface. This is a potential security hole, so
be careful.



6. Bugs
------------------------

	Please submit bugs at the sourceforge project page for Net::IRC.
  See section 9 for the address.


7. Disclaimer
------------------------

	This software is under no warranty, explicit or implied.  Use at
  your own risk.


8. Copyright
------------------------

    This module copyright (c) 1997 Greg Bacon & Dennis Taylor. All rights
    reserved. This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
    modify it under the terms of the Perl Artistic License, distributed with
    this module.

    Any changes after 0.70, but before 0.72, are copyright Peter Sergeant,
    and/or the people who submitted them.

    Any changes after 0.71 are copyright T.J. Eckman, and/or the people
    who submitted them.

    Any changes after 0.73 are under the ownership of their respective
    submitters.

9. Developer Information
------------------------

    Maintenance is now handled via sourceforge:

      http://sourceforge.net/projects/net-irc/

    Bug reports, feature requests and patches should be submitted at the
    above address.