Colloquy is an

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

IRC IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat ...

, SILC, ICB and

XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (abbreviation XMPP, originally named Jabber) is an Open standard, open communication protocol designed for instant messaging (IM), presence information, and contact list maintenance. Based on XML (Ext ...

client for

Mac OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

. Colloquy uses its own core, known as Chat Core, although in the past it used

Irssi Irssi ( ) is an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Client (computing), client program for Linux, FreeBSD, macOS and Microsoft Windows. It was originally written by Timo Sirainen, and released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, GNU GPL-2.0- ...

as its IRC protocol engine. One of the primary goals behind Colloquy was to create an IRC, SILC and ICB client with Mac OS X visuals. Colloquy contains a

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...

that follows

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

Human interface guidelines Human interface guidelines (HIG) are software development documents which offer application developers a set of recommendations. Their aim is to improve the experience for the users by making application interfaces more intuitive, learnable, and ...

in addition to containing support for traditional IRC command-line controls such as /nick and /join. An official app for

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

was released and features support for all IRC commands, a built-in browser, push notifications and other features.

Features

Colloquy supports a variety of different text modifications. One text manipulation supported by Colloquy is the use of colors as used by mIRC; with the primary colors being: White, Black, Navy, Forest, Red, Maroon, Purple, Orange, Yellow, Green, Teal, Cyan, Blue, Magenta, Grey, and Ash. Additionally, Colloquy supports formatting text with underlining, italics, bold, and outline. Colloquy supports scripting in languages such as

AppleScript AppleScript is a scripting language created by Apple Inc. that facilitates automated control of Mac applications. First introduced in System 7, it is currently included in macOS in a package of automation tools. The term ''AppleScript'' may ...

, F-Script,

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language and core technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. Ninety-nine percent of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior. Web browsers have ...

Objective-C Objective-C is a high-level general-purpose, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style message passing (messaging) to the C programming language. Originally developed by Brad Cox and Tom Love in the early 1980s, it was ...

and Python. Colloquy shows changes such as mode changes, ban sets, etc. in a human-readable format, rather than showing raw modes.

Plugins and customizability

Colloquy is built on Apple's

WebKit WebKit is a browser engine primarily used in Apple's Safari web browser, as well as all web browsers on iOS and iPadOS. WebKit is also used by the PlayStation consoles starting with the PS3, the Tizen mobile operating systems, the Amazon K ...

engine and supports customizable message views called "styles" using a combination of

XSLT XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) is a language originally designed for transforming XML documents into other XML documents, or other formats such as HTML for web pages, plain text, or XSL Formatting Objects. These formats c ...

HTML Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...

, CSS and

. These act like themes, altering the way the application displays chat sessions. The software also supports a wide array of plugins that enable customization of the application and integration with other aspects of the Mac OS X environment. The Colloquy ''Web Interface'' plugin allows monitoring of the Colloguy desktop IRC connection from an iPhone's Safari browser, or any web browser.

Reception

Both the desktop client and the mobile (iPhone) client have received positive reviews. The desktop client was selected as a Pick of the Week on MacOSXHints.com. The Colloquy iPhone app was favorably reviewed on

Ars Technica ''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sci ...

, The Unofficial Apple Weblog, GigaOM, and

AppleInsider The Apple community consists of the users, media, and third party companies interested in Apple Inc. and its products. They discuss rumors, future products, news stories, and support of Apple's products. Apple has a devoted following, especia ...

.Gwilym, Sam (January 26, 2009
"Colloquy IRC client now available for iPhone"

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Colloquy (software) MacOS-only free software IRC clients Free IRC clients MacOS IRC clients Free software programmed in Objective-C Software based on WebKit 2004 software

Features

Plugins and customizability

Reception

See also

References

External links