Index of /tcl/ftparchive/sorted/net/zircon-1.18.32

      Name                   Last modified     Size  Description


[DIR] Parent Directory       28-Oct-99 15:46      -  
[   ] CHANGES                18-Jul-97 02:38    41k  
[   ] README                 14-Feb-97 03:24     5k  
[   ] README.ONS             29-Apr-97 08:43     4k  
[   ] README.load            06-Dec-96 09:28     1k  
[   ] README.prefs           16-May-97 10:13    10k  
[CMP] zircon-1.18.32.tar.gz  02-Dec-97 20:13   259k  

Zircon Release 1.18
-----------------------

This is a release of Zircon, an X11 interface to Internet Relay Chat. The
software is written in tcl/tk and uses its native features to provide
network communications. Suggestions for improvements to Zircon are
welcome. I am particularly interested in making the system useful for
those users in groups where JIPS and other national character sets are
used.

You will find that there are two versions of the zircon tar archive. One
of them has the tag "min" in its name - this version has been run through
my tcl minimiser program Frink and (in theory) should run faster as all
redundant spaces etc. have bee removed. The code in this verion is pretty
well unreadable.

Zircon has more features than you could possibly imagine and
implements nearly everything that the irc II clients support as well
as many other useful and interesting features. This reflects the power
of tcl/tk *not* the fact that I am a wonderful programmer (I am, but
that is a side issue :-)) tcl/tk is a wonderful system and you need it
on your machine *NOW*.

Please send all reports, comments and suggestions to: 

	zircon@catless.newcastle.ac.uk

N.B. the user whose nick is zircon has nothing to do with this progam.
You can sometimes find me in the #zircon channel.

Mail
----
	zircon-request@newcastle.ac.uk

to be added to the Zircon users mailing list. Messages to the mailing
list should be sent to

	zircon@newcastle.ac.uk

but please send bug reports and questions directly to me rather than the
list. 

Enjoy!

Lindsay
-------

REQUIREMENTS

The software has been developed using:

	tcl	Version 7.6p2 or Version 8.0a2
	tk	Version 4.2p2 or Version 8.0a2

N.B. This version of zircon will not run with releases of tcl earlier than
7.5/4.1.

tcl/tk is available from ftp.smli.com in the directory /pub/tcl.  The
latest version can always be found on catless.ncl.ac.uk in /pub which
is also the home of Zircon. You will also find here the latest
development snapshot of zircon - this will always have bug fixes and
new developements in it.

You can configure lots of stuff using X resources, thus it is possible
to make buttons and text associated with particular users and channels
appear in special colours and fonts. The system is much easier to use
than the usual UNIX interfaces to irc and a lot of people are using it
on a day to day basis. Zircon also supports a distributed drawing
board, but please do not use this when there are non-Zircon users
around as they get annoyed when they cant see the pictures.

For people who really cannot do without their ircII style commands a
subset of these are also supported both in an optional command line
and from Channel windows - see the MANUAL for details.

INSTALLATION

These instructions are for Unix systesms. Zircon will run on Macintosh
and Windows machines - hwoever you will need to do a small amount
tweaking of the software. If you want to do this and perhaps can help
me set up proper distributions for these systems then get in touch.

1) Make sure you have tcl and tk installed.

2) Run the "installZircon" program - this is a tcl/tk program and it
   will look for a suitable interpreter using one of the usual names.
   if it cant find one then it will tell you.

3) A window will appear. Set the values to ones that are suitable for
   your system.

4) Now click "Install"

   You may find that you get compilation or link errors for the
   modules in Sed. This does not matter and will not affect the
   running of zircon. If you do get erros and can identify the cause
   please let me know.

5) The file Preferences shows you what you might want to put in your
   .zircon/preferences file in your HOME directory. But see the
   information about Multiple network support. Read the file
   README.prefs for information about what you can configure.

   You will also want to edit the file zircon.ad which can be found in
   the zircon library directory. This contains application defaults for
   X resources and is read by zircon on startup. 

   Zircon still supports the existence of a system wide preferences
   file, but this can cause problems and I would advise people not to
   use this feature. I will be working on it for the next version to
   make it work better with netspaces than it does at the moment - I
   appreciate that the feature is useful where many people are usign
   zircon on the same machine.

   WARNING: IN THE NEAR FUTURE I WILL BE PROVIDING A DIFFERENT WAY OF
   TAILORING ZIRCON'S APPEARANCE. ONE THAT WILL BE PORTABLE TO SYSTEMS
   OTHER THAN X-WINDOWS - BE PREPARED FOR THIS CHANGE!!!!

6) Off you go. Have fun!

Also included is a littel program that will help you fins the "Meta"
key that tcl/tk uses. This is called findMeta - run it and do what it
says if you don't know which is your Meta modifier.

HELP
----

Mail problems to zircon@catless.ncl.ac.uk. The zircon mailing list can
be joined by posting to zircon-request@newcastle.ac.uk and posted to
at zircon@newcastle.ac.uk You can usually find help in the #zircon
channel on IRC as well.