Monday, August 10, 2015

Circe 2.0 released – Circe turns 10

We just released version 2.0 of Circe, the Client for IRC in Emacs.

Circe is a Client for IRC in Emacs. It tries to have sane defaults, and integrates well with the rest of the editor, using standard Emacs key bindings and indicating activity in channels in the status bar so it stays out of your way unless you want to use it.

This is an anniversary release – today 10 years ago, Circe has had its first commit! Since then, the code base expanded quite a bit and Circe has gained a lot of good features, contributed by over a dozen people over time. And the client now has a number of users.

It's a weird feeling when you realize that this piece of software you wrote because you were unhappy with the existing solutions not only has been with you for a decade, but has other people using and contributing to it.

Major thanks to all the awesome people I know through this software. On to the next 10 years!

Quick Installation

Evaluate this:

(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives
  '("melpa-stable" . "http://stable.melpa.org/packages/") t)
(package-initialize)

Then run M-x package-install RET circe RET.

After this, M-x circe should work.

Changes in 2.0

  • Circe has had its IRC backend completely rewritten. It is now a separate library, irc.el, and much more powerful. Alas, this means a lot of existing configuration code will break.
  • Because of this, Circe now fully supports SASL authentication, extended joins, and a few other modern IRC capabilities.
  • XKCD references, CVE numbers and github issues are now buttonized.
  • All IRC buffers change to the home directory by default.
  • Circe now uses buttercup for tests and Travis-CI for continuous integration tests.
  • A number of options were removed to focus on sensible defaults. Re-check your configuration.
  • Nick colors are now pre-computed to make them more appropriate for the current display and more distinct from each other.
  • A lot of format strings have been added. Check the circe-format customization group.

Thanks to Vasilij Schneidermann, Taylan Ulrich Bayırlı/Kammer, Steve Purcell and Alex Dunn for their contributions!