!	 $eterna: alias,v 1.6 2002/08/29 10:24:36 mrg Exp $
!
! Copyright (c) 1990-2002  Michael Sandrof, Troy Rollo, Matthew Green,
! and other ircII contributors.
!
! All rights reserved.  See the HELP IRCII COPYRIGHT file for more
! information.
!
Usage: ALIAS [[-]<alias> [<commands>]]
  Creates a command alias for <commands>. Commands do not need to be
  prefixed with a command character, in fact they shouldn't!
  If you want an alias to type something to the channel or query
  use SEND or SAY. You can use ';' to put multiple commands in a row.

  Special character sequences, usually ircII variables, are prefixed
  with '$'.  There are certain $ sequences built in to IRCII for getting
  such information as your nickname and current channel, plus you can
  expand your own variables and system variables using the $ format.  
  You can also expand functions, substituting their return values.
  See ASSIGN for more on this.

  Here are some simple alias examples:
    ALIAS HELLO MSG $0 Hello, $0! $1-
  This alias can be used by typing:
    HELLO BigCheese How are you?
  This would act as though you had typed:
    MSG BigCheese Hello, BigCheese! How are you?
  ALIAS with just the <alias> argument shows the current alias
  for that word.  ALIAS with no argument shows all current
  aliases. To remove an alias, use ALIAS -<alias>.

  To use more than one command in an alias, separate them by ';'.  

  When using ALIAS in a script it is frequently useful to surround
  the contents of your alias with { }s when you want to put more than
  one commands in an alias. E.g:
    ALIAS loadcommon {
      LOAD netsplit
      LOAD troy
    }
  is the same as
    ALIAS loadcommon LOAD netsplit;LOAD troy
  but lacks the ; and it much easier to read in a script or the .ircrc file.

  For more specific information about the $ uses and more examples,
  see the specific help files listed below.

See Also:
  SET
  INPUT_ALIASES
  SEND
  SAY
  ircII programming
  ASSIGN
  expressions  (note also Special Cases at the end)
