Re: [Savannah-hackers] savannah.gnu.org: submission of Global IRC Client Protocol Coordination

[Carlo Wood]

On Thu, Mar 14, 2002 at 08:57:53PM +0100, mathieu wrote:
> Personnaly, I dont see the connection between documentation and « 
> coordinating the larger IRC networks ».

The point is that currently all larger IRC network have
independently developed IRC daemons (all of which are using
the GPL by the way).  Each of these IRC daemons are maintained
by a different group of people and there is hardly till no
communication between them (possibly because if the
historical rivalry between the different IRC networks).
Nevertheless, it are the _same_ IRC clients that need to
be compatible with all networks.  So, it would be a Bad Thing
when a certain numeric reply or channel mode means one thing
on one network and another thing on another network.

Therefore there is the need for *documentation* of the
Free Software (the IRC daemons), in particular the
client-server protocol specifications of all currently
at large used IRC daemons.

We'd like to have that documentation in a central and _neutral_
place (this is all highly sensitive to politics I am afraid;
when I'd set up a CVS repository at cvs.undernet.org then
no doubt it wouldn't be acceptable for some networks).

Since all IRC daemons are maintained by volunteers and licensed
by the GPL I thought that savannah would be the logic place
to have the repository where we could centrally maintain an
overview of the client-server protocol as being used by the
different IRC daemons, in an attempt to at least stop using
overlapping numerics but hopefully also to increase the
communication between the networks in the future.  This central
documentation would also GREATLY benefit all the IRC _client_
coders out there, that now have to figure out empirally what
each IRC network has implemented.

-- 
Carlo Wood <address@hidden>