I am using Slackware 9.1 and I have downloaded the latest BitchX source, i tried compiling it using
./configure --with-plugins --with-gtk
The configure gives an error saying that it needs to know the location of gnome-config. I have gnome installed but i can't find any gnome-config. What should i do? I have never run GNOME but i am damn sure its installed.

Are you sure it's asking for gnome-config? I figured it would ask for gtk-config, which should be in /usr/bin/gtk-sonfig. I'm not too sure, but I would recommend trying XChat out. It comes with Slackware, so you can just install it off the CD if you didn't during the beginning installation. Also, when you did install, did you have all the GNOME packages installed? I had some crazy dependency errors once, for gtk stuff, so I just leave all the GNOME stuff how they are (probably not the most elegant solution, but it ensures it works all the time). Also you may have installed gtk wrong. Did you leave the original installation of gtk off the CD or did you upgrade, etc.

yes i am sure its asking for gnome-config. It says that this file is the gome test script. Moreover i have run gnome and its working fine. No problems at all. The only thing is i can't find that gome-config file. As far as XChat is concerned i already know about it and have used it too, but i wanted to try out BitchX --with-gtk.