I'm trying to write a script that will take the number of users in a certain channel and log them to a file. 1) how would I do that and 2) is it possible to do that without actually being in the channel? Connected to the server of course, but e.g., manipulating /list somehow?

You could manipulate /who for being in a channel you are not in,

/help $nick

Thats for being in a chan

erm.. raw events = /who


raw 352 = listing in who
raw 314 = end of /who

If you're going to use that method remember that almost* every server doesn't list users set +i if they're not in the same channel as you.

*Disclaimer for "well irc.x.com does.." type replies

No, that's what I'm looking for... If I could just script it so it would automatically do /list, then save the results to a file, I could just parse out the number myself. Can that be done?

Well you could use a #group and "/list #channel" and write the results from raw 322, but the channels list window will always open, though you can hide it when you recieve raw 321 and close it on raw 323.