New support channel for XUL extension development Topic is solved

[[ghost]]

Hi there!

I created an IRC channel on freenode (##xul-addons) that can provide support for XUL extensions development. It can be used in addition to support channels that already exist, like Stack Overflow.

[moonbat]

How does an IRC channel act as a substitute for actual documentation? Need to actually read and understand stuff along with code samples with a properly indexed site with everything logically grouped together in chapters (MDN sucks at this in addition to being annoyingly incomplete).

[[ghost]]

How does an IRC channel act as a substitute for actual documentation? Need to actually read and understand stuff along with code samples with a properly indexed site with everything logically grouped together in chapters (MDN sucks at this in addition to being annoyingly incomplete).

I'd prefer community support over specific documentation because different people do things differently.

Another reason I chose an IRC channel is because it's much easier to maintain than a 'clone' of MDN's XUL docs.

[moonbat]

How on earth? You're supposed to scroll up and search for stuff or do you go on repeating questions that have been asked before, then sit around because there's no one in your time zone currently available and wait for a reply? Ridiculous.
So who is the overall XUL guru that's going to be available 24x7x365 to instantly offer the right answer to a query, because that's what I would expect if I'm to use this instead of rather than as a complement to proper documentation?

[[ghost]]

How on earth? You're supposed to scroll up and search for stuff or do you go on repeating questions that have been asked before, then sit around because there's no one in your time zone currently available and wait for a reply? Ridiculous.

That's already possible with Stack Overflow. And, again, I chose an IRC channel over documentation is because it's much easier to maintain than a 'clone' of MDN's XUL docs. A clone would take a long time to make.

Let's not argue, but this is the type of support channel that I prefer.

[moonbat]

There are 2 things - you want to accomplish a task and you don't know how - and you know NOTHING about the platform or specific features which means you don't even know what question to ask. For the latter, there has to be SOMETHING to read.

Like I said, who is the genius that's going to be sitting around in the channel when you want an INSTANT SOLUTION to your query that cannot be got via a scrolling chat mechanism?

Stack Overflow for anyone with half a brain is the final resort after they have already exhausted all other existing avenues for documentation, and even then, you are expected (like with any online community) to search for information before asking a question. Then you sit around and wait and hope someone will answer, and many times there is no reply (I have a few unanswered questions on the Mint Forums where I've exhaustively listed everything I've already read on the subject and tried out).

[[ghost]]

There are 2 things - you want to accomplish a task and you don't know how - and you know NOTHING about the platform or specific features which means you don't even know what question to ask. For the latter, there has to be SOMETHING to read.

Like I said, who is the genius that's going to be sitting around in the channel when you want an INSTANT SOLUTION to your query that cannot be got via a scrolling chat mechanism?

Stack Overflow for anyone with half a brain is the final resort after they have already exhausted all other existing avenues for documentation, and even then, you are expected (like with any online community) to search for information before asking a question. Then you sit around and wait and hope someone will answer, and many times there is no reply (I have a few unanswered questions on the Mint Forums where I've exhaustively listed everything I've already read on the subject and tried out).

Got it. But I already have an extension. Even if this isn't a full replacement, it's at least another support option, so hey!

I modified the original post for this reason.

[RealityRipple]

Here's that clone it would be so hard to make.

[Tharthan]

Like I said, who is the genius that's going to be sitting around in the channel when you want an INSTANT SOLUTION to your query that cannot be got via a scrolling chat mechanism?

NewTobinParadigm and athenian200, obviously.

(No offence intended to either athenian200 or Tobin. Just making a little joke.)

[New Tobin Paradigm]

Smart people in the place smart people are which is currently on freenode but not at this double hash channel.

[[ghost]]

The channel has been dropped because I couldn't maintain it. Anyone else could now register it.

[New Tobin Paradigm]

That was quick.

[moonbat]

It isn't as though there already exists #binaryoutcast on Freenode where Tobin and other devs hang out now, is it?

[Moonchild]

So, after only 11 days you already gave up?
Well I do understand that it must have been lonely, in a channel nobody asked for, but "couldn't maintain it" is really not the reason in that case.

[moonbat]

Here's that clone it would be so hard to make.

Hi RealityRipple, first of all thanks so much for doing this, now that Mozilla has nuked the original docs. I have one request - would it be possible to rewrite links within articles pointing to developer.mozilla.org to their udn.realityripple equivalents?

[RealityRipple]

Here's that clone it would be so hard to make.

Hi RealityRipple, first of all thanks so much for doing this, now that Mozilla has nuked the original docs. I have one request - would it be possible to rewrite links within articles pointing to developer.mozilla.org to their udn.realityripple equivalents?

I'm still tweaking a lot of things. Today's project was bringing clickable details back to the compatibility tables. A few days ago, it was a homebrew rudimentary search engine. I've already got the code written to find and categorize all the hyperlinks, but it'll be another day's project replacing the ones that need replacing, and pointing to archive.org where necessary. But it's up there on the list.

[New Tobin Paradigm]

Well your search engine seems to work fairly ok. I was able to find what I was looking for the other day. They can be annoying to get right and spit out useful results, eh?

[RealityRipple]

Well your search engine seems to work fairly ok. I was able to find what I was looking for the other day. They can be annoying to get right and spit out useful results, eh?

Especially when all you're using is php's strpos().

[New Tobin Paradigm]

Well PHP 8 finally has a str_contains function along with str_starts_with and str_ends_with.

[RealityRipple]

I use the returned position to get the result preview lines and to add bolding.