Using POE::Component::IRC

dReKurCe has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Greetings Monks:

I am new to object orientation and am learning by example. I have read the Net::IRC documentation and discovered along the way that POE provides a better solution. The following code is from the module documentation but alas I am missing the plot. The following code generates:

Can't call method "post" on an undefined value at POEirc line 14.
POE::Kernel's run() method was never called.
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Any advice on how to tweak this could enrich my knowledge of OO . thanks.

use POE::Component::IRC;

my ($irc)=POE::Component::IRC->spawn()or die;

$irc->yield ('register' => 'all');

$irc->yield('connect',
        { Nick     => 'n3u7bot',
          Server   => 'irc.2600.net',
          Port     => 6667,
          Username => 'HAL',
          Ircname  => 'darkphiber',
        } );
$kernal->post( 'my client ', 'join', '#2600tn' );
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Comment on Using POE::Component::IRC Select or Download Code

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Re: Using POE::Component::IRC by johnnywang (Priest) on Jul 03, 2005 at 22:00 UTC
Please take a look at POE's documentation, in particular, its Cookbook entry on IRC: http://poe.perl.org/?POE_Cookbook/IRC_Bots	[reply]
Re: Using POE::Component::IRC by bart (Canon) on Jul 03, 2005 at 20:30 UTC
Nowhere at all do you assign a value to `$kernal`. Of course does it contain an undefined value. update: I checked the example code in POE::Component::IRC. their code talks about "`$kernel`". Perhaps you just have a typo? I am assuming use of that module automatically uses (and assigns to) the (global) variable `$kernel`. I'm not sure about that. Nope, I doubt it. I think you actually have to combine this module with plain POE. Bad module documenters. This is not clear at all.	[reply]
Re: Using POE::Component::IRC by Anonymous Monk on Jul 04, 2005 at 01:06 UTC
Net::IRC is much easier to install, understand and use. It takes less memory and isn't prone to spawn a hundred zombies if you make a mistake. I'm curious about why POE provides a better solution? Thanks.	[reply]
Re^2: Using POE::Component::IRC by rcaputo (Chaplain) on Jul 04, 2005 at 07:26 UTC
The short answer is that POE gives you more options once you've decided that you want to write more than one-off IRC bots that don't do much more than IRC. For example, pastebot and memephage are IRC bots that are also web servers. If you want your bot to respond on AIM or Jabber as well as it does in IRC, you can mix in POE::Component::OSCAR or POE::Component::Jabber. If you'd like to control your bot from a terminal, Term::Visual is an irssi-like console interface you can use with POE. POE::Component::Server::HTTP might be useful if you want bots with web-based control panels. POE::Component::Client::Rcon can be used to write bots that report game server status. Combine your bot with POE::Component::Server::IRC to use it as a bouncer, or maybe as a virtual IRC server that aggregates traffic on multiple channels. Use POE::Component::IKC::Server or POE::Component::Lightspeed to network many bots together, but only use these powers for good. Take advantage of POE's Tk or Gtk support to write graphical IRC clients. Or Gtk2, with or without POE::Session::GladeXML2 to automate the interface interaction. Bolt on POE::Component::Server::TCP so you can telnet into the bot in emergencies. Maybe you want to add POE::Component::SSLify to encrypt those connections. Create an IRC-controlled jukebox with POE::Component::Player::Mpg123, POE::Component::Player::Musicus, or POE::Component::Player::Xmms. Blah, blah, blah. By the way, you should be sure to register a signal handler for SIGCHLD if you're working with child processes. If your zombies problem persists, and you're not just complaining for the sport of it, post a test case to POE's RT queue at rt.cpan.org. Thanks.	[reply]
Re^2: Using POE::Component::IRC by bingos (Vicar) on Jul 04, 2005 at 08:05 UTC
POE::Component::IRC also provides the ability to modularise discrete bits of functionality in the form of Plugins. Plugins can be either simple objects or full POE sessions. For instance, a plugin could use POE::Component::EasyDBI to do database logging of IRC traffic.	[reply]
Re^2: Using POE::Component::IRC by polettix (Vicar) on Jul 04, 2005 at 11:18 UTC
This is not a direct answer to your question, but I did find some problems with Net::IRC. I recently found that SlashNET presumes that a client is disconnected if it does not send `PING` messages at a regular pace. Net::IRC doesn't, and trying to fix it using `do_one_loop` made me discover that this function should be called from a package when working with `use warnings;`. I also had to hack the module to add support for the `PONG` answer message. Flavio perl -ple'$_=reverse' <<<ti.xittelop@oivalf Don't fool yourself.	[reply] [d/l] [select]