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@danhetrick danhetrick released this 24 Aug 14:30
· 10 commits to main since this release
0.052.200
c747620

Summary

MERK is a free, open source, multiple-document interface Internet relay chat for Windows, Linux, and macOS. It can be run with Python 3.9+ if PyQt5 and Twisted are installed; to connect to TLS/SSL enabled servers, install pyOpenSSL and service_identity. If you encounter problems running MERK with Python 3.9+ on Windows, you may need to install pywin32. All PyInstaller versions of MERK are built for 64-bit operating systems.

What's New

  • MERK is much more user friendly. Dialogs are much clearer about how exactly they work and what they do, as are various menus.
  • The channel banlist is now useful. Users with channel privileges can now unban users directly from the banlist, or just copy the banlist entry to the clipboard. All entries in the banlist can be unbanned at once, or copied to the clipboard. For users without channel privileges, the banlist does not offer these options.
  • The channel mode menu is now "prettier" for unprivileged users. Icons have been added to the different recognized modes to give hints to the user about what the mode does.
  • Most menus have been "cleaned up". This includes main application menus, and all right click menus.
  • Most dialogs have been "cleaned up". Most dialogs for asking the user a question or for a behavior choice have been made clearer and "prettier".
  • Subwindows can now be navigated with shortcuts. The "Windows" menu contains specific shortcuts for IRC subwindows, and moving through the subwindow list can be done by pressing Alt+] to move to the "next" subwindow and Alt+[ to move to the "previous" subwindow. To cascade all subwindows, use Alt+C, and to tile them, use Alt+T. Shortcuts have also been added for the Log Manager subwindow (Alt+L), channel list subwindows (Ctrl+Alt+NUMBER), and the README subwindow (Alt+R). All of these shortcuts can be enabled (the default) or disabled from the "Settings" dialog or with the /config command.
  • Various server status controls have been added to the "Windows" menu. The ability to toggle "away/back" statuses, to change the user's nickname, to join a channel, and to run a script on the server window have been added to the "Windows" menu. Users can toggle all of these entries in the "Settings" dialog.
  • Many, many bugfixes.

Files

  • Python distribution
    • merk-0.052-200.zip contains the Python code for MERK; unzip the source to any folder, navigate to that folder with your favorite console application, and type python merk.py to run MERK. Instructions for running the source on Windows, Linux, and macOS can be found in the repository.
  • Windows PyInstaller distributions
    • merk-windows-0.052-200.zip can be unzipped to any folder, and contains an executable and a directory with support files; unzip to any folder, and double click on merk.exe to run MERK.
    • merk-windows-setup-0.052-200.zip contains an installer for MERK; unzip and double click setup.exe.
  • Linux PyInstaller distribution
    • merk-linux-0.052-200.zip can be unzipped to any folder, and contains an executable and a directory with support files; unzip to any folder, and double click on merk to run MERK.
    • merk-linux-0.052-200.flatpak can be installed with flatpack install --user merk-linux-0.052-200.flatpak.
  • Other files
    • MERK_User_Guide.pdf contains a guide for using MERK, as well as writing scripts and plugins. It is available in the app, in the "help" menu.
    • CHANGELOG contains a list of changes in new release.

All downloads contain README.html, which contains usage information about the application and a list of all commands supported by MERK. Further information can be found on the MERK source code repository.

MERK has a plugin framework. For more information about how to write plugins, please see MERK_User_Guide.pdf. The official repository contains some example plugins right here.

Configuration files and logs are stored in a directory named .merk in the user's home directory.

CHANGELOG for 0.052.200

APPLICATION CHANGES

  • Users can be unbanned from the "banned users" menu now, but only if they have
    the proper channel status. If the user is not privileged, they will only see
    a list of banned users. Each entry in the banlist gets a submenu that will
    allow privileged users to either copy the banlist entry to the clipboard or
    unban the user. The entire banlist can be copied to the clipboard, and if
    the user is able, all entries in the banlist can be unbanned.
  • Changed the "kick & ban" menu entry icon in the userlist menu to the "close"
    icon.
  • Added icons to the non-privileged user channel mode display.
  • Modified the "server information menu" to use icons in the status display,
    and be a bit easier to read.
  • Added the ability to en/disable KNOCK on channels to the channel mode right
    click menu (for channel operators).
  • Bugfix: the server information menu is now disabled until server registration
    is complete.
  • Bugfix: the "view network logs" and "view/refresh channel list" options in the
    "Windows" menu are now no longer visible if a server connection has not
    finished server registration.
  • Bugfix: the "view network logs" option in the "Windows" menu is only visible
    if the client actually has logs for that network.
  • The menubar right click menu is now turned off by default.
  • Removed the label from the "widowbar" and "menubar" context menus.
  • Changed the configuration file setting names for the windowbar and menubar
    context menu toggles.
  • Removed references to "context" menus from the "settings" dialog, and
    replaced them with "right click menu".
  • Removed the reference to "context" menus from the windowbar settings menu.
  • Moved the "show active window first" setting in the windowbar context menu to
    the "sorting" submenu.
  • Consolidated the "appearance" settings in the windowbar context menu into its
    own submenu.
  • Cleaned up the resource file, and removed some unused icons.
  • Rearranged the right click chat display menus for server, channel, and
    private chat subwindows.
  • The "unban all" option in the channel mode menu now asks users if they are
    sure they want to unban all banned users before doing it.
  • Cleaned up the "Tools" menu entries.
  • Cleaned up the "Windows" menu.
  • Bugfix: opening up a connection script in the editor would not "activate" the
    proper file save shortcut.
  • Various menus will now let the user know if they want to "edit" or "create"
    channel and connection scripts; if the desired script exists, they will be
    prompted to "edit" the script, and if the script does NOT exist, they will be
    prompted the "create" the script.
  • Bugfix: the text style editor now shows the actual hostID of windows rather
    than the reported hostname of the server.
  • Removed the "run script" option from server subwindow chat display right click
    menus.
  • The text style editor now displays the network of the different active
    subwindows, reflecting how text style files are actually saved and loaded.
  • Server windows are now displayed in bold in the "window selection" widget in
    the text style editor. Server windows also will have their network name (if
    the server is part of a network) shown in the title of the dialog; otherwise,
    the title will just have "(SERVER)" appended to it.
  • The default "save style as" directory is now set to the current "styles"
    directory.
  • Bugfix: the "default/unknown network name" from the configuration file was
    not always being used properly in the source.
  • Bugfix: the connection dialog did not always obey the "do not save" option.
  • Bugfix: the "next/previous/etc" subwindow controls still appeared in the
    windowbar right click menu still appeared even if there were no subwindows
    open.
  • Bugfix: channel lists did not appear in the "Windows" menu subwindow list.
  • All subwindows are now displayed in the "Windows" menu. Hidden windows are
    displayed in italics. This includes the individual server menus.
  • Stole an idea from GIMP, and assigned a shortcut to every IRC subwindow in
    the "Windows" menu; now, you can navigate to a window with holding the "alt"
    key and the number of the window displayed in the menu.
  • Added a shortcut (that actually works!) for moving to the "next" and
    "previous" subwindow. Hitting "Alt+]" moves to the "next" subwindow, and
    hittig "Alt+[" moves to the previous subwinndow.
  • Removed the "next", "previous", etc, menu options from the windowbar right
    click menu.
  • Bugfix: entries in the userlist in the text style dialog are no longer
    selectable.
  • Bugfix: text in the text display in the text style dialog is no longer
    selectable.
  • Bugfix: fixed a bug in the "/private" command; outgoing messages were being
    displayed twice.
  • Changed the name of the "/private" command to "/query".
  • Bugfix: the "/query" command didn't check to make sure that the target was a
    nickname and not a channel.
  • Added shortcuts for cascading and tiling subwindows.
  • Made some of the "filters" on the channel list dialog slightly smaller.
  • Bugfix: attempting to disconnect from all servers while "ask before
    disconnect" is turned on would hide all windows whether users accepted the
    disconnect or not.
  • Cleaned up the "ask before disconnect" dialog, as well as other dialogs, to
    make sure that what the application is asking the user is completely clear.
  • Bugfix: individual server submenus in the "Windows" menu are now disabled
    until registration with that server is complete.
  • Added an option (on by default) to add away/back controls to server submenus
    in the "Windows" menu.
  • Added an option (on by default) to change the user's nickname to server
    submenus in the "Windows" menu.
  • Added shortcuts for nearly all subwindows to the "Windows" menu. The only
    subwindows that are excluded are plugin console windows, though they are still
    displayed in the subwindow list.
  • Added an option (on by default) to join a channel to the server submenus in
    the "Windows" menu.
  • Added an option to the channel list dialog to filter channels by 100+ user
    count.
  • Added options to en/disable the subwindow and subwindow management shortcuts
    in the "Windows" menu. By default, both are enabled.
  • Removed plugin consoles from the "Windows" subwindow list.
  • Bugfix: if a console window appeared before any other window, the client
    could crash on connection.
  • Bugfix: calling /nick could "confuse" the client.
  • Bugfix: systray notifications now follow the "show whole nick+hostmask"
    setting in mode setting notifications.
  • Changed the script editor icon.
  • Changed the log manager icon.
  • Added an option to run a script on a server window to the "Windows" menu.
  • Bugfix: the "edit/create connection script" entry in the "Windows" menu would
    appear even if scripting was disabled.
  • Added an option to all chat and server window right click menus to run a
    script on the window.
  • Added an option to edit/create a channel script to the windowbar right click
    entry menu for channel subwindows.
  • Tweaked/cleaned up many of the windowbar's right click menus for specific
    subwindow entries.
  • Bugfix: right click menus for windowbar entries are now no longer different
    for the "show icons" version.
  • Bugfix: leaving a channel from the windowbar and chat display right click
    menus will no longer display an error in the client.
  • Added an option to refresh the server channel list to the right click menu
    for server windows in the windowbar.
  • Added an option to run a script to server window right click menus in the
    windowbar.
  • Tweaked the "restart" dialog when selecting "dark mode" from the settings
    menu.
  • Added a new icon: "warn", to be used with both the "restart for dark mode"
    and the "halt" dialogs. It's also used in the "do restart?" dialog in the
    "Settings" dialog option.
  • Bugfix: the channel chat display right click menu was not showing all items
    when certain options were active.
  • Turning on "dark mode" from the "Settings" menu now restarts MERK and goes
    directly to the app without showing the "connect" dialog.
  • Added a dialog asking the user if they want to restart the app to the
    "apply & restart" option in the "Settings" dialog. If the user chooses NOT to
    restart, they will be returned to the "Settings" dialog; nothing will be
    saved, and the app will NOT restart.
  • Added an "auto-away after 4 hours" option to the "Settings" dialog.
  • Added a "save logs every 4 hours" option to the "Settings" dialog.
  • Creating a channel script from various right click menus now actually creates
    the script, and saves it before editing. Channel scripts only execute if
    there's anything in them.
  • Removed the "disconnect" icon from the resource file, as it was only used in
    one place, and that place had the icon replaced with something else.
  • The "Run" menu in the script editor now shows the appropriate icon of the
    window type.

PLUGIN API CHANGES

  • Bugfix: fixed a bug in the Window and Plugin class methods for script().

WARNING! MERK may appear to be infected with something by your Windows antivirus. It is not infected with anything, it just seems to appear that way because some malware in the past was packed with PyInstaller (at least, this is my theory). I have uploaded all binaries to VirusTotal.

Released Monday August 24, 2026

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