One of the troubles with interacting with the IAL is that entries come and go and even change (user changes nickname). It's very difficult tracking these changes without monitoring every user event, so I was hoping we could assign each IAL entry with a unique ID value. Scripts can use that ID value to track a user's IRC session (at least what's visible to the IAL).
Each new IAL entry, across all servers, gets a unique @id, just like @wids are unique across all servers. Referencing an IAL @id via $ial(@id).props works across servers like $window(@wid).props works across servers.
This will allow the creation of hashlists that track additional information about a user, such as game scores or number of lines spoken or additional WHO/WHOIS information like Gecos and IsIrcOp. ... Things the IAL currently does not track, and is impossible to maintain a record of without some sort of IAL synchronization. IAL IDs would help with that, immensely!
Thank you for the consideration.
[[ Yes, I'm aware when someone quits and reconnects, or parts all visible channels, they disappear from the IAL. As such they would be assigned a new and different ID when they become visible again. ]]
[[ Requesting $ial(@id) of an expired IAL entry would return $null ]]
