[bde7714] | 1 | ======================== |
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| 2 | Quick Guide To Using Owl |
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| 3 | ======================== |
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[61d27fb] | 4 | |
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[bde7714] | 5 | ======================= |
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| 6 | Section 1: INTRODUCTION |
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| 7 | ======================= |
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[61d27fb] | 8 | |
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[bde7714] | 9 | Owl is a tty, curses-based instant messaging client. This is a quick |
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| 10 | guide to learning how to use it. Currently it supports only zephyr, |
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| 11 | but other messaging protocols, including AIM and Jabber, are on the |
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| 12 | way. Some major features of owl include: |
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[7d4fbcd] | 13 | |
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[bde7714] | 14 | o) As a tty client it can be run over telnet, rlogin or text ssh |
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| 15 | sessions |
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[7d4fbcd] | 16 | |
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[bde7714] | 17 | o) It uses a perl configuration file for setting preferences and |
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| 18 | formatting messages |
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[7d4fbcd] | 19 | |
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[bde7714] | 20 | o) Emacs style editing of messages |
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[7d4fbcd] | 21 | |
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[bde7714] | 22 | o) It is easy to use and runs without a configfile. |
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[7d4fbcd] | 23 | |
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[bde7714] | 24 | o) Advanced sorting and coloring of messages |
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[7d4fbcd] | 25 | |
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[bde7714] | 26 | ========================== |
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| 27 | Section 2: GETTING STARTED |
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| 28 | ========================== |
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[7d4fbcd] | 29 | |
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| 30 | Owl will run happily without a configfile, so to get started just run |
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[bde7714] | 31 | the program. Owl will take over the terminal window it's started in, |
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| 32 | so you may wish to have another terminal around at the same time. |
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| 33 | |
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| 34 | On Athena you can find owl in the ktools locker. So to run it you can |
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| 35 | type: |
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| 36 | |
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| 37 | add ktools |
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| 38 | owl |
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| 39 | |
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| 40 | at the Athena% prompt. If you wish to run the latest beta release of |
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| 41 | owl type 'owl-beta' instead of 'owl'. |
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[7d4fbcd] | 42 | |
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[bde7714] | 43 | The Screen Layout |
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| 44 | ----------------- |
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| 45 | There are three main parts to the owl screen. The large top portion |
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| 46 | of the screen is where zephyrs are displayed. The status bar |
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| 47 | separates this area from the one below and displays some status |
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| 48 | information. The space below that is used to type in messages and is |
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| 49 | also used by owl to give warnings and information to the user. |
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| 50 | |
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| 51 | On Line Help |
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| 52 | ------------ |
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| 53 | Owl has a full on line help system. Pressing the 'h' key will bring |
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| 54 | up the basic help screen. Further help can be obtained using the help |
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| 55 | command. |
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[7d4fbcd] | 56 | |
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| 57 | Sending a Zephyr |
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| 58 | ---------------- |
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[bde7714] | 59 | To send a zephyr to yourself press the 'z' key. This will start a |
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[7d4fbcd] | 60 | zwrite command, which you can finish by typing the name of the user |
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| 61 | you wish to send to, followed by enter. Begin typing your message. |
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| 62 | You will notice that most emacs-style editing is available. When you |
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[bde7714] | 63 | are ready to send the message type Control-D or a dot ('.') on a line |
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| 64 | by itself. If instead you wish to cancel the message type Control-C. |
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[7d4fbcd] | 65 | |
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[bde7714] | 66 | If you wish to send to a class/instance pair simply supply -c and -i |
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| 67 | arguments to the zwrite command as you normally would. |
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[7d4fbcd] | 68 | |
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| 69 | Manipulating Messages |
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| 70 | --------------------- |
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| 71 | When there are one or more zephyrs in the message window, one of them |
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| 72 | will be the 'current' message. Owl will indicate which one it is with |
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[bde7714] | 73 | an arrow that looks like this: -> . The following keys will move you |
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| 74 | to different messages: |
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[7d4fbcd] | 75 | |
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| 76 | n move to the next non-deleted message |
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| 77 | p move to the previous non-deleted message |
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| 78 | C-n , down move to the next message |
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| 79 | C-p , up move to the previous message |
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| 80 | < move to the first message |
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| 81 | > move to the last message |
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[bde7714] | 82 | C-v page down |
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| 83 | M-v page up |
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[7d4fbcd] | 84 | right scroll the screen to the right |
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| 85 | left scroll the screen to the left |
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| 86 | P move to the next personal message |
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| 87 | M-P move to the previous personal message |
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| 88 | |
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| 89 | When you are ready to delete a message you can mark it for deletion |
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| 90 | and a 'D' will appear to the left of the message. Messages will not |
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[bde7714] | 91 | actually be removed until you perform an expunge. The following keys |
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| 92 | are used to delete, undelete and expunge messages: |
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[7d4fbcd] | 93 | |
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| 94 | d mark a message for deletion |
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| 95 | u unmark a message for deletion |
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| 96 | x expunge deleted messages |
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[bde7714] | 97 | T mark all 'trash' messages for deletion |
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| 98 | M-D mark all messages in the view for deletion |
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| 99 | M-u unmark all messages in the view for deletion |
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[7d4fbcd] | 100 | |
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| 101 | If you would like to respond to a zephyr sent to you there is a reply |
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[bde7714] | 102 | shortcut. |
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[7d4fbcd] | 103 | |
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[bde7714] | 104 | r Reply. Personal zephyrs get a personal reply, |
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| 105 | class/instance zephyrs get a public reply. |
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| 106 | R Reply to sender. Always replies personally |
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| 107 | to the user. |
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| 108 | M-r Reply but allow editing of the command line. |
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| 109 | M-R Reply to sender but allow editing of the |
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| 110 | command line. |
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[7d4fbcd] | 111 | |
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[bde7714] | 112 | In the event that the current message is too large to fit on the |
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| 113 | screen, you can scroll within the message using the following keys: |
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[7d4fbcd] | 114 | |
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| 115 | SPACE page down |
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| 116 | b page up |
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| 117 | RETURN line down |
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| 118 | BACKSPACE line up |
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| 119 | |
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[bde7714] | 120 | The message pointer will change to indicate that the message is not |
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| 121 | starting at the first line. |
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[7d4fbcd] | 122 | |
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| 123 | Two other keys that relate to the current message: |
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| 124 | |
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| 125 | i print detailed information about the message |
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| 126 | w instruct netscape to visit a URL in the message |
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| 127 | |
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| 128 | |
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| 129 | Other Functions |
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| 130 | ---------------- |
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| 131 | Some other funcions that can be performed with a single keystroke: |
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| 132 | |
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[bde7714] | 133 | A toggle zaway on or off |
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[7d4fbcd] | 134 | C-l refresh and resize the screen |
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| 135 | C-z suspend |
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| 136 | |
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| 137 | Command Mode |
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| 138 | ------------ |
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| 139 | Owl has a command mode where you can enter more detailed commands for |
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[bde7714] | 140 | owl to process. To enter command press the color (':') key: |
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[7d4fbcd] | 141 | |
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| 142 | : begin command mode |
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| 143 | |
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| 144 | Owl will give you a command prompt and you can begin typing your |
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| 145 | command. Type Enter to execute the command, Control-C to cancel. |
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[bde7714] | 146 | There are many commands. The basic commands are listed on the basic |
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| 147 | help screen (by pressing 'h'). If you'd like a list of all commands |
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| 148 | you can use the command "show commands". To get detailed information |
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| 149 | on the syntax and use of a command you can use the command 'help |
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| 150 | <command>' as in: |
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| 151 | |
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| 152 | help zwrite |
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[7d4fbcd] | 153 | |
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| 154 | Variables |
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| 155 | --------- |
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[bde7714] | 156 | |
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| 157 | Owl has a number of internal variables that can be used to change the |
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| 158 | behavior the program. The 'print' command will let you view the value |
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| 159 | of a variable and the 'set' commmand will let you set the value of a |
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| 160 | variable. For example: |
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| 161 | |
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| 162 | set personalbell on |
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| 163 | |
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| 164 | will set the value of the variable 'personalbell' to on. The command: |
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| 165 | |
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| 166 | print personalbell |
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| 167 | |
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| 168 | will show you the current value. The 'print' command with no |
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| 169 | arguments will show you the value of all variables. A list of all |
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| 170 | variables is available on the basic help screen, or by using the |
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| 171 | command "show variables". The command "show variable <variablename>" |
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| 172 | will show you detailed information about a variable and how to use it. |
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| 173 | As in: |
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| 174 | |
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| 175 | show variable personalbell |
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| 176 | |
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| 177 | ============================= |
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| 178 | Section 3: FILTERS AND COLORS |
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| 179 | ============================= |
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| 180 | |
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| 181 | |
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| 182 | |
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| 183 | ========================== |
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| 184 | Section 4: THE CONFIG FILE |
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| 185 | ========================== |
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[7d4fbcd] | 186 | |
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| 187 | *** WARNING: This interface may change substantially in the near future *** |
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| 188 | |
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| 189 | This file is interpreted by the perl interpreter. |
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| 190 | If you wish to execute an owl command use the |
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| 191 | function owl::command(). i.e. |
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| 192 | |
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| 193 | owl::command("set zsigproc \"/mit/kretch/bin/getzsig foo\""); |
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| 194 | |
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| 195 | will set the owl variable zsigproc. Note that commands will currently |
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| 196 | be executed in order after the called configuration subroutine exits. |
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| 197 | |
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| 198 | Subroutines created with the names below will be executed at the |
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| 199 | specified times: |
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| 200 | |
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| 201 | subroutine name properties |
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| 202 | --------------- ---------- |
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| 203 | owl::startup() run when owl first starts |
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| 204 | owl::shutdown() run when owl exits |
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| 205 | owl::format_msg() run when a new message arrives, the return |
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| 206 | value is used to display the message on the |
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| 207 | screen |
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| 208 | owl::receive_msg() run when a message is received, and after |
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| 209 | it has been added to the message list |
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| 210 | |
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| 211 | |
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| 212 | The following variables will be set each time a message is recevied: |
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| 213 | |
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| 214 | $owl::class, $owl::instance, $owl::recipient, |
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| 215 | $owl::sender, $owl::opcode, $owl::zsig, |
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| 216 | $owl::msg, $owl::time, $owl::host, @owl::fields, $owl::id |
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| 217 | |
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| 218 | The "appendtosepbar" variable may be set in owl::format_msg() |
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| 219 | to set text to be appended to sepbar that separates the received |
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| 220 | message list from the edit window. |
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| 221 | |
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| 222 | |
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[bde7714] | 223 | ============================== |
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| 224 | Section 5: FURTHER INFORMATION |
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| 225 | ============================== |
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| 226 | |
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| 227 | $Id$ |
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