2.1 KiB
IRCd (Charybdis) Client
This client provides a fully functioning Matrix chat experience in addition to driving the server administration functions of IRCd. This client should not de-prioritize the chat client features in favor of focusing on server admin: it is testbed for any new features and experimentation conducted with IRCd.
The "Matrix" chat protocol is an extensible and recursively structured approach to the next evolution of the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) protocol. Though not syntactically backwards-compatible with the IRC protocol, it can be easily translated as a superset. Similar to IRC protocol's origins, it wisely leverages technologies in vogue for its day to aid the virility of implementations.
As the 3rd major-version evolution of IRC, we refer to IRC^3 or "IRC cubed" or "Matrix protocol" as all the same entity.
Matrix protocol achieves what the last IRC protocol could not, among other things: a consolidated internetworked federation of servers/networks that can all speak to each other. Authority in the federation is partitioned by domain-names and uses the standard URL system.
IRCv2 is deadlocked in part because of the ecosystem of servers and clients are old; they push the limits of cross-platform compatibility to deliver the best graphical or terminal experience from their day (and to this day!). The protocol has shallow structure; evolving it adds inelegant complexity. There was no attempt at forward-compatibility; it is easily broken. The initiative to propose and develop a new feature with widespread adoption is suppressed by these facts.
While the first conception of the IRC protocol in 1988 made considerations for a person typing at a local or remote-access textual terminal, matrix makes considerations for "the web." The protocol stands on the shoulders of JSON content transferred via HTTP requests. This choice permits the seamless implementation of clients developed with the best choice for developing a client in this epoch: the javascript-actuated stylized-document object in a browser -- which is customized dynamically from the server.