Snak is a popular shareware

Shareware

The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...

 Internet Relay Chat

Internet Relay Chat

Internet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file...

 (IRC) client written by Kent Sorensen for the Macintosh platform. Snak is distributed as shareware

Shareware

The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...

 and can be freely used and evaluated for 30 days at no charge. After the 30-day evaluation period has ended, the program will quit after 15 minutes of use, and a registration key must be purchased. Versions up to 4.12 runs on both Mac OS 9

Mac OS 9

Mac OS 9 is the final major release of Apple's Mac OS before the launch of Mac OS X. Introduced on October 23, 1999, Apple positioned it as "The Best Internet Operating System Ever," highlighting Sherlock 2's Internet search capabilities, integration with Apple's free online services known as...

 and Mac OS X

Mac OS X

Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

 while version 5 and newer only supports Mac OS X.

Features

Snak supports an unlimited number of connections and channels, private chats, as well as full DCC

Direct Client-to-Client

Direct Client-to-Client is an IRC-related sub-protocol enabling peers to interconnect using an IRC server for handshaking in order to exchange files or perform non-relayed chats. Once established, a typical DCC session runs independently from the IRC server. Originally designed to be used with...

 support for file transfers and chat. It can be scripted with AppleScript

AppleScript

AppleScript is a scripting language created by Apple Inc. and built into Macintosh operating systems since System 7. The term "AppleScript" may refer to the scripting system itself, or to particular scripts that are written in the AppleScript language....

 and the ircII

IrcII

ircII is a free, open-source Unix IRC and ICB client written in C. Initially released in the late 1980s, it is the oldest IRC client still maintained. Several other UNIX IRC clients, including BitchX, EPIC, and ScrollZ, were originally forks of ircII...

scripting language. Snak features an Actions list which makes it easy to automate responses to many common events on IRC.

Snak includes the ability for multiple panels to share the windows. A panel can contain a channel, a dialog with another user, a list, or information about a DCC file transfer. This results in an effective use of the screen space and improves the ability to follow multiple channels. A panel can be moved from one window to another by dragging the title bar or the panel tab.

Critical reception

Jason Parker, Assistant editor for Download.com, wrote for CNET Reviews on May 26, 2005:

It has also briefly been mentioned at MacWorld UK and is listed at MacObserver.