Ircle
{{Infobox software
| name = Ircle
| screenshot =
| caption = Ircle running under Mac OS X v10.4 showing several open windows.
| developer = Onno Tijdgat
| operating_system = macOS, Classic Mac OS
| programming language = C
| genre = IRC client
| license = Proprietary
| website = https://www.ircle.com/
}}
Ircle (formerly rendered as "IRCle"{{cite book
| title = Mac OS 8 Web Server Cookbook
| first1 = David L. |last1=Hart |first2=Philip E. |last2= Bourne
| publisher = Prentice Hall
| year = 1998
| page = 133
}}) was an IRC client developed by Onno Tijdgat for the Macintosh computer platform. Ircle was shareware, with free upgrades. The client was scriptable with AppleScript, supported multiple channels and servers, and up to ten simultaneous connections. It was discontinued in 2009. Since 2012, Ircle was not compatible with most recent versions of OS X, and no updates were available. In December 2017 the Ircle home page displayed a poll, to end Q2 2018, to determine whether a new version should be released on OS X and iOS. The results of the poll were 311 votes in favor of a new Mac OS version, 43 votes for an iOS version, and 117 votes for both a Mac OS and iOS version, out of 528 votes cast.
History
Ircle was originally written in THINK Pascal by Olaf Titz and released in 1993, with the source code licensed under the GPL{{cite web
| title = Ircle Abstract
| first = Olaf|last=Titz
| date = November 25, 1993
| publisher = Info-Mac HyperArchive
| url = http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive/Abstracts/dev/src/ircle-151-p.hqx.txt
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000304100317/http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive/Abstracts/dev/src/ircle-151-p.hqx.txt
| archive-date = March 4, 2000
}}
up to version 1.56.{{cite web
| last = Tijdgat
| first = Onno
| url = http://www.ircle.com/agreement.shtml
| title = License and Credits
| publisher = ircle.com
| access-date = July 14, 2011
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110713062821/http://www.ircle.com/agreement.shtml
| archive-date = July 13, 2011
| url-status = dead
}}
Titz then gave up on the project and Tijdgat took over. Tijdgat continued development privately, rewriting it in C under Metrowerks CodeWarrior Pro and updating it for the then-new Power Macs.
Ircle 3.0 was released in 1994. The Talk City internet chat service supported Ircle,{{cite web |url=http://www.axon.net/TalkCity/towntalk3.html |title=Talk of the Town - Issue #3 |work=chat.talkcity.com |date=April 5, 1996 |editor=McKirdy, Eric |access-date=September 26, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070807181549/http://www.axon.net/TalkCity/towntalk3.html |archive-date=August 7, 2007 |url-status=dead }} and as of 2000, negotiated for a custom version called "Talk City Ircle", free for subscribers, with "comparable features without the disruption" from flood attacks.{{cite web |url=http://www.talkcity.com/irc/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001109133300/http://www.talkcity.com/irc/ |url-status=dead |access-date=October 28, 2016 |archive-date=November 9, 2000 |title=Dear Talk Citizens |date=April 13, 2000 |publisher=Talk City}}
Tijdgat announced in December 2005 that extensive work was underway to update Ircle for x86 based Macs. The upgrades were to be backward compatible with older CPUs, while development for Mac OS 7, 8, and 9 would cease. On September 21, 2006, the Intel compatible (universal binary) version was released with a number of new features.
Features
Ircle supported up to ten simultaneous server connections, and comes configured with a "long list of servers".{{cite book
| title = Mac OS X Panther Hacks
| editor1 = Dornfest, Rael
| editor2 = Davidson, James Duncan
| first = Jennifer |last=Golbeck
| publisher = O'Reilly Media
| edition = 2nd
| year = 2004
| pages = [https://archive.org/details/macosxpantherhac00dorn/page/208 208]–210
| isbn = 0-596-00718-3
| url = https://archive.org/details/macosxpantherhac00dorn
| url-access = registration
}} The "channelbar" feature simplified managing the otherwise large number of windows in Ircle. Applescript allowed detailed control and modification of the client.{{cite book
| title = The Internet Encyclopedia|volume=2
| page = 312
| editor = Bidgoli, Hossein
| publisher = Wiley
| year = 2003
| isbn = 0-471-22204-6
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=3ZfDy4sqQBEC&pg=PA314
}} Third party developer Public Access Software hosted Ircle Scripting Resources, Applescript scripts for Ircle-based tools, applications and even games, until 1999.{{cite web|title=Ircle AppleScript Resource Closing! Public Access Software Shifts Gears |date=July 6, 1999 |publisher=MacObserver.com |url=http://www.macobserver.com/news/99/july/990706/irclescritingsite.html}}{{cite web|title=Wordscore 3 released|date=December 27, 1999 |publisher=MacObserver.com |url=http://www.macobserver.com/news/99/december/991227/wordscore3.html}}
The Ircle "faces" window displays updateable images of chat contacts.{{cite book
|url=https://archive.org/details/intranetsunleash0000garr
|title=Intranets Unleashed
|first=David Lane
|last=Garrett
|publisher=Sams Publishing
|isbn=1-57521-115-7
|year=1996
|access-date=October 28, 2016
|url-access=registration
Reception
Ircle was once described as "the most widely used IRC client for Macintosh computers", "stable, full-featured", with "good user support," and "one of the best" Mac IRC clients.{{cite book |title=Internet: The Complete Reference |first=Margaret |last=Levine Young |year= 1999|page=338|publisher=Osborne Publishing |isbn=0-07-211942-X|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gPdSAAAAMAAJ}} The "one downside" to Ircle was "a rather intimidating preferences dialog".[http://ircle.com/reference/preferences.shtml "Preferences"] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120710015554/http://ircle.com/reference/preferences.shtml |date=July 10, 2012 }}. ircle.com. One author described it as "the godfather of Mac IRC clients. It has been around the longest and has the most features, making it the de facto gold standard against which all other clients compare themselves."{{cite book |last = Charalabidis
|first = Alex
|title = The Book of IRC: The Ultimate Guide to Internet Relay Chat
|edition = 1st
|date = December 15, 1999
|publisher = No Starch Press
|location = San Francisco, California
|isbn = 1-886411-29-8
|page = [https://archive.org/details/bookofirc00char/page/61 61]
|chapter = IRCing On The Macintosh: Ircle
|chapter-url-access = registration
|chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/bookofirc00char/page/61
}}
See also
References
External links
- {{official website|https://www.ircle.com/}}
- [http://www.info-mac.org/viewtopic.php?f=131&t=2814&p=2815&hilit=ircle#p2815 Ircle 1.5.1 code at the Info-Mac HyperArchive]
- [http://people.exeter.ac.uk/jastaple/irc/ircle.html Ircle help for versions 2.5, 3.0 and 3.04]
{{IRC clients}}