IRC

IRC is a bit like a cross between instant messaging, an email list, and a sports bar. It is useful if you need quicker turnaround than that provided by a mailing list, and is a good way to discuss general issues. IRC is a useful tool to help users pinpoint specific without initially knowing exactly how that should be done. Wikipedia has info on IRC as well as a comparison of IRC software.

Here are a few IRC channels used by BioPerl users/devs:

BioPerl

irc.freenode.net #bioperl Webchat

General Perl Help

irc.perl.org #perl-help Webchat

Getting help

Those of us that hang out in IRC enjoy helping people use BioPerl. Here are some tips to help us help you.

When you join IRC, ask your question and wait. Someone will show up in a few seconds, hours, or days depending on your timezone and whether or not you've asked your question at the beginning of a holiday weekend. We've been hanging out in IRC for years, so with a little patience you'll run into us. If our silence exceeds your patience, please send email to bioperl-l.

To help you, we often need to be able to reproduce your output on our own computers. Please use http://gist.github.com/ (or, better yet, a github repository containing runnable code and input) to provide all of the following:

• Your source code
• Minimal input to reproduce your output
• Your output
• The output you were expecting

When using gist.github.com or other pasting service, please put everything in a single gist / paste. It's hard to keep track of half a dozen different links as you tweak things based on our suggestions.

Regulars on IRC

Nick	GMT	Where	IRC client
deafferret	-6	Omaha, NE USA	Irssi under screen
pyrimidine	-6	Champaign, IL USA	Colloquy
ende	-5	Washington DC, USA	Colloquy
drycafe	-5	Durham, NC USA	XChat Aqua
bosborne	+3	Skullcrusher Mountain	Colloquy
dbolser	+0	A series of tubes	Irssi under screen
Nath	+10	Brisbane, Queensland, Australia	ChatZilla
majensen	-11	Deep Sea 1	XChat
rbuels	-8	Portland, OR USA	XChat and dircproxy
brunov	-11	Deep Sea -1	XChat
ptl	+5	Principality of Sealand	Irssi under screen
kblin or kai	+2	Tübingen, Germany	Irssi under screen
dave_messina	+1	Stockholm, Sweden	Colloquy
russellsmithies	+12	Dunedin, New Zealand	Firefox
Jun	0	Dublin, Ireland	mIRC

• ilbot2 is a bot that logs #bioperl activity. /msg moritz_ in #perl6 any questions.
• CIA-95 is a CIA.vc bot for github

Things to do...

• Check out MediaWiki IRC extension
• Bots bots bots:
  • See the Bot discussion page
  • bioperl API help bot?
  • bioperl-dev list announcement bot?
  • bioperl test code eval bot?
• Get more users
• Understand the Freenode channel settings
• Understand Freenode channel registration and how to control it on #bioperl and #obf-*