/msg BigCheese Howdy!
This executes the MSG command, which sends a private message to "BigCheese", and that message is "Howdy!"
You can create aliases for commands or redefine what an existing command does. This is done with the ALIAS command. For example:
NOTE: Commands within aliases and other functions do not need the
set/cmdchars, and thus the above alias could be written as
/alias M msg as well.
The exception to this, is the // convention mentioned below.
This example creates a new command, M, which does the same thing as msg, you can now do:
/M BigCheese Howdy!
and it will work exactly like msg. Suppose however you did this:
/alias MSG //MSG BigCheese
Now, the MSG command will only send messages to BigCheese:
/MSG Howdy!
Note that in the alias, there are two / in front of MSG. Putting two of the CMDCHARS in front of a command tells IRCII that you want to use the original command, and not any alias of it. Therefore, even if you had the above alias for msg, you could still do the following:
//MSG Cheese I can still use the original msg command.
Furthermore, if you wish you can turn off your display (See set/display) for the duration of a command. This is done by putting a ^ character between the / and the command word. For example, if you do:
/^msg BigCheese Hello
You will not see any visible effect to this command (unless the nickname BigCheese does not currently exist).
Lastly, if you do the following:
/ /this is a test
Note there is a space after the /. This form forces the following text to be sent to your current channel no matter what. You can thus send lines that begin with your CMDCHARS. It can also be used to force a message to your current channel when you are using query.