Re: [9fans] irc tools

[Jack Johnson <fragment@nas.com>]

Scott Schwartz wrote:
> | ... and the closest I can envision (without
> | more caffeine) is an inverted sam interface,
>
> Not acme?

No, not acme.

The problem with acme and IRC (as I see it) is that your input goes
wherever the cursor happens to lie, so if you want to change modes (from
one server to another, or from public to private), you have to not only
move the cursor, but provide a facility in each window to separate the
user input from the server output, or live with the dumb terminal mode
of mixing the two mid-typing (which in traditional Plan 9 parlance can
be confusing, if you're used to editing a command before submitting it).

If you segregate the commands to the server from the server output in
acme, then you have to have a command to switch the server/person/window
to which you would like to direct the current message.

Conversely, sam-style the streams from the various sources are free to
keep doing their thing while you compose your thoughts, and changing
active windows meshes nicely with the modal change in discussions (if
you're prone to having more than one discussion at once).

-Jack