Was Microsoft Word designed to display multimedia files? No. Can you embed them now? Believe it.
Ever tried to IRC through a Telnet connection or a raw socket? Not impossible, once you get the hang of it. Years and years ago, that's what people actually did. They Telnetted into an IRC server and chatted that way, using:
- PRIVMSG #PartyHouse :Last night's bingo party was fantastic.
NOTICE Jarrko :No, I don't know where your wife put the eggs. Did you check under the bed?
It looked much the same as chatting would if you chatted from the @Debug window (without all the pretty colors). Along came mIRC for Windows. Now you could make channel text for one channel go into its own little window and PRIVMSGs from one nick would go to their own window. Fantastic, but it'll never catch on - too many little windows all over the place, who could keep track of them all? After all, who could possibly need more than 640K RAM?
OK, so I've got my clients database connected to my web page which I can update from anywhere in the world. This includes through mIRC (using $com) while I listen to my favorite MP3s I've downloaded (from wherever *cough*). My mIRC can also automate checking different things I want to keep on top of, like current stock quotes, weather conditions, etc. so I am able to continue chatting up this hot chick from Finland who knows more about Windows API calls than I do!
The point of all this is that mIRC did not start off as the program it has developed into. It is constantly under revision and upgrade. The scripting language has matured along with the basic IRC client interface to allow you to integrate more functionality with your normal IRC experience. (We got While loops not all that long ago; we're still pestering Khaled to add multidimensional arrays, but he's putting up a rather valiant fight on that score.)
