IRC Client in Python; not a IRC Bot
Question: I've searched extensively on this and only came up with bot specific clients.
I know they're basically the same, but for what I want to do I just can't
figure it out.

I am trying to program a python client, that is pure and simple on it's face.
For example when run from the command line it will immediately connect
invisibly and then print "say: " after it has established the connection.
(username, server, etc. are already set) It will wait until the user has
pressed -return/enter- and then it will send the message and then retrieve the
messages that it has been logging to an array and print the last 8 lines/array
values.

So the user will only see the messages on the channel, and be able to send
messages. My issue is figuring out how to strip everything but the messages.
I'm so sorry if I seem like I'm wanting someone to do this for me. I've looked
and looked but I can't figure it out. Do I have to use a IRC module? I'm
pretty sure that I'll end up using regex somehow, but I'm stumped. Thanks guys
for reading my silly question!

    
    
    import sys
    import socket
    import string
    
    HOST="irc.freenode.net"
    PORT=6667
    NICK="MauBot"
    IDENT="maubot"
    REALNAME="MauritsBot"
    readbuffer=""
    
    s=socket.socket( )
    s.connect((HOST, PORT))
    s.send("NICK %s\r\n" % NICK)
    s.send("USER %s %s bla :%s\r\n" % (IDENT, HOST, REALNAME))
    
    while 1:
        readbuffer=readbuffer+s.recv(1024)
        temp=string.split(readbuffer, "\n")
        readbuffer=temp.pop( )
    
        for line in temp:
            line=string.rstrip(line)
            line=string.split(line)
    
            if(line[0]=="PING"):
                s.send("PONG %s\r\n" % line[1])
    


Answer: You can connect to an IRC server using `Telnet`.  
There are libraries in Python to accomplish this.

See these links for more information:

> > [Python Telnet
> connection](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4528831/python-telnet-
> connection)
>
> > [Using Telnet in Python](http://www.pythonforbeginners.com/code-snippets-
> source-code/python-using-telnet)
>
> > [Python Doco: 20.14. telnetlib — Telnet
> client](http://docs.python.org/2/library/telnetlib.html)

Once you have connected to the IRC server, you can:

  1. Output whatever commands you need to in the telnet session (such as login credentials).
  2. Join a channel.
  3. Write out the lines that you need to.

