ks (07/25/82)
#R:sri-unix:-214800:pur-ee:500004:000:120 pur-ee!ks Jul 24 13:13:00 1982 The folks at pur-ee have a "talk" program that echos on a per character basis quite well.. Kirk Smith Purdue EE
ber (07/25/82)
#R:sri-unix:-214800:harpo:12900006:000:164 harpo!ber Jul 25 15:53:00 1982 Mark Horton has a program (also called talk which I call talko) that uses mpx files and gives each of the two talkers their own full duplex window. brian redman
mark (07/26/82)
Well, as long as ber's pointing people at me, let me give credit where due. The talk program was written by Kipp Hickman (arpavax.hickman@Berkeley) and I just happen to have a copy of it. It uses mpx and curses, and puts two windows on the screen - you're in the top half and the other person is in the bottom half. Either of you can type whenever you want, as it's totally full duplex. Nice concept. Unfortunately, the program likes to go into weird states sometimes. I strongly suspect the problem is in mpx, since now that we have a fixed version of mpx in our 4.1BSD (no, I can't give it to anybody, it's part of the Blit software and quite proprietary) I haven't noticed it weirding out (but it doesn't get used heavily). Weird things may also happen if you or the other person don't have $TERM set properly. As I understand it, Kipp has rewritten talk to use 4.2BSD IPC instead of mpx. I have no idea how solid that version is. The talk program does not allow more than two people, and both people must be on one system. However, I see no reason why it couldn't be enhanced along these lines. There is another program here (also called "talk") by Alan Hewett which uses the top line as a buffer for you to type into, and the rest of the screen scrolls by with a script of the conversation, entered one line at a time as return is hit. Each clump of lines is labelled with the speaker, and several people can be in on the conversation. It uses a local virtual terminal protocol and cannot be distributed. What I really want, and what I haven't seen in anything except bitmapped workstations, is to have a conversation with someone in one window on the screen and be able to get work done at the same time in another window. Most people are very slow typists, and I get bored waiting for them to type something. Many people have modified "write" to run in raw mode, so you don't have to wait for each return, but I know at least one person who won't answer any person who links to him with such a raw write, because it makes it nearly impossible to work in the foreground while the person is typing to him! (He ^Z's out of his write and works when the other person is typing.) Mark
ks (07/28/82)
#R:sri-unix:-214800:pur-ee:500005:000:196 pur-ee!ks Jul 27 17:16:00 1982 I have posted the source for "talk" to net.sources. It is much like write but does not buffer lines. It is currently in use on 4.1BSD Vax systems here at pur-ee. Kirk Smith Purdue EE
ks (08/01/82)
#R:sri-unix:-214800:pur-ee:500009:000:400 pur-ee!ks Jul 31 23:30:00 1982 A slightly modified version of talk.c has been posted to net.sources. It ignores all the local mode stuff because it operates in -echo mode. It also takes care of the proper echoeing to the originating terminal and handles Berkeley STOP signals correctly. It has been tested on 4.1BSD and v7 UNIX sytems. Many thanks to sdcarl!rusty and psi!jed for help and advice. Kirk Smith Purdue EE