irssi-colored-nicks

Colors nicknames by with a pseudo-random hash calculated from the nickname. Includes an example theme.

Usage

Clone this repository somewhere in your home directory. Let's assume directly at ~/:

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/trilkk/irssi-colored-nicks.git

Go to .irssi/scripts/ and link the script so it can be enabled:

cd ~/.irssi/scripts
ln -s ../../irssi-colored-nicks/colored_nicks.pl

To enable the script automatically, add it to ~/.irssi/scripts/autorun/:

cd ~/.irssi/scripts/autorun
ln -s ../colored_nicks.pl

Go to .irssi and link the associated theme so it can be enabled in configuration:

cd ~/.irssi
ln -s ../irssi-colored-nicks/colored_nicks.theme

Settings

The script provides the following settings:

colored_nicks_colors : str
colored_nicks_hash_function : str
colored_nicks_truncation_long : int
colored_nicks_truncation_short : int

colored_nicks_colors is a whitespace-separated list of irssi color codes that will be used as the array of colors to use.

colored_nicks_hash_function is the hash function used to calculate the hash for over the nicknames. There are two hash functions available: djb2 and sdbm. Any setting value other than the default djb2 selects sdbm hash.
Non-legitimate IRC nickname characters are not included in the hashing function and will not be colored. These remaining characters are still included in displayed nickname, are potentially truncated, and are displayed in dark gray. You can make use of this feature and have the related project irssi-attribution append a non-ascii character as the attribution indicator to display bridged users in a non-intrusive manner.

colored_nicks_truncation_long and colored_nicks_truncation_short are truncation settings in character lengths to which the nicknames are truncated or indented. Values equal to or smaller than 0 disable truncation. Long truncation length is intended for regular messages. Short truncation is intended for messages containing a hilight that potentially takes more space - this is the case for the example colored_nicks.theme. If the hilight does not affect line length, both truncations should have the same value.

Example addition to ~/.irssi/config:

settings = {
    "fe-common/core" = {
        theme = "colored_nicks.theme";
    };
    "perl/core/scripts" = {
        colored_nicks_colors = "%c %X1N %X2N %X4A %X59 %m %w %X3E %X7P %X7R %g %X1J %X2I %X2J %X3I %X46 %X4C %X4J %X1H %X3H %X3N %B %X5C %X56 %y %X57 %X58";
        colored_nicks_hash = "djb2";
        colored_nicks_truncation_long = "12";
        colored_nicks_truncation_short = "11";
    };
};

Commands

The script provides the following commands:

/colored_nicks_list
/colored_nicks_test

Use the command /colored_nicks_list to display debug listing of all colorizations. Together with the /cubes command from cubes.pl it can be used to easily debug potential nickname colors and ordering.

Individual nicknames can be tested with /colored_nicks_test, which takes any amount of whitespace-separated words as input. These words will be printed colorized with the current settings.

Themes

Due to also including truncation and padding, the expandos provided by the script embed the nicknames within the expando itself - they are not simply color codes. This allows the theme to position the user mode character before or after the nickname without worrying about the whitespace introduced by irssi if using the $[<num>]variable syntax.

The script provides the following expandos:

$cnnickl
$cnnicks
$cnpadl
$cnpads
$cnuser

$cnnickl is the string for general nicknames truncated into colored_nicks_truncation_long.
$cnnicks is the string for general nicknames truncated into colored_nicks_truncation_short.

$cnpadl is the whitespace padding remaining after truncating the nicknames into colored_nicks_truncation_long.
$cnpads is the whitespace padding remaining after truncating the nicknames into colored_nicks_truncation_short.

$cnuser is the truncated string for the user's nickname. Since there can be no hilight from user's own strings, there is no need for potential long and short version.

Please take a look at colored_nicks.theme for details on how to use the expandos.

References

[1] cubes.pl can be used to get a nice listing of all irssi color codes.

[2] nickcolor-expando.pl by Nei is a different approach at nick coloring. This script borrows the irssi color code to terminal color code tranformation from said script.