Introduction

Welcome to DMDirc 0.5.5. DMDirc 0.5.5 has many improvements over 0.5.1, which are listed in full in the changelog. This document introduces some of the bigger features that have been added since 0.5.1, and provides details about what's to come in DMDirc 0.6, and ways you can get in touch or help out.

Getting and installing DMDirc 0.5.5

The latest version of DMDirc can be downloaded from http://www.dmdirc.com/downloads. Windows and Linux users can download a DMDirc installer, which will check that you have a compatible version of Java, install the necessary files, and set up shortcuts (if requested).

Users of other operating systems can download the DMDirc jar file from the same location. DMDirc 0.5.5 requires Java version 1.6 (or greater) to run — if you don't have Java installed, you can get it from www.java.com. Once you have Java installed and the DMDirc .jar downloaded, you can run it by using the command java -jar DMDirc.jar (depending on the operating system and Java configuration, you may also simply be able to click on the .jar file in your file manager).

If you have any problems downloading, installing or using DMDirc, please feel free to contact us — see the "Getting in touch" section below.

New features in DMDirc 0.5.5

Updates, launchers, and installers

DMDirc is now capable of downloading and installing updates for a variety of components (including the client itself). If an update is available (and you have update checking enabled — /set updater enable true to enable it manually), a yellow icon will appear in the status bar of DMDirc. Clicking it will display the available updates, and allow you to have DMDirc download and install them.

Updates to the main client itself are applied by the new DMDirc launchers. These are small scripts or programs (depending on the operating system that DMDirc is being run on) that automatically move and install the update before running the client. These are installed automatically by the installers for 0.5.5, and the update process should be fairly transparent.

In addition to the launchers, the installers for DMDirc 0.5.5 will also install an uninstaller to facilitate easy removal of DMDirc, and allow the user to register DMDirc as the default handler for irc:// URLs.

Channel and Server Settings Dialog improvements

The channel settings dialog has received some improvements since DMDirc 0.5.1. The dialog has been given a completely new layout, making the channel modes (among other things!) much less messy. DMDirc also now maintains a list of previous topics, which can be selected from the topic tab in the channel settings dialog, allowing for easy switching back to older topics. The channel settings dialog's list mode tab has been given a new "extended information" checkbox, which displays more information about each mode, such as who set it and when.

Finally, a new user modes panel has been added to the server settings dialog, allowing management of user modes in a similar manner to channel modes.

Other features

DMDirc 0.5.5 introduces a new URL handler, which allows you to customise how DMDirc handles various types of URLs when you click on them. By default, DMDirc will open irc:// URLs itself, and pass http:// and https:// URLs to your system's default web browser. If you click on an unknown URL (for example, an ftp:// URL), DMDirc will display a dialog asking what you want it to do.

Also new in DMDirc 0.5.5 is support for invites. When invited to a channel, a small icon will be displayed in the status bar. Clicking on the icon will show all existing invites, and allow joining the channel with just a single click.

Still to come from DMDirc 0.6+

We still have quite a way to go until DMDirc 0.6. Many new features are scheduled, including support for toolbars, improvements to the ButtonBar frame manager, and a completely new (and easier-to-use) actions UI. Also coming in 0.6 are improvements to the ignore list UI (allowing simpler expressions in line with other IRC clients), a plugin to add support for DCC sends and chat, and 'now playing' sources for Windows media players.

We have an extensive line up of features that will come after 0.6, as well. DMDirc 0.7 will feature server lists, allowing for browsing of servers, and much easier automatic connection to your favourite networks. DMDirc 0.8 will feature support for spell checking and complete internationalisation (allowing DMDirc to be translated into other languages), while DMDirc 0.9 will feature a unique session management system, allowing DMDirc to automatically reconnect to servers, rejoin channels, and reopen queries when you restart it.

Getting in touch, and getting help

The DMDirc developers are very keen to hear your thoughts on DMDirc, receive suggestions for future features, or answer questions relating to the client. There are several different ways you can contact us.

If you have feedback about the client, you can use the new "Send feedback" functionality from within DMDirc itself. Simply click on the "Send feedback" item in the "Help" menu, and enter your comments. Alternatively, you can join #DMDirc on Quakenet (irc.quakenet.org) to chat with developers, testers and other users. If you're using DMDirc, you can join #DMDirc using the "Join dev channel" item in the help menu.

If you're having problems with DMDirc, or want to ask us a question, please join us in #DMDirc on Quakenet and we'll do our best to help you.

Finally, if you've found a bug with DMDirc, you can either raise an issue for us, report it to us in person in #DMDirc, or use the "Send feedback" feature in the client. If possible, please provide us with contact details in case we need more information about the problem.