I still remember vividly spending a week at a cottage in Long Point, Ontario back in 1995. Instead of relaxing and enjoying the weather, I wrote this IRC client. Actually, I spent a lot longer on it, probably a few months combined off and on, but it was then that I decided to finish it. Somehow, I end up doing my best work while on vacation.
The reason this client exists is because I was never really happy with the other text clients back then, and I wanted something which is easier to use more intuitive. I think Rhapsody is a pretty good end result.
It’s one of the only unix console applications that I know of that is completely menu driven. Also, I had a large computer collection then, including a few DEC, HP and SGI machines, and I ended up porting this client to about 10 unix OSes. Because it’s mostly self contained and doesn’t require any libraries other than curses, it produces a tiny executable so it’s perfect for small embeded systems. In fact, it’s part of the blueflops unix on a floppy distribution.
With over 100000 downloads (could be a lot more but I actually stopped caring and lost count after that), pretty good reviews, the fact that it’s been ported to so many different OSes and obscure platforms (here and here) and forked, it’s one of my most successful opensource projects.
For more information please visit the project page here.