Some feature enhancements for irk.

irk

@@ -4,16 +4,22 @@
 # First argument must be a channel URL. If it does not begin with "irc", 
 # the base URL for freenode is prepended.
 #
-# Second argument must be a payload string.
+# Second argument must be a payload string.  Standard C-style escapes 
+# such as \n and \t are decoded.
 #
 import json
 import socket
 import sys
 
-s = socket.create_connection(("localhost", 6659))
 target = sys.argv[1]
 if not "irc:" in target:
     target = "irc://chat.freenode.net/{0}".format(target)
-data = {"to": target, "privmsg" : " ".join(sys.argv[2:])}
+message = " ".join(sys.argv[2:])
+message = message.decode('string_escape')
+data = {"to": target, "privmsg" : message}
 print(json.dumps(data))
-s.sendall(json.dumps(data))
+try:
+    s = socket.create_connection(("localhost", 6659))
+    s.sendall(json.dumps(data))
+except socket.error, e:
+    sys.stderr.write("irkerd: server launch failed: %r\n" % e)