@database "AmiTALK"

AmiTALK V1.05 by Brian Gunn 04/26/94

@master "AmiTALK.guide"
@Remark $VER: AmiTALK.guide 1.05 (04/26/94)

@Node Main "AmiTALK.guide"

Welcome to AmiTALK V1.05 by Brian Gunn.

Sorry that has taken so long for this release to come out.  I somehow copied
an old source file over a newer one, causing AmiTALK to no longer work
with Unix machines.  Then I got fed up with trying to use a 7 MHz
68000, so I stopped playing with it.  Last weekend, I got a 40 MHz
68030, so after long wait, here is a new version of AmiTALK.  I will try to
get newer releases out sooner (since it no longer takes 25 minutes to
compile... :)

@{"What is AmiTALK?                      " LINK "whatis"}
@{"How do I install AmiTALK?             " LINK "install"}
@{"How do I use AmiTALK?                 " LINK "usage"}
@{"How do I report bugs?                 " LINK "contact"}
@{"How do I give suggestions?            " LINK "contact"}
@{"How do I customize the requestor?     " LINK "customize"}
@{"Will there be an AS225R2 version?     " LINK "as225"}
@{"What are the future plans for AmiTALK?" LINK "future"}
@{"Thanks to...                          " LINK "thanks"}
@{"That stupid copyright type stuff...   " LINK "copyright"}
@{"Other miscellaneous information...    " LINK "misc"}
@{"History...                            " LINK "history"}
@EndNode

@Node "whatis"

AmiTALK is a Unix compatible talk program.  With this program, you can
interactively chat with other Amiga owners using AmiTCP, with any Unix
user that has access to the talk program, or with any other person
with a Unix compatible talk program.

@EndNode

@Node "install"

To install AmiTALK, copy talkd to amitcp:serv.  Next copy talk to
amitcp:bin.  Now add the following line to your amitcp:db/inetd.conf:

ntalk           dgram   udp wait  root    amitcp:serv/talkd -talkd

Copy the talkrequest.rx script to amitcp:bin.

Now do a "protect amitcp:bin/talkrequest.rx +s" (If I could get lha to
keep the script bit set, this wouldn't be necessary, but I've been
playing with this for a while, and I haven't gotten it to work, so I
will just release it as is rather than delay the release longer.)

Install reqtools (or at least the reqtools.library) if you have not already.
(Actually, talk will work fine without it, but you won't get
notification of when people are trying to talk to you. ;)

If inetd is running, then type status to get the process number of
inetd and then send it a ^F with break.  (If inet'd process number is
4, then type (break 4 f).

If inetd is not currently running, then run it.

You should now be ready to @{"use" LINK "usage"} AmiTALK on your system
(assuming that you have AmiTCP installed correctly).

@EndNode

@Node "usage"

To initiate a talk request to another user, type:

talk user@machine

Example:

talk President@whitehouse.gov

Now wait until the user you have paged answers your request.  At this
time, "Connection Established" will appear in the AmiTALK window title
bar, and your system beep will be heard (if you have your volume up).
You are now connected with the other party.  Type as long as you care
to (noting any @{"bugs" LINK "contact"}), and end the talk session by
clicking the close button on the AmiTALK window.  If the AmiTALK
window suddenly disappears and no message appears in the syslog
window, then the other party has closed the talk session.  If an error
DOES appear in the syslog, then an error has occurred.

If, however, someone decided to start a talk request to your machine,
a requestor will appear showing the address of the person trying to
talk to you.  Click the "Answer" button or hit return to answer the
call, or click Ignore to do nothing.  You can also type talk and the
address in the requestor in the shell to answer.


To refuse incoming talk requests without taking ntalk out of
inetd.conf, type "setenv MESG off" in a shell window.  To turn
requests back on, type "setenv MESG on".  When MESG is off, people
that try to talk to you will get a "Your party is refusing messages"
responce.
@EndNode

@Node "contact"

If you have a bug, suggestion, or comment you would like me to hear,
either send email to:

gunnbr@nextwork.rose-hulman.edu

or normal mail to:

Brian Gunn
5500 Wabash Ave. Box 329
Terre Haute, IN 47803-4999

@EndNode

@Node "customize"

When an incoming talk request comes in, talkd runs the executes the
command "amitcp:bin/talkrequest.rx <calling party>".  You can change
this script to do whatever you want to signal and/or answer incoming
requests.  If you make any nifty answer scripts, please mail them to
me.  I'd love to have cooler notification... :)

@Endnode

@Node "future"

Here is a not totally complete list of the future plans I have to AmiTALK:

Add a config file to store a Public Screen to open AmiTALK and the
size of the AmiTALK window.

Put the name of the person connected to on the title bar.

Make talk ring the remote user more than once.

Make text redraw after a window resize.

Add cut and paste support.

Add a scrollbar.

Clean up code and release it.

Make a log of talk requests and what became of them (so if you are
away from your machine, you will know who has tried to talk to
you--even if your machine crashes before you get to see the amitcp.log)

Make users other than in the proper enviornment variable be not logged on.

Add more support for MuFS (maybe--I need to see what MuFS support *IS*!).

Add some sort of shell mode.

Make a good installer script.

Anything else suggested by users (except for porting to AS225)
@EndNode

@Node "as225"

No.  As far as I can tell, there is no such thing as AS225R2, and even
if there were, I'd have to pay money to use it, and as I'm a poor
college student, I can't afford to do such a thing at the moment.

However, I will eventually release the source, and if someone else
wants to port it, I will probably allow it (although there already is
a Unix talk program for the aformentioned non-existant program).

@EndNode

@Node "copyright"

This program is ©1994 Brian Gunn.  I give permission for it to
be FREELY distributed.  No money need be paid to me (or anyone else)
to use this package legally.

Permission is granted for this package to be distributed with
AmiTCP if the authors of this *GREAT* package feel it worthy.

@EndNode

@Node "thanks"

BIG thanks to the AmiTCP group for making AmiTCP.

Thanks to Mike Bayne for helping me debug and test this.

Thanks to Brian Mury and David Kinder for helping me with a stupid
    BevelBox problem.

Thanks to University of California for developing the Unix talk
standard and making the source freely available.

Thanks to Richard Stallman and GNU for Emacs, without which this
program could not have been written... :)

Thanks to David Gay (I think that's his name) for porting Emacs to the Amiga.

Thanks for Kevin Stiner for letting me borrow his 4000 (thus the
flurry of bug fixes at the beginning of February...)

Thanks for Mike Buford for selling me his A530 Turbo!!!!

Thanks to the MANY people who have mailed me their bug reports and suggestions!

@EndNode

@Node "misc"

AmiTALK gets the username from the enviornment variable USER.  If this
is not present, then it tries the enviornment variable LOGNAME.  If someone
other than this is paged, it wil be impossible to answer the page.  This will
be fixed in the future.

If there is a linefeed in the enviornment variable that is used for
the name, then talk locks up (apparently on printf).  I'm
investigating this.

@EndNode

@Node "history"

~01/20/94

AmiChat released

~01/20/94

People complained about AmiChat (mainly that it was not Unix talk compatible...)

02/12/94

AmiTALK V1.0 beta released

02/15/94
V1.01 beta: Bug fixes...

Fixed problem of recieve recieve text appearing in the wrong place
when the window is expanded.

Added ^C support for when the client is waiting for the remote user to respond.

Made talk not detatch from the shell, as this seemed to be causing problems.

Looks for the enviornment variables USER then LOGNAME for the username rather
than ENV:USERNAME.  If rumours are true, this will improve compatibillity with
MuFS and AmiTCP 3.0, though I wouldn't know, since neither of these reside on
my machine...  (No--I'm not boycotting MuFS or anything--it just won't WORK on
my machine!! :( )
02/12/94

02/27/94

Fixed ^C handling EVERYWHERE.  If there's a place where you can't ^C, let me know!!

Can't type before connected now.

02/28/94

Fixed talkd crash (curses be to Berkeley and their flagrant use of
register variables!!! :)

Added support for ENV:MESG (set to on or off)

Added requestor to allow answering with a click...

04/23/94

Got a GVP A530 Turbo for my 500.... (He he he--faster than the 3000... :)

04/26/94

Got everything transferred to the new drive, and fixed a bug that
developed somewhere that made amitalk not work with Unix machines.

Released version 1.05


@EndNode