Crash Course in irc with BitchX/EPIC                                       

You are using the BitchX irc client.  Assuming you have the correct help
files for your client.  BitchX is a variant of EPIC and ircII clients that 
contains countless enhancements, while retaining near full backward 
compatibility with ircII version 2.8.2.

BitchX offers a staggering number of features, far too many to describe here.
Instead, this document will show you the basics you'll need to get started
with irc and with BitchX/EPIC.

All commands in BitchX are prefixed with a '/'.  This is called the command
character, and is used to distinguish typed commands from messages intended
for a channel.  Here are some basic commands that you should become familiar
with.  In these examples, do not actually include the <> characters when you
enter the command.

   /help <n> <topic>   This is the single most important command available
                       in this client.  If you don't know what a command
                       does, chances are it is documented in the online
                       help.  When all else fails, look here.  The 'n' is
                       a section number, and 'topic' is the command to
                       get help on.  If you use /help by itself, a list
                       of sections is given.

   /join <channel>     This makes you join the specified channel.  For all
                       intents and purposes, channels always start with a
                       '#' character.

   /part <channel>     This makes you leave the specified channel.

   /nick <new nick>    This lets you choose a new nickname.  You may use
                       any nickname you like, as long as someone else isn't
                       currently using it.

   /msg <someone>      This lets you send a private message to the specified
                       nickname.

   /server <server>    This lets you switch to a new irc server.

   /whois <someone>    This will give you some information about the given
                       nickname, such as the person's Internet address, the
                       channels and server s/he is on, etc.

   /names <channel>    This shows you a list of everyone on the specified
                       channel.  You will automatically see a listing for
                       any channel you join.

   /list               This lets you list all the channels on your irc
                       network.  This may not be a good idea, because some
                       networks have several thousand channels.

These commands should be sufficient to get you started.  If you want to learn
more about BitchX, reading the online help is a good way to start.  If you 
have questions about irc in general, join one of the irc help channels and 
ask someone.  On EFnet, the channel is #irchelp, #epic and #bitchx.

See Also:
   help(1); join(1); list(2); msg(1); names(2); nick(1); part(1); server(1);
   whois(2)