Enhanced Programmable ircII Client

Infobox_Software
name = EPIC

caption = EPIC connected to #7chan


developer = EPIC Software Labs
latest_release_version = 4-2.10
latest_release_date = April 10, 2008
operating_system = Unix-like
genre = IRC client
license = Revised BSD license
website = http://www.epicsol.org

The Enhanced Programmable ircII Client (ircII-EPIC) is an IRC client for Unix systems descended from the ircII client. EPIC was formed by the merger of two independent forks of ircII by Jeremy Nelson and Jake Khuon. EPIC is now maintained by EPIC Software Labs.

Since the late 1980s IRC was a unified system, with one dominant network (EFNet) and one dominant client (ircII). In 1992 some folks decided to start up a rival IRC network (which became the Undernet) where they could run their own servers and do what they wanted. Other folks started a rival irc client (which in 1994 became EPIC) where they could write bots that weren't crippled. There was overlap between the members of both groups, and ircII-EPIC and the Undernet grew up side-by-side for a couple of years.

The "EPIC" name came first, and "Enhanced Programmable ircII Client" was sarcastically chosen as a pretentious backronym. This was to poke fun at legislative pressure groups whose names are obviously backronyms of the acronym they really wanted to use.

With the increasing use of GNU Screen, it became less necessary to run bots. You could keep your client connected to irc continuously and use a comprehensive script that had all the features of a bot. Because EPIC was designed to make it easier to program bots, this transition happened organically.

ee also

*Comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients

External links

* [http://www.epicsol.org EPIC Software Labs]
* [http://scripts.epicsol.org/ EPIC Scripts archive]