1) That modes and the /list command would support regular expressions.
I don't think channel names get that complex, which means that it would probably be useless.
2) /list will only send back the channels you requested. /list egg would send back "#egg" if it exists, not "#segg", "#eggs", etc.
Have you ever tried /raw LIST egg? It's mIRC who does that, not the IRC protocol...
3) You can specify a prefix to search for in /list, for example: /list &* will only send back a list of channels that start with &, channels that start with # wouldn't be listed.
/raw LIST &* will work like that on some IRCd's. Note that wildcards are not supported in the LIST described in RFC 1459.
1) That channels can be given a keyword (IE: #mIRC could have a "mIRC" or "Computing" keyword), this way you can see what the main subject of a channel is.
Of course you could argue that the topic could be used for this, but the topic is not always clear.
IRCx already implemented this feature with its LISTX command. Example:
/PROP <channel> SUBJECT :This is a subject.
/LISTX S=This\bis\ba\bsubject.
LISTX does support wildcards in its definition, and it allows you to search channels with other parameters.
Take a look here:
http://www.valinor.sorcery.net/docs/ircx.txt2) When you send a /list command the server will send back a "reference number", you can later send this reference number with /list and the server will only send back the channels that have changed or been created since you sent the last /list.
LISTX already supports this in a way, with the following parameters:
C<# Select channels created less than # minutes ago.
C># Select channels created greater than # minutes ago.
T<# Select channels with a topic changed less than # minutes ago.
T># Select channels with a topic changed greater than # minutes ago.
My point with LISTX is not that you should use IRCx, but that, if the IRC community were interested in supporting these options, they would have already done so; after all, they have been supported by IRCx since the 90's. In other words, I don't think these options will ever be implemented.
