Forums General Discussion What do you think of 6.1?

Could just be me, but I'm kinda disappointed with 6.1. Given the fact that it took over a year to complete, I was hoping more features that had been requested would have been added. It seems like this was a bug fix release more than anything else. Out of the 166 changes, 64 of them are bug fixes. I was expecting to see more of the things that have been requested a million times, of which I really see none other than the $rawtext addition.

Also the new "interface improvements" seem ackward and somewhat wrong. Like what is with the little "grips" next to the switchbar and toolbar? In every single other program I've ever seen, that means you can move the toolbars around, which I'd like to see, for example maybe I want the switchbar on top of the toolbar, however, in mIRC it appears they are just there for decoration. Also the enlarged buttons such as in Channel Central seem ackward. Why are they so big? They take up so much more space now, and it doesn't provide any extra function or anything. Also the changing of the menus and connect dialog seem bad to me. I was accustomed to doing "file | options" to get into the options dialog, that feature is now gone. This also seems like a bad idea in relation to scripting sites which often tell people to go to file then options, now all these FAQs have to be rewritten. For the GUI my personal opinion is "if it ain't broken, don't fix it"

I do however like the new log button on the toolbar, thats much easier than going into the options dialog each time, but other than that, I don't really like any of the new GUI changes I've noticed so far. Oh and I especially hate that the checkmark to prevent the "about" dialog box from displaying each time you open mIRC was removed; that alone is enough for me to decide to stick with 6.03, at least for the time being.

I'm not saying I hate the new version, some of the new features seem nice, I'm just disappointed. I'll probably learn to like 6.1 in the future, but for right now, I think I'm going to stick with 6.03.

Anyone else agree with me on any of this? Or am I all alone in these opinions?

I didn't have the time yet to check all the new features, but from what I saw, I don't like the new disposition of the connection dialog, it's kinda confusing. But the new toolbar is very nice, I really like it. I'll take a better look at it tonight, I'm sure I'll find some things I will like =]
Thanks Tjerk and Khaled!

i dunno, i think 6.1 is just something people will have to get used to. i was hoping for more dialog options, like treeviews and everything but i guess i'll have to wait for that. i like the new 'recieved files' folder button next to the log button. now i don't have to type /run download which i find myself doing a lot these days. as for the channel central buttons, i really didn't even notice a change.

oh yeah, and as for the connection dialog, the little flower icon scared me. i think it's a flower icon. maybe it's a gear or a sun. oh well

on a whole id have to agree with the interface being disapointing .... i do like the ability to remove the menu bar but them damn "grips" gotta go. luckily after u add a background image to it ... it seems to cover them up but for the defualt it just looks goofy.... also ... i didnt notice the standard X to close the active windows when u remove the menubar ... kinda makes that alil hard to figure. it would be nicer to be able to remove it and possibly have them buttons float over to the toolbar or something. altho maybe thats just as bad an idea, overall im sure it is a nicer version .. and ill get used to it ... its just highly awkward to have to right click over and select or choose alt+z or whatever that keypress setup is. i do like the new options setup its alil cleaner looking. overall im sure the public as a whole will enjoy it.

Yeah the received file thing is nice too, however I would like it better if it would respect my explorer settings. For example, I have "always show text labels" set, however mIRC has decided "selective text on right" is what should be used. It also hides the "address" bar even though I have that set to always be displayed.

i like the on text regex :P

Hmm I just tried adding a background image to my toolbar, didn't seem to get rid of the grip. Same for the switchbar.

Yeah I like that too, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I hate everything about 6.1, the regex in events, $rawtext, the paste confirm thing, $compress, and the new file handling, those are all very nice things. I just wish more of the things that have been asked for a lot were added. Some quick things that come to mind are more dialog controls, if I remember, that was promised after 5.91, and since then all that has been added were scrollbars. Also, the "ON MIRCERROR" type of thing, that has been suggested I don't know how many times, yet it's still not added; in fact from the looks of it, no new events were added in this release, although I can think of about 10 that were suggested. Many things that were suggested, and that were liked by many people, yet they weren't added. However things that no one suggested, and from the looks of it (i.e., the "grips", and the options dialog recode), no one likes, were added instead. I don't hate the new mIRC, I'm just disappointed with it, I was expecting a lot more than was actually added.

well damn your entirly correct ... it doesnt diapear .. im using a black image so it hides it well enough to hardly see it. all in all id agree im disapointed and may stick with 6.03 for a bit longer.

I'd go with a black bg, but unfortunately that disables the XP style buttons

yeah ive noticed that too ..... shouldnt that not disable it since jpg support was added? i dont get why adding an image removes the xp style buttons in the switchbar .... when in a dialog it doesnt? this seems likes its a bug thats been around since xp was introduced ... mirc still doesnt fully support xp themes

i wouldnt know
i still have this on the download page:

Try ftp://mirc.fredmoses.com/pub/mirc/mirc61.exe

All websites have been updated over an hour ago, within minutes after release! Hit the refresh button and make sure you're not looking in your browsers (outdated) cache

thanks

ive refreshed and closed and reopened the site, but its still not there, i got it from codemastr's link.

well i like it, the new file handler, the compresse option and the binvar unlimeted size please me.

Its nice to have something new, but the grips stink when you put you channel bar on the left or right. The grip is so big and ugly. We scripters want more dialog stuff no doubt!

control + refresh or shift + refresh must solve your problem m8

To be honest, until it was mentioned in this thread I never even noticed the "grips". They don't bother me in the slightest, as I don't like the channel bar on the left/right.

I like the fact that a warning dialogue pops up when clicking a URL - I *really* like it ;D

As mentioned before, moving the 'Options' menu to the 'Tools' menu seems fairly pointless, but 99% of the time I use ALT+O.

It looks like this version is going to cut out after 30 days which others haven't done in the past. Can't be certain of that though...but yes, having the About dialogue pop-up on startup is annoying. I did notice the unusually large dialogue buttons..that doesn't bother me either though, infact, I like big buttons heh.

The only thing which has seriously bugged me, mainly because of the pointlessness of it, is the removal of the 'perform' section. Yes, I know it hasn't been removed completely, but now you have to go to Connect > Options rather than it having it's own button. Why?

After 1 year? fairly disappointing. I'm with codemastr for sticking with 6.03. Nevertheless, I don't want to put it down, I'm sure a lot of hard work and time has gone into this version, and there are a lot of good features, but there are just a few little things which 'niggle' me a little bit. It just seems that a lot of changes have been made to make it look a little different, when it's been completely unneccesary.

Looking forward to the future :-)

Regards,

I for one will be staying with mIRC 6.3

I was considering registering when I heard about the 30 day activation thing... then I actually loaded the thing!

What's with the stupid "sun" icon to toggle between nickname/realname settings and server settings..

As if it wasn't hard enough to explain before you've gone and made it 10 times more awkward.

sorry for raining on your parade and stuff, this is just my personal opinion ofcourse.. I dont like it :tongue:

its elite.

Yeah I agree, the thing that I guess sorta put me off was the release notes, "With this new release we hope to address most, if not all, of the comments, requests and remarks we received after the release of version 6.03" to me that seems grossly inaccurate. Even minor things weren't added. I would venture to say less than 10% of the features suggested after 6.03 are actually in 6.1. Were some difficult/stupid and therefore not added? Of course, but some should have been easy and useful. A very simple example is, ever since the "***" was changed to "*" people have asked for a way to configure the prefix, yet it is still not configurable. I doubt that would have been hard to add. There were tons of little minor features that could have been added and weren't.

and what's with changing

PING? PONG!

to

Ping? Pong!

.. That's just wrong..

(p.s yes I know this was changed in 6.03 or before)

Khaled you did a veerry nice job on 6.1 and nice fix on the browser bug!!!!

You can change the ping pong text pretty easily with a script

I wouldn't know, it locks up as soon as I run it (I see the "new" interface and all, but i cant do a damn thing).

I installed it over 6.03 and it did it, so I installed it on a diff drive with no scripts, and I get the same thing.

Back to 6.03 I go, a version I can at least use.

Yes I'm very disappointed in this version too. The dialog rendering engine is slightly different. And the toolbar... I thought they could be moved. But the grips are there for no purpose.

And the about dialog can't be closd. Can it be closed for registered users? And now you have to wait 2 seconds before you can continue after you exceed 30 days. Oh well, at least Khaled hasn't stopped us from not registering I guess. I wish my parents allowed me to send 20USD over.

Remote editor, no shortcuts on the toolbar. Boohoo.

I like some other changes, but I dislike the new options dialog. It's so troublesome...

Just hope like mirc 6.0, a bugfix version comes soon... sorry khaled, but i ddon't think i will recommend this version to people...

What I liked most...
21. Added /play [-a] [alias] [channel/nick/stop] <filename> [delay]
43. Extended $disk(path|N)
45. Added identifier warning option to editor dialog options menu, halts script if identifier doesn't exist.
61. Added $msfile(dir,title,oktext) identifier, same as $sfile() but allows selection of multiple files.
68. Added custom file-handling commands and identifiers, which allow you to open multiple files for reading and writing.
72. Added $rawmsg, returns raw server line for server events.
143. Binary variables no longer have an upper limit on the number of bytes that can be stored.
144. Added $compress(file|&bvar, blN) and $decompress(file|&bvar, blN)
165. Fixed /did not showing/hiding tabs and their contents properly.
166. Added $comcall(name, alias,...) and $dllcall(filename, alias,...)

Things I disliked the most...
23. /dcc commands, such as /dcc send, ignore, etc. are now also handled in the form /dccsend, /dccignore, etc.
- Why?

Things missing that I really wanted to see....
- Tree-like structure for the switchbar
- enhanced dialogs
- a pre-exit event that occurs before all disconnects and the final exit event
- on :MIRCERROR: event (also stated by someone else)
- Still not properly reading file sizes (with $file().size) over 4GB on NTFS partitions.

I know what you mean. I was counting on $duration to have an option for days.

Thumbs up all around.

This version says 6.1, which indicates minor incemental changes in functionality. The point about using new compiler is significant and probably explains the duration between the releases. Now that the code base is in the new format we can expect more significant changes in next releases.

Good choice: stabilise the code, fix the bugs, use current developent tools.

Well done Khaled.

Except he ended up creating more bugs. Previous mirc.hlp files don't work correctly anymore. I mean, the previous versions are in their own directories. I installed the new mIRC in a new directory, away from those other versions. Now my help files are damaged I believe. (I don't think this was an issue before. But if it was, please let me know.)

Agree. Though it's nice to finally see a new version, I thought it would never be released




Agree. I'd have prefered new icons throughout tbh.




Indeed.



Yeh, for sure. It's annoying enough to stop me using 6.1.. I registered Klient during the long wait for this version, so I can't really afford to register mIRC now... Not that I would yet because to me, it still looks like a Windows 3.1 app (icons/gui). Which is why I registered Klient instead ;o




Agree. Though since I run it only for my bot, which I hardly have to touch, I'll be using this version.

General comment:

Personally I think that all the hoo har over the toolbar grips is a bit much. I agree that more should have been done to mIRC in the engineroom however. Maybe an upcoming update to V6.1 will yield a result here as it is likely that V6.1 is just a test of how things will go with the EXE being compiled in VC++ rather than Borland.

Yeh, lets hope so ... It's still very nice, just not as nice as I (and many others) were expecting ;/

Nice Work Khaled

I CAN"T use this new version, It is terribly limited that it won't let you edit its res nor will it allow you compress it with a "executable file compressor". If you do any of those 2 things, the program file will be corrupted, and you won't even be able to load the program. It's alllll the way back to to mIRC 6.03 for me.

you cant use mirc because it dont let u do those two things? i know i want to edit mirc and change icons like i have done in the past but in not going to 6.03 because of it

I agree with you somewhat about the buttons. Also, I think the size of the buttons has been 'forced' somehow, Because under some of my XP visual styles, the button text no longer fits on the button... Under Classic all is ok.

I didn't presume mIRC had been worked on for a full year , I did anticipate more changes though. I expected that some dialog controls would be added also. Not because I want them added, but because I want them out of the way and off Khaled todo list, so he can work on interesting stuff like Arrays and For loops. Alas, we will have to wait longer for those things while Khaled works on the MDX type stuff now.
Oh well a large part of dissapointment is due to the fact that we never know what is being worked on or what to expect, we are left to wonder.

The first thing I didn't like was not being able to drag my switchbar around anymore, but I can get used to that.
I also played around with clicking and dragging the toolbar as the grips suggested that something should happen. Nothing happens.

I like the idea of the Color schemes thing though, and the debug switch that passes the line to the alias could be useful.
It is hard to pin-point what exactly is the major new addition to this version?

The grip on the switchbar allows me to move it just fine.

Yes you can move it, but it's not the same as before.

lolo66: you are not only one who have same problem

I want replace all icons and remove mym version reply.

I remeber seeing other kid with his nice hexed edited mirc. he done nice job :P

I take that back!

I think 6.1 is fine. No great changes like I was hoping for, but there are some nice ones that I wasn't expecting. Presumably converting to a new compiler using .NET could well explain a large amount of the time spent on the new version.

The one thing I really don't like about this new release, and in fact every new release, are these forums. Every time there's a new version the forums become a hive of bitching and whinging. Not that someone saying when they dislike something is wrong, but when they out and out whine like a little baby or 'threaten' to not use mIRC anymore because something changed that they didn't like, or something they wanted changed hasn't, or hasn't changed enough, or changed too much, or they spilt their coke while downloading the new version, etc.. The real kicker is what people whinge about: You've got some people complaining because nothing downright huge has been added (especially in this release since it's been a year), yet you've got another group of people who are complaining because Khaled moved a pixel, or changed and icon - if something huge was added I can only imagine these people would spontaneously explode. The guy just can't win.

Note: This isn't a reply to any specific person, just I've been wanting to post this for about 8 hours now and I decided this thread will do.

I have to agree with you. The only slight hiccup I had was that I couldn't find 'perform' for about 5 minutes. I really do like the single script editor button too - having three all this time just seemed a bit unnecessary.

Well the fact that Khaled uses VC 7.0 is one of the reasons I won't use mIRC 6.1. VC 7.0 has many problems. There is a glitch in the optimizer, I've had programs where it screws things up. The problem was fixed in the new version of VC, which for whatever reason, Khaled decided not to use. Plus, seeing as how Khaled has said he always made sure mIRC compiles in VC6, there should have been NO recoding necessary to make it work in VC7 since it is totally backwards compatible.

I actually like 6.1.... I especially like the warning dialog when u click on a hotlink.. i like the layout of the Options dialog as well... it's probably just me.. but i pretty much like everything in 6.1...

I personally quickly disabled the warning on hotlink. I think that it is a good feature, it will prevent idiots who have the idea that if someone types a url, you must click it, but personally, to me it just gets in the way.

I can not live with this new version! Pressing F1 then "s" no longer opens the help index and now I have to press F1 followed by "i". Ye gods!

Note: any sarcasm in the above is purely intentional.

Did you not say you went back to 6.03 and will not use 6.1?

I'm not using 6.1, but for the brief time that I was, I did disable it. Additionally I do still have 6.1 installed on a seperate drive for testing purposes, however, when I'm going somewhere to chat I'm using 6.03. And you might say that the keystroke changes is insignifigant, but when I've been doing file | options for 3+ years, it really sucks when I can no longer do that any more.

Oh, another thing, how many tutorials are going to be effected? How many people are going to say "I tried loading your alias, but when I do like the readme said and type alt+a it brings up the favorites menu". Now this means you can't just change the tutorial, you have to add:
If you are using a version before mIRC 6.1 type alt+a
If you are using mIRC 6.1 or newer, type [whatever the new key is].

Same for other things
"go to file | options, then go to connect | perform" That now has to be modified to tell people where the new one is located.

/me just clicks on the last post to make some general comments:

-gee, only 61% were new, with 39% being bug fixes (no i havent counted for myself, seems kinda pointless)

-i think it makes more sense to have all the servers in a different area (the lil sun thingie) and less confusing to new ppl

-no doubt it will take time to remember to not say file>options, but honestly, telling someone about alt 0 or to click the options icon isnt all that complex

-i dont understand why giving perform a button on the connect/option area is a bad idea, never saw why it needed its own page

-about dialog: pay the $20 (you can even pay less) and no worries. Seems amazing to me that ppl who havent even paid to register mIRC feel they have the right to complain about it. It keeps asking you to do the right thing and pay? Well imagine that!

-most of what i've seen so far arent bugs, but complaints about deliberate changes

-you cant change the exe to some name like IkElzkCLan.exe and think mirc1.exe looks dumb? The majority of users dont feel a compelling need to change the name of the exe, honest.

-you dont like that you cant totally remove the default version reply? Again, gee, imagine that, the author actually wants credit for his work. Whats wrong with just adding to the reply? "To protect you from some vulnerability" is a bit much

-to expect each new version to have every change/addition everyone asked for is unreasonable, imo. Should be clear with each new version that the author does pay attention to users wants.

-with every new release there are ppl who are happy and ppl who complain. Impossible to make everyone happy.



-

I don't mind that not all the suggestions were added, it would be highly unlikely that that would actually happen. However, when Tjerk posts that almost all the suggestions were added, when you can see in the thread that Racoon started, most of the feature suggestions were actually ignored, I don't think it is a fair statement to make. I'm not saying all the features should have been added, I'm saying Tjerk shouldn't imply that they were, to me that is misleading.

I agree with that, I read his post after I was using mIRC v6.1 for a little while, and was shocked by it. Many of the features (major and minor) that were suggested through the Feature Suggestion forum were ignored, or are an on-going process, and that statement is quite misleading.
I am by no means ditching 6.1 because of this (I slightly like it), I am just agreeing with codemastr about that fact.

Just read this thread.

Lots of complaining. Hmm. I'm somewhat surprised. I thought the new version was better than 6.03.

The browser bug fix *alone* made it worth upgrading, for me :-) OK, most of you may use Internet Explorer, but if you changed to the superior Mozilla, you'd get kinda annoyed if all your hotlinks still opened up in IE :-)

Khaled switching to Visual C++ .NET: yep, this is a pretty bad idea. Buying into the Microsoft machine, unnecessarily. His choice, I guess, but there's nothing wrong with VC++ 6.



I disabled it immediately. If you've double clicked on a URL, why on earth would you want a dialog prompting you whether you want to visit it? Might have changed your mind? :-)



I think the new 'script editor' button is *fantastic*. I used to keep clicking on aliases and then having to click on remotes or popups or what I wanted; now, there's just one button that remembers the last tab you were on. Way to go!



For convenience? Try using /dcc - it still works, it hasn't been replaced!



So what do you want? Cuddly round buttons, blue background, green text, animating dancers and flashing title text? Please, don't encourage him :-) I guess it's all down to preference, but I HATE the new XP look; I have it set on the Windows 2000 look, and mIRC looks nice and simple right now. If it changed to an 'XP' look, that'd be sure to turn me off immediately.

All in all, mIRC 6.1 rules. So there. :-P

I personally think that the new mIRC looks strange in the XP classic theme, I use the default theme. It's only personal taste tho :P

OK well I must say there isn't a feature in 6.1 I don't like. But I did except more. Maybe Kaled felt rushed by the amount of people posting "Wheres the new version?" "Whens the new version comming?" "How long will the new version be realeased?" "Who?" "What?" "Where?" "Why?". Good job though. Im pleased.

Didn't it take so long because he updated how he compiles it? Or was it something else?

Ever thought maybe he didn't feel like working on mirc for a while? We all need a break. Or maybe your right, who knows and honestly, who cares? Its here, be happy with what you've got.

Well why should we be happy with what we have? What we had before was better than what we have now, seems more logical not to be "happy with what you've got" but to "go back to what you had." And that's exactly what I did.

What didn't you like so much that you had to jump back a version? I can't see your point.

I dont like how file then options is no longer available, I think changing the options dialog boxes round is a bad thing as well, Also dont like the new toolbar, the bugs I have noticed etc.

I tryd it, 1 day later i switched back to mirc 6.03. its just to buggy..
(and i hate the shareware thingie, its destroying mirc!)

mIRC has been shareware since V4.52 (6th July, 1996) and mIRC has grown alot since then so I doubt a $20 fee is destroying it.

that whas trial, mirc 6.1 is shareware..

It's all been "shareware" (quote from Khaled), since V4.52. You get a thirty day trial then you need to pay US$20 to lose the nag screen.

Reference: http://www.mirc.co.uk/oldnews.html

Go to the last article on the page.

what nag screen, i have never seen 1 after 30 days..

i read it, only in mirc 6.03 i dindt got a nag screen. yay ^_^