Some CAD applications - and AutoCAD is one - allow the menu system to be changed to suit the user. The majority of AutoCAD customising, both commercial and private, has been based on adding, altering, or rearranging menu calls, whether from dialogue boxes, drop-downs, mouse buttons, or tablet calls. This has always been the case, from the early DOS versions of AutoCAD, long before Windows was acceptable to any professional user.
The mIRC IRC chat client is also easily adapted in this way, and the customisation I describe here is suited to both the 16-bit and the 32-bit versions, for use in any standard IRC chat channel. It has been used successfully in mIRC versions 5.5x (16-bit and 32-bit) and version 5.6x (32-bit).
While it is true that there are several very good customisations available for mIRC, the ones I looked at seemed to have far to much in them for my needs. They also relied heavily upon scripts, that is to say routines that have been known to let you down at the wrong moment.
The only one I have really taken a liking to is an abbreviated one called i2, published by the crowd who make Peace and Protection, and I now run that with an abbreviated version of this customisation described here.
I was a brand new channel op, and had disgraced myself the first day by accidentally posting my supervisory password in the channel.
This had the unfortunate result of an undesirable person (who coincidentally was present in the channel) then using that password to op himself and to close the channel down preventing anybody from entering.
It was pretty obvious to me that I needed something! Not only that, it had conform to the "KISS" protocol - Keep It Simple, Stupid !
The customisation described here is very simple, and it is done purely through changing the menu calls in the various menus that drop down - or pop up - (according to your choice of words!) to suit the way you use the application for chatting in chat rooms.
The author of the mIRC program, Khaled Mardam-Bey, has created a file called popups.ini, which by default can be edited in the windows notepad. He has placed a range of commands in this file, some of which I found useful, and some of which I seldom used, preferring to actually type those particular words in the text entry box at the bottom of the screen. These menus are designed to cascade - a line will open out to a sub-menu if the mouse pointer lands on it - and this is useful for selecting a number of choices, yet still keeping the menu compact.
The original mIRC popups.ini file in your computer should be renamed, perhaps to popups.old (but not deleted) should you decide to try this customisation out. If you keep the file, you can always go back to using the unmodified version later.
My menu is suitable to anyone in any IRC channel, although a few of the commands are unable to be used by those who don't have 'ops' status (channel supervision). For definition of what 'ops' and 'regular channel members' are, I refer you to the website of undernet where if you look at the pages about the supervisory bot (short for robot) X that cservice (Channel Service) places in every registered channel, the command syntax you need to use becomes apparent, and the functions of the commands is evident.
In brief explanation, Undernet divides channel users into "levels", the lowest being a level 0 (zero) newcomer, then a level 50 'regular' - although some channels don't give that status to members. The progression is on through level 75 (probationary op), level 100 (full op), and then on to 400 and 450 etc for channel management.
Levels below 100 do not have the ability to assume op status on their own account - even if the need arises. Probationary ops are theoretically given op status by a more experienced op who is training them on the job. Taking control of the channel is a "mode" change, as can be seen from the following log extract...
While it appears that the bot 'X' has done this, in order for it to happen, the person has to 'authenticate' with the control bot by using his/her password first, and then follow this by sending a private message to the bot.
All ops functions are an integral part of the browser software which communicates with the server software, and do not actually require the X bot in the channel, but if that boChannel Service bot is present, individual ops have to be personally authenticated and their level confirmed in the X bot by the channel management before they are permitted to perform their duties. While a facility does exist in IRC for an existing op to "op" another person, most channels do not approve of this practice because obviously there is a potential security hazard there unless you know without a doubt who that other person really is. The log entry would look like this...
where fred is the nick of the person who was being opped. The person doing the opping would do the equivalent of exchanging passwords to satisfy him/her that 'fred' really was the 'fred' he or she knew well through both of them being regular attenders in the channel.
Some registered channels have a private bot of their own, and the one I frequent, #christian, has one called logos3. Privately owned bots are generally unwelcome by channels' owners and also by the servers' owners, because of the trouble they can cause through faulty or malicious programming. If a bot is detected it is usually banned permanently, along with its owner which normally shows up as a clone.
Only registered channels have access to the X bot in Undernet. Temporary channels (ones that disappear when the last to leave "turns out the lights") can set their own rules - about bots, or anything else for that matter, but these rules still need to conform to those of Undernet itself, and the specific server the channel is created on.
One advantage of a channel having its own privately owned bot is that when in channel it holds ops status itself, and therefore a probationary 75-level op who has been authenticated by that bot is able on his or her own initiative to take charge of proceedings in the chat channel if the need arises, providing the op has satisfied that bot of his or her identity. This means that the X bot will recognise the level 75 probationary op as a 100 level op, but only for the period they are actually opped up. Once they have de-opped, a 75 cannot op up again without the help of a human or a bot with ops status.
For example, when opping through a privately owned bot called logos3, the channel log will announce that logos3 has performed the opping...
Again it appears that the bot 'logos3' has done this; in order for it to happen, the person has to 'authenticate' with the bot by using his/her password first, and then follow this by sending a private message to the bot.
Having explained all of that, it should be obvious that each person would have a need for a different degree of customisation of their mIRC program, depending upon how the channel that they frequent operates, and how they interact with the other people in the channel.
This set of pages is to give you an idea of just how simple it is to customise mIRC's popup menus, and there is a sample popups.ini file you can download, as well as screen captures showing the different menus the file supports. If you decide to continue and further customise your mIRC, you might want to print out the menu file and compare each section with what the menu looks like on the screen. That way you will get a better feel of how the commands fit together.
However, it is probably better to create "scripts" rather than using and modifying the popups.ini file; script writing can be fun - and also can be frustrating when it doesn't work quite the way you want it to... there are many people on IRC with experience on scripts who will be happy to offer advice. We shall include a page on scripts and another on aliases (short commands such as using a function key to do an operation. Please be patient.
mIRC general and menus
other mIRC customisation
popup menus in mIRC customisation
aliases and other keyboard shortcuts
scripts scripts (like macros in a word processor)
updated on 25th February 2002