<p>I started using IRC at a young age, and I have always been fascinated with it.  As a language exercise, I was thinking about programming a simple IRC client in Ruby with <a href="http://www.shoooes.net/" rel="noreferrer">Shoes</a> as a graphical front-end.  My question to you, kind-sirs, what do I need to become familiar with to start on this great adventure (besides shoes and Ruby of course)?  I imagine there is some-sort of specification on IRC Protocol.  Any pointers?</p>

[{'answer_id': 24311, 'author': 'FlySwat', 'author_id': 1965, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1965', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>The IRC Specification is laid out in RFC 1459</p>\n\n<p><a href="http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/rfc/rfc.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/rfc/rfc.html</a></p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 24322, 'author': 'FlySwat', 'author_id': 1965, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1965', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': "<blockquote>\n  <p>I found this gem on Wikipedia. Sounds intimidating.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It's actually not.</p>\n\n<p>Telnet onto an IRC Server and witness the simplicity of the protocol first hand. The hardest part is the handshake, after that its very simple.</p>\n"}, {'answer_id': 24521, 'author': 'abyx', 'author_id': 573, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/573', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': "<p>I once implemented a client and a server with 2 more guys (as part of a course).<br>\nI can tell you that the RFC you were already linked to is great.<br>\nI'd also try simply sniffing a connection with an existing client to see for yourself how stuff work.</p>\n"}, {'answer_id': 526926, 'author': 'hernan43', 'author_id': 27521, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/27521', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>Not exactly an answer to your question, but it may be helpful. If you are using Ruby, I have found the Autumn Leaves project to be a great way to build an IRC bot using Ruby:</p>\n\n<p><a href="http://github.com/RISCfuture/autumn/tree/master" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://github.com/RISCfuture/autumn/tree/master</a></p>\n\n<p>It is pretty much the Jibble of the Ruby world.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 844821, 'author': 'Hinrik', 'author_id': 10689, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/10689', 'pm_score': 6, 'selected': True, 'text': '<p>An earlier post mentioned RFC1459. While it is a very good introduction to IRC, it has actually been superseded by RFCs 2810-2813. Here is a more complete list of documentation you need to program anything IRC-related:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1459" rel="nofollow noreferrer">RFC1459</a> (original RFC; superseded, but still useful)</li>\n<li><a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2810" rel="nofollow noreferrer">RFC2810</a> (IRC architecture)</li>\n<li><a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2811" rel="nofollow noreferrer">RFC2811</a> (IRC channel management)</li>\n<li><a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2812" rel="nofollow noreferrer">RFC2812</a> (IRC client protocol)</li>\n<li><a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2813" rel="nofollow noreferrer">RFC2813</a> (IRC server protocol)</li>\n<li><a href="http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/rfc/ctcpspec.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">CTCP specification</a></li>\n<li><a href="http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/rfc/dccspec.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DCC specification</a></li>\n<li><a href="http://www.invlogic.com/irc/ctcp.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Updated CTCP specification</a> (not all clients support this)</li>\n<li><a href="http://www.irc.org/tech_docs/draft-brocklesby-irc-isupport-03.txt" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ISupport (response code 005) draft</a> (almost all servers support this nowadays)</li>\n<li><a href="http://www.leeh.co.uk/draft-mitchell-irc-capabilities-02.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Client capabilities (CAP command) draft</a> (supported by some servers/clients)</li>\n<li><a href="http://ircv3.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">IRCv3 standards and proposals</a> (the future features of IRC, some of which are already widely supported)</li>\n</ul>\n'}]
['https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/24310', 'https://Stackoverflow.com', 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/25/']