Simple Unix IRC Client

#!/usr/bin/python
 
import socket # needed to connect to server's, send data, and receive data
import re # used for formatting other user's messages to look pretty
from os import fork # used to allow simultaneous input and output
 
class Server:
    commandhash = {"/list":"LIST", "/join":"JOIN", "/nick":"NICK"}
    openchannels = []
    channel = None
    ## This constructor does the housekeeping presumed for any irc connection and represents
    ## a single server. As of now this program only supports connection to one server at a time
    ## (and in fact, one channel as well) but this will be addressed in future versions.
    def __init__(self, address, protocol=6667):
        self.address = address # record the server address for future use
        self.sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) # set up the socket
 
        ## Get identity information needed by the server.
        self.realname = raw_input("REALNAME: ")
        self.ident = raw_input("IDENT: ")
        self.nick = raw_input("NICK: ")
 
        self.sock.connect((socket.gethostbyname(address), protocol)) # connect to the server
        self.sock.send("USER %s %s %s :%s\r\n" % (self.ident, address, "UNIX-SERVER", self.realname)) # send identity stuff
        self.sock.send("NICK %s\r\n" % self.nick) # tell the server our desired nick
    def parseMessage(self, message):
        nick = message[message.index(":"):message.index("!")]
        message = message[message.index(":") + 1:]
        message = message[message.index(":"):]
        return "%s %s" % (nick, message)
    def server_response(self):
        response = self.sock.recv(1024)
        if "!" in response and ":" in response[response.index(":") + 1:]:
            return self.parseMessage(response)
        if "PING :" in response:
            self.sock.send(response.replace("PING", "PONG"))
            return 0
        return response
    def send_message(self, message):
        if not message:
            return False
        for i in self.commandhash:
            if message[:len(i)] == i:
                message = message.split(" ")
                if len(message) == 2:
                    if message[0] == "/join":
                        self.channel = message[1]
                    return self.sock.send(self.commandhash[i] + " " + message[1] + "\r\n")
                return self.sock.send(self.commandhash[i] + "\r\n")
        if self.channel:
            message_tuple = (self.nick, self.ident, self.address, self.channel, message)
            return self.sock.send(":%s!%s@%s PRIVMSG %s :%s\r\n" % message_tuple)
        else:
            print "No channel selected"
            return False
    def close(self):
        self.sock.close()
        return
 
connection = Server(raw_input("server: "))
connected = 1
 
pid = fork()
while connected:
    if pid:
        connection.send_message(raw_input())
    else:
        response = connection.server_response()
        if response:
            print response
 
connection.close()