Ambassador is a fork of the Mozilla IRC application known as ChatZilla, built on UXP and produced for UXP-based applications. It features a simple, straighforward interface with a number of options for customization and extensibility. It is available as an add-on compatible with other applications built upon UXP, and as a stand-alone package that can be installed and run independently of a browser.
The add-on is compatible with Pale Moon and Basilisk, and is available from the Pale Moon Add-ons Site. The stand-alone application is compatible with Windows 7 (or later) 32-bit and 64 bit, and Linux 64-bit. ZIP archives and installers are available for Windows, and a tarball archive is available for Linux. All binaries are available on the releases page. The source repository is here.
Aside from supporting all the features from ChatZilla, it includes several unique features of its own:
- Partial IRCv3 support
- Password management
- A window for viewing secure connection details
- An editor for the built-in networks list
- Several new commands
- Removed CEIP
Ambassador users may use this forum space for questions, discussion, and support. (Thanks Moonchild!) Some of your questions may be answered in the ChatZilla FAQ, As most of the answers there will apply to Ambassador as well. I will also be creating a short Ambassador-specific FAQ in the near future.
As a footnote to this announcement, I started using IRC and ChatZilla about ten or so years ago. I knew nothing about IRC, XUL, CSS, or JavaScript at the time, and just trying to understand the code was intimidating. I never imagined I would be forking the code, adding new features, and building a full application. It just goes to show that, as the user of free and open source software, you have the power to make the change you want to see in the world - you need only to reach out and take it.
Many thanks to the Pale Moon Team, the UXP developers, and everyone else who has helped to make this application possible. And of course, thanks to the users who are dedicated to keeping both IRC and XUL alive. Without your support, life as a developer would have little meaning.
Happy chatting!