But in this case: if you don't use the timer it doesn't bother you if its enabled (or does it, maybe it uses much resources?), and if you use it you can't forget to turn it on right after you install mIRC. Why shouldn't it be enabled by default?
Think about someone that DOESN'T want the timer. Perhaps someone doesn't want anyone sharing the computer to know how much time he's been online in the IRC for any reason... What if he reinstalls mIRC and forgets to shut off the timer?
And still you could say the same things for so many features that don't spend resources but may still cause trouble to some people if enabled. The timestamp, the line marker and many other things that are disabled by default.
Btw what you say would be perfectly fine with me as I *always* use the timer... but still I don't find it right... Just IMHO...
Maybe I wake up one day to notice that all my life was just a dream!
The timer was used many years ago. mainly because most people used dialup back then. now some things to know about dialup is that it was very slow and undependable.
but here we focus on it being slow.
most people would usually go online just to chat. because it was real time and they didnt have to wait an hour before a webpage loaded. now the reason for the timer i believe was useful because most dialup services would only allow you to spend a certain amount of time online per day or per month. so it was a good way to keep track of how much time you have used up.
now the reason it would be unnecessary in the present day is that everyone is using broadband (cable or DSL) in which case its a matter of bandwidth and not an amount of time you spend online.
*people at times also had to dialup long distance so the timer was a good idea
