A basic introduction
History
One day, I was hanging around on the Internet, while browsing
through a list of Java-applications. Since I am a real IRC
freak, I was looking for IRC clients written in Java. I found
approximately 5 clients. I checked them all out, and found
that there was no client which satisfied my needs. So...with
the thought I could do better, I started to work on a client,
which I later named Dolphin.
Starting the client
Starting the client is very simple. First you need to unpack
the distribution file, which is either Dolphin-vX.XX.zip or
Dolphin-vX.XX.tar.gz. Now, if you want to start Dolphin up,
you need to have the Java
Developers Kit installed. Now you can start Dolphin up
by simply typing 'java Dolphin' in the directory where you've
installed Dolphin. If everything goes well, there should popup
a window, which is the Dolphin server window.
Get connected
First you should fill in YOUR nickname. A nickname is
the handle you'll use, when you chat on one of the IRC
networks. Next, you'll need to tell Dolphin which server it
should connect to. If you don't know a server,
here is list of some servers.
Joining a channel
If you are connected, and you don't know what to do, here's
a brief help. If you are unfamiliar with IRC, you probably
want to join a channel, where you can ask for help. There
are several channels where you can ask for help, but the most
popular once are #irc, #irchelp and #ircnewbies. To join one
of these channels, you could do 2 things. 1) You could type
'/join #irchelp' on the commandline, or you could type
'#irchelp' where it says 'Channel:', and press enter. If you
do it right, a window will popup. This is the channel window.
On the top, you'll find the topicline, which shows what the
current topic of the channel is. On the left you'll see a
large textwindow, where all the stuff that is being said in
the channel is printed. On the right you'll see a list of
nicknames. Those are the people who are in the same channel
you are. And on the bottom, you can type everything that
YOU want to say in the channel. This is the way you
communicate publicly with the rest.
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