mIRC

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mIRC

MIRC-Logo.gif
Basic data

developer mIRC Co. Ltd, Khaled Mardam-Bey
Current  version 7.61
(March 01, 2020)
operating system Windows
programming language C ++ , C
category IRC client
License Shareware , trialware
German speaking No
www.mirc.com

mIRC is a widely used IRC client for Windows that is sold as shareware .

Overview

mIRC was developed by the Jordanian software developer Khaled Mardam-Bey and released in version 2.1a for the first time on February 28, 1995. It has since grown into one of the most popular IRC clients for Windows. Its versatility is based mainly on the integrated script language mIRC Script , abbreviated MSL (mIRC Scripting Language). This is so extensive that MP3 players, IRC games, HTTP servers and clients as well as DCC file servers and IRC bots have already been implemented with its help . A community of supporters has formed on IRC around writing programs in mIRC Script .

Special properties

  • Scripting language mIRC Script (also msl or mIRC Scripting Language )
  • CTCP with CTCP SOUND support
  • DCC chat and file transfer
  • DCC file server
  • mIRC color codes
  • Speech output with the help of third-party software
  • encrypted connection to SSL -capable IRC servers
  • UPnP and IPv6 support

useful information

According to the developer on his personal website, the m in mIRC stands for “ mu ”, which corresponds to the Japanese character for “no thing”.

mIRC is probably the most popular IRC client under Windows. At the beginning of 2004, QuakeNet , the largest IRC network, carried out a network-wide version query of the connected users, which showed a prevalence of 93.71% for mIRC.

  • So far over 40 million downloads from the CNET download service.
  • mIRC v4 was rated "five cows" and the title "a Must Have application" in December 1996 by Scott Swedorski's TUCOWS.
  • In January 1998, CNET rated 19 IRC clients and found mIRC 5 to be the best.
  • mIRC v5.7 was voted 12th in the 'Download of the Millennium Award' by ZDNet.
  • In February 2002, one million people were on the mailing list to announce new versions of mIRC.
  • mIRC is or was used by the US military for analysis and instruction of drone attacks.

Criticisms

The high popularity also has disadvantages, for example various viruses and Trojan horses that can spread via IRC and are almost exclusively directed against mIRC users. In particular, they seduce gullible users into executing coded malicious and distribution routines. From version 6.17, however, there is the option of deactivating some identifiers (including $ decode, $ dll), which are often used to distribute malicious code.

Another point of criticism is the implementation of so-called color codes, which do not conform to the IRC standard RFC 1459 . They open up minor text formatting options (text color, background color of the text, bold font, underlining) and are perceived as annoying by some users. Many more recent IRC clients ignore color codes. However, classic IRC clients sometimes have difficulties with the display, especially when they are run in a terminal window. In particular, there can be text display in the background color or flashing text, which in turn is perceived by many as annoying. Many IRC servers still implement this function.

development

After a long pause in development, in which practically only errors were corrected, mIRC 6.17 was released in February 2006, which, along with numerous other changes, also brought support for UTF-8 . In July 2006 mIRC 6.2 was released, which in addition to improved support for UTF-8 also brought more scripting options and more options in the design of the user interface. The somewhat dusty-looking surface was adapted with mIRC 6.3 (August 2007) and 6.31 (November 2007) with new symbols and a new, more modern logo.

On July 30, 2010, Khaled Mardam-Bey released mIRC 7.1, the first fully Unicode-capable version of mIRC. This biggest change in the history of mIRC to date - more than 120,000 lines of code were changed - introduced support for Universal Plug and Play and the IPv6 protocol .

Extensions

Since mIRC only has the most necessary features for chatting, there are numerous extensions that offer various tools and additional setting options. These scripts are mainly intended for people who spend a lot of time on IRC, or for other specific groups.

The best known, still actively developed extension is Gamers.IRC by the Gamers.Interactive team.

File server

mIRC also offers the option of operating a file server using the DCC protocol. For users who want to operate one, specialized scripts such as SysReset have been developed, which simplify their setup considerably.

Individual evidence

  1. Latest News: mIRC 7.61 has been released! (English); accessed on April 29, 2020.
  2. QuakeNet client query from 2004
  3. mIRC - Free software downloads and reviews - CNET Download.com (accessed November 27, 2014)
  4. http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/us-militaerflughafen-in-deutschland-ramstein-ist-zentrum-im-us-drohnenkrieg-1.1928810 (accessed on April 4, 2014)
  5. Frederik Obermaier: "The data about Ramstein always flow". In: sueddeutsche.de . April 4, 2014, accessed October 13, 2018 .
  6. mirc.com official forum - Article mIRC 6.17 released (February 17, 2006, accessed September 1, 2008)
  7. News in the mIRC forum
  8. Khaled Mardam-Bey: mIRC-Forum: mIRC 7.1 released (English). July 30, 2010, accessed August 1, 2010 .

Web links