# HexChat ReadMe

X-Chat ("xchat") Copyright (c) 1998-2010 By Peter Zelezny.  
HexChat ("hexchat") Copyright (c) 2009-2013 By Berke Viktor.

This program is released under the GPL v2 with the additional exemption
that compiling, linking, and/or using OpenSSL is allowed. You may
provide binary packages linked to the OpenSSL libraries, provided that
all other requirements of the GPL are met.
See file COPYING for details.

For building instructions, see [Building](http://docs.hexchat.org/en/latest/building.html).


## What is it?

HexChat is an IRC client for Windows and UNIX operating systems. I.R.C. is
Internet Relay Chat, see [IRCHelp.org](http://irchelp.org) for more information about IRC
in general. HexChat runs on most BSD and POSIX compliant operating systems.


## Requirements:

 * GTK+ 2.24
 * GLib 2.28

HexChat is known to work on, at least:

 * Windows Vista/7/8
 * Linux
 * FreeBSD
 * OpenBSD
 * NetBSD
 * Solaris
 * AIX
 * IRIX
 * DEC/Compaq Tru64 UNIX
 * HP-UX 10.20 and 11
 * OS X


## Notes for packagers:

If you need your packages to work on i386, you don't need to compile with
--disable-mmx, because it's also checked at run-time.


## Python Scripts:

Consider using the Python interface for your scripts, it's a very nice
API, allows for loading/unloading individual scripts, and gives you
almost all the features of the C plugin API. For more info, see the
[HexChat Python Interface](http://docs.hexchat.org/en/latest/script_python.html).


## Perl Scripts:

Perl 5.8 or newer is required. For more info, see the
[HexChat Perl Interface](http://docs.hexchat.org/en/latest/script_perl.html).


## Autoloading Scripts and Plugins:

The root of your HexChat config is:

 * Windows: %APPDATA%\HexChat
 * Unix: ~/.config/hexchat

Referred to as &lt;config> from now. HexChat automatically loads, at startup:

 * &lt;config>/addons/*.pl Perl scripts
 * &lt;config>/addons/*.py Python scripts
 * &lt;config>/addons/*.dll Plugins (Windows)
 * &lt;config>/addons/*.so Plugins (Unix)

## Control Codes:

 * %%     -  A single percentage sign
 * %C     -  Control-C (mIRC color code)
 * %B     -  Bold Text
 * %U     -  Underline Text
 * %R     -  Reverse Text
 * %O     -  Reset all Text attributes
 * %XXX   -  ASCII XXX (where XXX is a decimal 3 digit number, e.g.: %007 sends a BEEP)

%Cforeground,background will produce a color code, e.g.: %C03,10

These are now disabled by default (see _Settings_ `->` _Preferences_ `->` _Input Box_).  
Instead you can insert the real codes via ctrl-k, ctrl-b and ctrl-o.
