There's no reason why the two methods are mutually exclusive. You can retain contrast for small numbers of nicks by working out the fixed colors and then sorting them in an array so that the 3 primary colours appear first, then the 3 secondary colors, then the 6 tertiary colors, etc. 
@colors = qw(ff0000 00ff00 0000ff ffff00 ff00ff 00ffff);

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This will ensure that the first 3 nicks get a good contrast between the colors, then the next 3 get the second-best level of contrast ad infinitum.

In reply to Re^3: Coloring IRC logs nicely by icerunner
in thread Coloring IRC logs nicely by iblech

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