Dot-commands vs. slash-commands

As Twitch user, we can use a multitude of slash-commands, that is, chat commands that start with a slash. For example: /color SeaGreen

On these forums, I often see the suggestion to use dot-commands instead. That is, to stick with the example: .color SeaGreen

In my tests, slash-commands work just fine though. My question therefore is: what is the actual technical difference between the two and when to use which?

Slash commands can interfere with some IRC clients since commands many provide different functionality. For example /ban may translate to a +b MODE rather than a ban as implemented in TMI.

Back in the early days I don’t think the slash command syntax was even supported or JTVIRC or early TMI so a lot of long time users still use periods. These days it does not matter.

Personally I still use periods.

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Thank you, george!

So basically dot and slash syntax should make no difference (unless done from certain IRC clients). Let me ask, however, how come that this recent issue seems to have come down to the use of slash instead of dot, then?

No that was the user trying to use the command HOSTARGET which is not a valid command.

And then trying to run commands that there were not eligible/authorised to run

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Oh, I see. If I read the thread correctly, however, he didn’t receive any reply when sending /host, while .host gave him a useful error message about missing permissions. Not a very important difference, if that’s actually the behavior, of course, but good to know anyway.

Thanks, Barry!

No he sent either/both of them and got the permission error

The use of . or / is irrelevant

Some IRC libraries will interrupt a call to / and send it as a SERVER command instead of a PRIVMSG

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Great, thanks for the clarification Barry. The constant recurrence of advice like the one from XxUnruly over in the other thread made me question it, but thanks to your confirmation my mind finally rests at ease now. :slight_smile:

Using a . just saves hassle if you are using a off the shelf IRC Library

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