In any case there are plenty of existing clients for *nix platforms, including epic/ircII, bitchx, xchat, ircs, etc. etc..

All of these have existing scripting languages and structures of which 'bots' have been made in the past.

If you're programming a bot from scratch, possibly you want to look closer at the eggdrop stuff.

In any case, the RFC has all of this basic information in it. Coupled with a basic understanding of IRC in general, you shouldn't have any issues.