Firefox doesn't grok IRC

[Rich Teer]

... at least out of the box.

If I click on this link on Mozilla:

irc://irc.freendode.net/opensolaris

an IRC window open I can chat on that channel. Doing the same
thing with b41's Firefox gives me a nasty Alter dialogue box:

Firefox doesn't know how to open this address, because the
protocol (IRC) isn't associated with any program.

Is this going to be fixed soon? (Also, as a sidenote, since
when did UNIX programs start referring to themselves in the
3rd person?!)

[Mike Ditto]

Post by Rich Teer
(Also, as a sidenote, since
when did UNIX programs start referring to themselves in the
3rd person?!)

1979. :-) At least that seems to be about when the convention of
programs including their own names in error messages became the norm.
Unix V7 /bin/cp from 1979 does it, the V6 version doesn't.

But I get what you mean, "Firefox doesn't know how to ..." does sound
a bit alien compared to a more Unixish, pseudo-1st-person,
"firefox: don't know how to ..."

But is Firefox really "a Unix program"?

-=] Mike [=-

[Roland Mainz]

Post by Mike Ditto

Post by Rich Teer
(Also, as a sidenote, since
when did UNIX programs start referring to themselves in the
3rd person?!)

1979. :-) At least that seems to be about when the convention of
programs including their own names in error messages became the norm.
Unix V7 /bin/cp from 1979 does it, the V6 version doesn't.
But I get what you mean, "Firefox doesn't know how to ..." does sound
a bit alien compared to a more Unixish, pseudo-1st-person,
"firefox: don't know how to ..."
But is Firefox really "a Unix program"?

Firefox is basically a "virtual machine" which executes dynamic
documents written in HTML, XML, XUL, SVG and JavaScript. And the wild
mixture of these buzzwords should give you an imagination what this junk
really is (or better: What is has become since "cool stuff" is being
favoured over technically clean solutions) ... ;-(
... if you want a real browser (including IRC support) then use Mozilla
Seamonkey or Konqueror... :-)

----

Bye,
Roland

[Peter Tribble]

Post by Rich Teer
... at least out of the box.
irc://irc.freendode.net/opensolaris
an IRC window open I can chat on that channel. Doing the same
Firefox doesn't know how to open this address, because the
protocol (IRC) isn't associated with any program.
Is this going to be fixed soon?

Depends what you mean by fixed - Firefox is a web browser
and not having everything including the kitchen sink is
part of its nature.

If you mean how can you fix it, that's easy. Just install
the ChatZilla extension:

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/16/

and you're sorted.

(It's the same thing that you would get in Mozilla, just
as an extension rather than bundled in.)

[Darren J Moffat]

Post by Rich Teer
... at least out of the box.
irc://irc.freendode.net/opensolaris
an IRC window open I can chat on that channel. Doing the same

Add the following to your prefs.js file in your firefox profile directory:

user_pref("network.protocol-handler.external.irc", true);
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.irc", "gaim-remote");
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.external.aim", true);
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.aim", "gaim-remote");

Although at least until snv_42 gaim-remote was AWOL (6437313) but it
should be coming back. In the mean time you can use gaim rather than
gaim-remote but that will cause multiple gaim programs to startup if you
follow multiple irc links.

I've logged 6444908 for this, noting that you reported it.