As $numeric was added in 1996, and the scripting language has grown around it for almost 25 years, the only way to be sure would be to download older versions of mIRC to see how they work. That said, when it comes to backward compatibility, the furthest I would go back is to v6.35, as that is already over ten years old.
I just had a look through
versions.txt and noticed this:
15/04/2017 - mIRC v7.48
Added CAP support for extended-join and account-notify. These are
enabled automatically on connect if available and provide the account
names of users in JOIN/ACCOUNT events. ACCOUNT events are not shown
but are used to update $ial().account. They trigger as RAW events.
18.Added CAP support for away-notify. This is automatically enabled if
available and makes the server send AWAY events to the client
indicating the away state of users on the same channels as you. AWAY
events are not shown but are used to set $ial().away. They trigger as
RAW events.
19.Added CAP support for account-tag. This is automatically enabled if
available and makes the server include the user's @acount=name in the
message-tag for messages sent by that user.
20.Added CAP support for invite-notify. This is automatically enabled if
available and makes the server send these events to the client for
users invited to their channel. These events are not shown but
trigger as RAW events.
21.Added CAP support for chghost. This is automatically enabled if
available and makes the server send user@host updates for nicknames
on the same channels to update the IAL. These events are not shown
but trigger as RAW events.
This is not that long ago. I am thinking maybe it was decided then that $numeric is to return 0 when these ACCOUNT/AWAY/etc events trigger?
But thanks for the reply! I'll have a look at older versions. I can dl them at
https://mircscripts.net/oldversion/
