--- title: Microsoft just open-sourced the app that put Comic Sans... description: Microsoft has open-sourced Comic Chat, its 1996 IRC client that rendered typed conversations as comic strips and helped popularize Comic Sans. The GitHub... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-just-open-sourced-the-app-that-put-comic-sans-on-the-map-9bcdzyexb twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Microsoft just open-sourced the app that put Comic Sans on the map | daily.dev og:description: Microsoft has open-sourced Comic Chat, its 1996 IRC client that rendered typed conversations as comic strips and helped popularize Comic Sans. The GitHub... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-just-open-sourced-the-app-that-put-comic-sans-on-the-map-9bcdzyexb og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/9BcDZYexb.png og:image:alt: Microsoft just open-sourced the app that put Comic Sans on the map og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Microsoft just open-sourced the app that put Comic Sans on the map **[The New Stack](https://daily.dev/sources/newstack)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Microsoft has open-sourced Comic Chat, its 1996 IRC client that rendered typed conversations as comic strips and helped popularize Comic Sans. The GitHub repository contains the original source code with minimal modernization updates — making it compile in current Visual Studio, connect to modern IRC servers, and display correctly on high-resolution screens. Microsoft frames the release as digital preservation rather than a polished re-release, inviting the community to experiment further. The post also draws a conceptual line between Comic Chat's rules-based tone detection and today's AI-driven expressive avatars, noting that while Comic Chat anticipated the idea of software interpreting conversation, it predates generative AI by decades. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [xkcd-font: The xkcd font](https://daily.dev/posts/xkcd-font-the-xkcd-font-1gxnchsv2) · Lobsters · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Visual Studio Code 1.114 streamlines AI chat](https://daily.dev/posts/visual-studio-code-1-114-streamlines-ai-chat-ez33fhsbt) · InfoWorld · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Microsoft Uses Plagiarized AI Slop Flowchart To Explain How Git Works](https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-uses-plagiarized-ai-slop-flowchart-to-explain-how-git-works-4yrsuvlsv) · Hackaday · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [I replaced Adobe, Figma, and Canva with ChatGPT and one open-source tool](https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-adobe-figma-and-canva-with-chatgpt-and-one-open-source-tool-sdyhxyr0d) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#microsoft](https://daily.dev/tags/microsoft) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-just-open-sourced-the-app-that-put-comic-sans-on-the-map-9bcdzyexb) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Microsoft just open-sourced the app that put Comic Sans on the map","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-just-open-sourced-the-app-that-put-comic-sans-on-the-map-9bcdzyexb","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-just-open-sourced-the-app-that-put-comic-sans-on-the-map-9bcdzyexb"},"datePublished":"2026-07-17T07:57:46.218Z","dateModified":"2026-07-17T08:00:31.569Z","description":"Microsoft has open-sourced Comic Chat, its 1996 IRC client that rendered typed conversations as comic strips and helped popularize Comic Sans. 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