MetroIRC: a beautiful IRC client for Windows

By Steven P.
in Microsoft (Windows)

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Grand Master

Steven P. Administrators

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This is what IRC clients miss in my opinion, a modern interface. While it misses a few things like being able to copy multiple lines in a channel or conversation window, or logging individual channels and conversations, it looks like these are being considered by the developer in an update anyway (the logs part at least).

Truncation of channel names isn't yet possible either but is being considered..

Here's some more stuff he's done, and the MetroIRC site if you want to give it a go yourself.

Grand Master

Steven P. Administrators

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Yeah the topic at the top should be in the channel window imo.. no need for it to stay at the top, but I guess that was added due to the lack of title bar.

I suppose that could be added to the [info] window instead?

Grand Master

+Frank B. Subscriber²

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Playing with it right now. It is a very early beta and needs a lot more work to be fully usable. It does show some promise though.

Obligatory plug: If you don't know where to try out an IRC channel, why not stop by at Neowin IRC?

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~Johnny

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Some of the sizing's and spacing's and fonts seem to be a bit off, but it's open source so I might play with it and make it look better. Need something nice to use over Opera IRC, only because they're intending on removing it from the browser in the near future >.<

Grand Master

theyarecomingforyou

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It looks like a desktop app poorly converted to Metro. It's certainly not designed for touch and doesn't follow the Metro design guidelines. I'm sure it can be improved with time but it's not a particularly inspiring start.

Grand Master

Steven P. Administrators

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It looks like a desktop app poorly converted to Metro. It's certainly not designed for touch and doesn't follow the Metro design guidelines. I'm sure it can be improved with time but it's not a particularly inspiring start.

What like MetroTwit? It's following the Metro Modern UI guidelines properly and is supposed to be a desktop app :p

Needs a few tweaks here and there, but it's an early version...

Grand Master

HawkMan

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It looks nice and clean, it looks like it tried to be metro, it isn't but it tries, but designwise it's close enough to look nice and clean. the topic is all kinds of wrong of course.

I wouldn't use it over mIRC however though since it doesn't have MDI or a way to show 2,3 and 4 channels at the same time

Grand Master

Steven P. Administrators

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What it really needs is 'flash task bar on activity' at the moment i have to keep opening it to check if any one has posted.

As long as that can be turned off! :p ATM it flashes in the taskbar when your name is mentioned (or a new conversation is made).

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Aethec

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I was about to create a thread after you posted these suggestions, but you beat me to it :p

It's metro-ish at best, needs some tuning because in my opinion it looks a bit messy. However some of his other work looks amazing!

I suck at design. Really. I can "convert" a mockup to XAML (which is what I originally did: http://clindhartsen.deviantart.com/art/MetroIRC-UI-Elements-175875453 ) and get inspiration from other Metro-inspired apps, but I suck at design. If you have an idea of what it should look like, create a mockup and I'll see what I can do. I'd be especially grateful if someone gave me a good white color palette because I don't really like mine...

Yeah the topic at the top should be in the channel window imo.. no need for it to stay at the top, but I guess that was added due to the lack of title bar.

I suppose that could be added to the [info] window instead?

You can hide the channel topic if you don't want it (though that removes it entirely). Is the topic really so unimportant? I use IRC often, but I'm not an IRC power user or a network admin...

The info tab is supposed to contain information about the network only, so...no channel topic.

Some of the sizing's and spacing's and fonts seem to be a bit off, but it's open source so I might play with it and make it look better. Need something nice to use over Opera IRC, only because they're intending on removing it from the browser in the near future >.<

If you want to play with it, clone the dev branch (which needs .NET 4.5 RC/VS 2012 RC) - the main branch is a few months old.

It looks like a desktop app poorly converted to Metro. It's certainly not designed for touch and doesn't follow the Metro design guidelines. I'm sure it can be improved with time but it's not a particularly inspiring start.

Actually, I started this before the whole "metro-style apps" thing. It's not made for touch.

It is pretty aesthetically pleasing for an IRC client. I've only used mIRC prior to this, haha

Thanks!

(pretty much everything looks better than mIRC though :p )

It looks nice and clean, it looks like it tried to be metro, it isn't but it tries, but designwise it's close enough to look nice and clean. the topic is all kinds of wrong of course.

I wouldn't use it over mIRC however though since it doesn't have MDI or a way to show 2,3 and 4 channels at the same time

I'm not trying to copy exactly what Microsoft does - I do 1) what I think looks good and 2) what I'm able to do.

About a MDI interface - no. One of my goals is to create a simple client everyone can use - if you need advanced features such as MDI, use mIRC. Sorry.

Not bad at all. Needs quite a bit more development but it's a good start.

What it really needs is 'flash task bar on activity' at the moment i have to keep opening it to check if any one has posted.

Currently, the taskbar flashes on HL or when a private message is received. I'll add that feature in the next version

Compared with Linkinus, this still needs a lot of work.

Indeed. But Linkinus costs money, and is developped by a team of developpers and designers. MetroIRC is free and is developped by me, myself and I in my spare time.

Grand Master

MikeChipshop Member

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As long as that can be turned off! :p ATM it flashes in the taskbar when your name is mentioned (or a new conversation is made).

Haha yeah of course. I moderate a channel which has low to medium traffic flow through it and it helps to remind me that it is there when it flashes.

Grand Master

HawkMan

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MDI not necessary, but a tilted interface is necessary for an IRC. especially if it imitates Metro which means it should be full screen.

Either way there's better ways then MDI to do tiled channels, especiallyf or a design like this.

you should be able to for example have a drop down button at the top where you can choose a 1+2 layour a 2+2 layout a 1+1 horizontalor vertical layout,

Grand Master

FloatingFatMan

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Hmm, looks nice, but needs a couple of things...

The ability to have more than one channel visible at a time, and most especially, a taller text entry area. Ideally, large enough to see the full buffer area in one go, over several lines (I have a specific need for this).

Does it support all the same key colour codes and combinations as mIRC? That's really the standard to go by for Windows clients... Also, any plans for scripting support?

Grand Master

George P Global Moderator

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Yeah, I was looking for a metro, winrt IRC app. I've been using mIRC on the desktop for ever, with UPP script. I'm not going to change that anytime soon, not after 10+ years. But a new modern, WinRT app then I'd go for it.

Grand Master

FloatingFatMan

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hrmm and here i was hoping actually for a metro app not a desktop app

Yeah, I was looking for a metro, winrt IRC app. I've been using mIRC on the desktop for ever, with UPP script. I'm not going to change that anytime soon, not after 10+ years. But a new modern, WinRT app then I'd go for it.

I'm not sure that's going to be possible. When not active, ModernUI applications go into a suspended state. This is not something you want an IRC client to do as you'll just disconnect from the network.

Grand Master

PGHammer

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Thanks for the link. Ill stick with mIRC

I'll keep evaluating it though - there are times that I'd rather not use miRC.

I CAN understand why mIRC gets a lot of user loyalty (a lot of scripts are developed primarily, if not specifically, for mIRC - therefore if you have favorite scripts or script packages, mIRC will likely be what you run them on; it's why I've used mIRC as long as I have) - however, I refuse to contribute to the *meh* by saying I want different and then whacking the result.

Proficient

Harrison H.

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I'm not sure that's going to be possible. When not active, ModernUI applications go into a suspended state. This is not something you want an IRC client to do as you'll just disconnect from the network.

This is definitely NOT correct. See this post on how to do background tasks and their limitations: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsappdev/archive/2012/05/24/being-productive-in-the-background-background-tasks.aspx

Skype for Metro runs in the background, so it definitely works. There is how to do it.

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