Stutbot 0.4
===========

An IRC bot written in node.js. It is extensible through a plugin architecture
and uses sqlite to maintain state.

Stutbot has a long history. I initially wrote it sometime in 2000, using PHP.
I then rewrote it in C++ sometime during 2003, and then again with Python
sometime in 2007. Unfortunately I've lost the Python version. :(

To save some time I looked for an existing IRC library and found exactly what
I was looking for here: https://github.com/Tim-Smart/node-ircbot-framework.
It's not as encapsulated as I'd like, and that's something I plan to improve
on at some point, but it's proven to be incredibly solid during my
development.

Install
=======

* Install node.js
* Build the sqlite bindings from https://github.com/orlandov/node-sqlite and
  put sqlite3_bindings.node and sqlite.js in lib/sqlite. The files in the
  repository were built on Mac OSX 10.6.6.
* Copy config.example.js to config.js and modify as needed
* Run it: node stutbot.js

Plugins
=======

See the README.PLUGINS file for detailed info on the plugin architecture.

To do
=====

* The IRC framework accesses the config file directly. I'd prefer this to be
  encapsulated such that it doesn't assume anything about the environment in
  which it's running.

* The way plugins interact with IRC is nasty and unnecessary. In conjunction
  with the last todo I plan to build a class the encapsulates the IRC comms
  such that plugins get given the instance of the class and it provides a
  straightforward API for them to use without needing to worry about all the
  details. This will include an abstracted way to register plugins for the
  various events (join, part, invite, etc).

* The plugin reload mechanism is not working. It correctly detects changed
  plugins but the functionality does not change when they're reloaded. Haven't
  had time to look into possible reasons yet. New modules are picked up with
  any issues.

Git conventions
===============

Note that this project uses git-flow. See the following for more info...

* http://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/
* http://github.com/nvie/gitflow

Author
======

* Stuart Dallas
* 3ft9 Ltd
* http://3ft9.com/
* Email is my first name at the domain name

Last updated: March 13th, 2011 @ 2:43am