Chat With Coders Using ChatZilla Firefox Extension
When it comes to programming languages and the open source scene, IRC is where it’s at. Short for Internet Relay Chat, it pre-dates graphical web browsers. Despite being decidedly old school, IRC is used by many geeks as a social hangout, as well as a place for learning.
Normally you’d need special software to connect to IRC, but ChatZilla brings it inside Firefox. The extension automatically sets itself up to handle irc:// URLs and comes loaded with standard IRC networks.
It’s a basic experience, but is customizable. Check out the ChatZilla documentation for all sorts of information.
What can you do with ChatZilla and IRC? Some example channels are below.
Programming Language IRC Channels
Ruby: irc://irc.freenode.net/ruby-lang
Ruby on Rails: irc://irc.freenode.net/rubyonrails
Perl: irc://irc.perl.org/perl
Python: irc://irc.freenode.net/python
ASP.NET: irc://irc.umich.edu/asp.net
Open Source IRC Channels
Firefox: irc://irc.mozilla.org/firefox
Thunderbird: irc://irc.mozilla.org/thunderbird
Apache: irc://irc.freenode.net/apache
Yes, even ChatZilla itself has a channel: irc://irc.mozilla.org/chatzilla
Of course, these are just a few examples to get you started. Once connected to a network (such as freenode.net), you can search channels with
/rlist searchterm
See also:
