Xchat: the exception that confirms the rule?

[Marcus Wagenaar]

On Mon, 2008-01-28 at 16:11 +0100, Jo-Erlend Schinstad wrote:
> It's very difficult to configure it. What is a screen name, what's
> local alias? Where do I enter my nickname? Ok, I enter the same in all
(...)
> Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love Pidgin, and I use it for
> everything related to IM, but let's be honest: it's _horrible_ when it
> comes to IRC! IRC and IM are two different things in any case. Let's
> have good tools for both. Especially when we recommend it to new
> users...

I have to second that. I once tried to use pidgin as an IRC client but
the experience made me so frustrated I even stopped using pidgin
altogether for a short while. 

Nowadays pidgin really is a great IM application, heck, even on MS
platforms I consider it to be the best multi-protocol IM client
available. Sadly pidgin fails horribly as IRC client. Whether this is
because that feature shouldn't be in an IM client at all or because
pidgin's IRC implementation simply sucks is open to debate. I'm inclined
to think an IM client could actually have a decent IRC implementation
but on the other hand I don't have any examples or references to back it
up. As of now there is no decent IRC application by default so a
separate application would definitely be an improvement.   

Regards,

Marcus Wagenaar