When you connect to an online service, you hold an electronic
conversation which is very one-sided and over which you have
complete control.

The remote computer can only act when you tell it to do something.

A typical conversation may go something like the following:

You, or Your Computer         Remote Computer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dial the number               Send 'Please enter your user name'
                              Wait for response.

Enter user name               Send 'Please enter your password'
                              Wait for response.

Enter password                Send welcome screen.
                              Send a numbered menu of available
                                                          facilities.
                              Send 'Press the required number'.
                              Wait for response.

Press the required number     Act according to number pressed.
                              Send numbered menu again.
                              Send 'Press the required number'.
                              Wait for response.

... and so on.

Notice that, apart from dialling the number to initiate the
conversation, you or your computer never sends (or Enters) anything
until the remote computer pauses, waiting for a response.

A human being knows when these points are reached because a human
can recognise a question which obviously needs a response, and can
easily tell the difference between a pause due to line noise and a
pause when the remote computer is waiting for something.

A computer cannot see the difference so you have to tell it how to
recognise 'real' pauses from the others which occur from time to
time in any transmission over telephone lines.

You do this by telling your computer (via Scripta) what to look out
for JUST BEFORE each real pause.

In English Language, you want to be able to tell Scripta to do the
following:

 1.  Dial the number and then display all characters received until
     the string 'Please enter your user name' is received.

 2.  Transmit your user name and then display all characters
     received until the string 'Please enter your password' is
     received.

 3.  Transmit your password and then display all characters received 
     until the string 'Press the required number' is received. Then, 
     conduct the rest of the conversation manually, exiting from
     Scripta only when the string "NO CARRIER" is received,
     indicating that your computer is now disconnected from the
     remote computer.

If you can tell Scripta to do this, then you can log into the
service automatically and continue entering commands manually when
Scripta has finished logging you in.

When you learn the full power of Scripta, you will discover that
there are many online activities which Scripta can undertake
automatically, with no human intervention at all!

The Scripta script required to perform the above functions for a
user named FRED BLOGGS with password WHATSIT is as follows:

While not connected
   DIAL "telephone number"
EndWhile
Wait "Please enter your user name"
SendWait "FRED BLOGGS^M" "Please enter your password"
SendWait "WHATSIT^M" "Press the required number"
Wait "NO CARRIER"

Most scripts will require more complex actions than this but the
short example serves to demonstrate the simplicity of the Scripta
script language.
