eggdrop (thing)

Eggdrop is an IRC bot -- that is, an automated presence that helps an individual administrate / maintain control of (and occasionally take over) IRC channels.

Designed by Robey Pointer in 1993 from the source code of Unrest (another IRC bot), eggdrop was originally created to curb continuous bickering in #gayteen. Eggdrop is written in C and runs under Unix and Linux -- a cygwin win32 port named Windrop was created by Martin Matuska (aka rebum).

Eggdrop has a few noteworthy features:

• Tcl scripting: Instead of writing their own, eggdrop developers integrated Tcl as the bot scripting language.
• The 'party line': Most commands to an eggdrop bot are passed via the party line -- essentially, a multi-user DCC chat. Bots can be linked together, creating a party line that spans multiple IRC networks.

Robey Pointer has passed control of eggdrop development onto EggHeads, the eggdrop development team. Eggdrop has been released under the GPL.

For more information visit the EggHeads site: http://www.eggheads.org