What are some best practices for efficiently implementing IRC functionality in PHP applications?

Issue: When implementing IRC functionality in PHP applications, it is important to efficiently handle communication with the IRC server and manage incoming and outgoing messages. One way to achieve this is by using a library like `php-irc-client`, which simplifies the process of connecting to an IRC server, sending messages, and handling incoming messages.

// Include the php-irc-client library
require_once('vendor/autoload.php');

// Create a new IRC client instance
$client = new \Irc\Client('irc.server.com', 6667);

// Connect to the IRC server
$client->connect();

// Join a channel
$client->join('#channel');

// Send a message to the channel
$client->message('#channel', 'Hello, world!');

// Listen for incoming messages
$client->on('message', function($event) {
    echo "Received message: " . $event->getMessage() . "\n";
});

// Disconnect from the server
$client->disconnect();