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LP-Talk, V1.3 Modified for LP-Mud from Anton Rang's TinyTalk V1.1.2 Shawn I. McMurdo ================ What is LP-Talk? ---------------- LP-Talk uses the same command set as TinyTalk but it interfaces to LP-Mud. The only difference to the user is that 'tells' can be highlighted instead of 'pages' since pages don't exist in LP-Mud. Now correctly handles partial output lines and turns off echoing when entering passwords. I am completely responsible for all modifications from TinyTalk and can be reached by email at: shawnm@sco.com. LP-Talk is an interface to the LP-Mud system. It replaces telnet, and adds many new features. Its features include: * LP-Talk can wrap words at the end of a line. * LP-Talk can automatically log into your characters. * LP-Talk can record a LP-Mud session to a file. * LP-Talk keeps your typing and LP-Mud output from being intermingled. * LP-Talk allows input lines to be up to 512 characters long. This allows long descriptions to be entered. * LP-Talk supports simple macros. * LP-Talk supports "portals", special exits which connect between the various LP-Mud systems. There are also commands which allow manually switching systems. * LP-Talk can hilite tells and whispers, on terminals which support boldface or inverse characters. Who wrote TinyTalk? LP-Talk? What is its status? -------------------------------------------------- TinyTalk was written entirely by Anton Rang. He can be reached via E-mail, at "rang@cs.wisc.edu". TinyTalk is semi-supported; bugs will be fixed, and new features may be incorporated into future versions. LP-Talk was modified from TinyTalk by me (Shawn McMurdo). I can be reached at 'shawnm@sco.com'. LP-Talk is semi-supported; bugs will be fixed, and new features may be incorporated into future versions. Mail any comments or questions to me. Stewart Clamen (aka "Stewy") came up with the idea for portals, and added support for them into the GNU Emacs-based client (tinymud.el). The first free-standing program that I know of which implemented them was written by Russ Smith (aka "Nightfall"). They may be reached at the addresses "clamen@cs.cmu.edu" and "russ@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu". Support for HP-UX was contributed by Andy Norman; support for System V was contributed by Kipp Hickman. If you have problems with these, let me know. Thanks also go to many beta testers, too numerous to name here. They've been most helpful in finding bugs and suggesting new and useful features. Thanks to all who have suggested new features as well. LP-Talk is in the public domain. Feel free to make improvements, or take parts of the code for your own programs. I ask only two things (these aren't legal obligations, just requests): * If you make changes to LP-Talk, change the version number. Don't increment it (i.e. to 1.4 or 2.0); add something to the end of the current version number. For instance, you could use your initials: LP-Talk 1.3/abr-1. This way, no two versions of LP-Talk are likely to have the same version number. * The original version of TinyTalk may be FTPed from derby.cs.wisc.edu (128.105.2.162). * If you distribute modified versions of LP-Talk, please leave a pointer to ftp.math.okstate.edu (139.78.10.6) where the original code may be FTPed from and leave a pointer to my email address, 'shawnm@sco.com', since i am not the owner of ftp.math.okstate.edu. If you have a minor improvement in mind, it may be best just to send me a mail message. I can incorporate it into the next version. Installing LP-Talk. -------------------- This is described in the separate README file which you should have received with this file. Starting LP-Talk. ------------------ Before using LP-Talk for the first time, you may want to create a configuration file (described below). LP-Talk will run without one, but automatic logins and world recognition will not be available. If you do not have a configuration file, a host name and port number must be specified, as with 'telnet'. Configuration files are described in a later section. The simplest way to invoke LP-Talk is simply by typing its name, without any arguments. If a configuration file exists, this will read it and connect to the first world in the file. To connect to that world without logging in, the single argument '-' should be given. lptalk Connects to the default world and attempts login. lptalk - Connects to the default world without logging in. To connect to an alternate world which is in the configuration file, the name of that world may be given as an argument. A leading '-' indicates that auto-login should be disabled. lptalk lpworld Connects to the world lpworld. lptalk -lpworld Connnects to lpworld without logging in. To use LP-Talk without a configuration file, or to connect to a world which is not in the configuration file, the host name (or Internet address) and port number must be given, as with 'telnet'. If a default character exists in the configuration file, auto-login will be attempted; a leading '-' on the host suppresses this. lptalk 192.35.96.111 6250 Connects to TinyHELL. lptalk -uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu 6250 Connects to TinyHELL, no login. Using LP-Talk. --------------- LP-Talk works almost the same as a regular telnet interface would. Output from LP-Mud is displayed on the screen. To send a line to LP-Mud, just type the line and press return. The most noticeable difference is that the line you are typing will usually not be mixed in with the output. (The exception is when an input line wraps around, in which case any entire lines typed so far will remain on the screen, above output from LP-Mud.) Commands may be given to LP-Talk by entering a line which begins with a slash (/). To send a line which begins with a slash to LP-Mud, you must start the line with two slashes. (For instance, typing '//house' would send the line '/house' to LP-Mud. Typing only '/house' would cause LP-Talk to look for a 'house' command.) When you walk through a portal to another LP-Mud, LP-Talk will try to automatically reconnect you to the new system. If the world is defined in your configuration file (and auto-login has not been disabled), it will automatically connect you to your character there. The backspace and delete keys function as usual; in addition, control-U or control-X will erase the entire input line. Control-R will refresh the current input (which may span multiple lines). Control-W will erase the last word typed. (Note: all of these characters may be changed, using /stty mode.) Control-C (or the interrupt character) will exit LP-Talk (unless the /nointr command is used); it's recommended that the standard LP-Mud command QUIT be used instead, though. On systems which support job control, control-Z (or whichever character has been set as the suspend character) will pause LP-Talk and return you to the shell. When you resume LP-Talk after it has been suspended, any output from the server which has been received will be printed. Commands. --------- There are four classes of LP-Talk commands: general, logging, macro, and output control commands. The general commands are: /quit Exits from LP-Talk. /help Prints a short summary of LP-Talk commands. /help2 Prints another short summary. /wrap [column] Turns on word wrap mode, optionally setting the right margin. Word wrap mode is enabled by default, at the terminal's normal right margin (or column 80 if this is not known). /nowrap Turns off word wrap mode. The current column is remembered, and a later /wrap command without an argument will default to that column. /login Enables automatic logins. These are enabled by default. /nologin Disables automatic logins. If you dislike the automatic login feature, you can place this command in your configuration file. Another use for it is when going through a portal to a world in which you don't have a character (or wish to connect to a character which isn't your default). /quiet Turns on "quiet" mode. In quiet mode, automatic logins don't print the prompts from the server (for instance, "Welcome To LP-Mud"..."Use WHO"). If you like this option, you probably want to put this command in your configuration file. This has no effect if automatic logins are disabled. /noquiet Turns off quiet mode. Automatic logins will show the entire server message. /intr Enables interrupt mode; ^C will exit LP-Talk. This is enabled by default. /nointr Disables interrupt mode; ^C will be ignored. /stty Causes LP-Talk to use the current terminal configuration for line editing characters. /nostty Causes LP-Talk to use its default line editing characters. This is the default. /recall Recalls the last (non-empty) line typed. This is a very limited form of command recall, useful mainly when working with an unreliable connection. /listworlds Lists the worlds defined in your configuration file. /world [name] Switches the connection to an alternate world. If no world is given, connects to the default world. (Note that this breaks the connection with the old world; LP-Talk only maintains one connection at a time.) Logging commands control whether a LP-Talk session is saved into a file. If you are using a terminal emulation program which does logging, you may not need these commands. /log [filename] Enables logging. All output from the server will be logged into the specified file. If no file has been specified, "~/lptalk.log" will be used. (Once a filename has been set, future /log commands during the same session will remember that filename.) /nolog Disables logging. The file is closed, and no output will be sent to it. This is the default. /logme Enables input logging. Everything typed at the keyboard (including commands and LP-Mud input) will be logged, if logging is enabled. /nologme Disables input logging. Only output from the server will be logged. This is the default. Macro commands allow macros to be defined. Macros are discussed in more detail in the next section. /def name = body Defines the macro 'name'. 'Name' must not be a current macro. Names are not case-sensitive, and any names which are the same as a LP-Talk command name will not be usable. /undef name Undefines the macro 'name', allowing it to be redefined. /listdef [full] Lists the current macro definitions. By default, this only lists their names. If the keyword 'full' is given, both names and bodies will be listed. /savedef [file] Saves all current macro definitions into a file. If no filename is given, "lptalk.macros" will be used. Warning: this will overwrite any existing file by the name; use it with caution. /loaddef [file] Loads macro definitions from a file. The file may have been created with /savedef, or may be simply a list of /def commands (possibly with comments, lines starting a semicolon, interspersed). Output control commands. ------------------------ These commands control special processing of messages from LP-Mud. /beep [count] When /beep is enabled, tells ("Fuber tells you") are signaled with one more beeps. The default is 3. /nobeep This disables /beep; tells are not signaled. /hilite [mode] This enables hiliting of some output message. Mode may be 'tell', to hilite tells; 'whisper', to hilite whispers to you; or the name of a person, in which case all their actions will be hilited. If no mode is specified, person-hiliting is enabled (though only previously added people will be hilited). /nohilite [mode] This reverses /hilite. It can be used to disable hiliting of tells or whispers, or to remove a person from the list of hilited people. If no mode is specified, person-hiliting is disabled; however, the list of hilited people remains intact. /listhilite Lists persons being hilited, and indicates whether tell and whisper hiliting is enabled. /loadhilite [f] Retrieves a list of characters to hilite from a file. The default name is '~/lptalk.hilite'. /savehilite [f] Saves a list of characters to hilite in a file. The default name is '~/lptalk.hilite'. /gag [person] This command suppresses output from a character. It may be useful for ignoring robots, for example. Arrival, departure, and kill messages are never suppressed. With no arguments, gagging is enabled. /nogag [person] This command removes a character from the "gag list". With no arguments, gagging is disabled, but the list of gagged characters is retained. /loadgag [f] Retrieves a list of characters to "gag" from a file. The default name is '~/lptalk.gag'. /savegag [f] Saves a list of characters to "gag" in a file. The default name is '~/lptalk.gag'. /whisper Lets whispers be shown, on systems which support "noisy whisper". /nowhisper Prevents whispers to others from being shown, in effect simulating "quiet whisper". This is not infallible, and may prevent some messages which are not actually true whispers from being shown, if they appear to be whispers. Macros. ------- LP-Talk macros, while simple, are powerful. Macros can range in complexity from simply moving between rooms to creating a private note to someone. The simplest type of macro has no arguments. It is defined with the /def command. This macro can be invoked simply by using its name as a command. For instance, entering the line /def pizza = "I like pizza! will define a macro named 'pizza', which will send the string ' "I like pizza! ' to LP-Mud when it is invoked. Typing /pizza will cause your character to say "I like pizza!", just as though you had typed ' "I like pizza! ' yourself. The special sequences %\ and %; will cause an end-of-line to be inserted within the macro, just as though you had typed a return. If you changed your mind and wanted your character to say "I like pizza!" and then smile, you could remove the current pizza macro and define a new one: /undef pizza /def pizza = "I like pizza!%;:smiles. Now, typing the command '/pizza' will result in LP-Mud receiving the following two commands. "I like pizza! :smiles. If you want to use the percent sign (%) in a macro and have it sent to LP-Mud (for instance, "I like pizza 100% better than spinach"), you must use two percent signs. Only one will be sent through. /def better = "I like pizza 100%% better than spinach. Macros may take "arguments"; that is, they may do different things depending on exactly what command is used to start them. For instance, you may like pizza better than lots of foods, but not want to define a macro for every food. You could use the following macro. /def better = "I like pizza 100%% better than %1. The special sequence '%1' will cause the first word after '/better' to be inserted there. For instance, typing: /better artichokes will cause LP-Mud to receive "I like pizza 100% better than artichokes. Up to four arguments can be used; they are numbered one through four. A special case is %*, which causes the entire command line following the name of the macro to be inserted. For instance, if you wanted to always start your character's description with the same string, you could define a macro: /def pickle = describe looks like a pickle. %* If you then typed /pickle You decide that it's probably dill. LP-Mud would receive describe looks like a pickle. You decide that it's probably dill. Arguments cannot have spaces in them, except for the special case of %*. This restriction may be changed in a later version of LP-Talk. The configuration file. ----------------------- The configuration file is used to define worlds, and to set LP-Talk options when it starts (for instance, to define some initial macros). If the environment variable LPTALK is defined, LP-Talk will look at the file named there for its configuration; otherwise, it reads a default configuration file named '.lptalk' in the user's home directory (~/.lptalk). WARNING: You should make sure that your ~/.lptalk file is protected against access by other users, by using the chmod command. If you don't do this, other users can find out your character names and passwords. A configuration file has two sections. The first defines the worlds (and characters) which LP-Talk knows about. The second section consists of LP-Talk commands, which will be executed when LP-Talk starts up. The sections are separated by a blank line. The first line of the world definition section is used as a default world (if LP-Talk is invoked with no arguments). This should be the world you enter the most, usually. Each line of the world definition section contains five sections (except for the default--see below). This defines a world, a character, and an address for the world. An example would be: LP-Mud MyCharacter MyPassword daisy.learning.cs.cs.cmu 4201 This line (which, if used in a configuration file, should not have any leading spaces) would define the world LP-Mud. It would use the password MyPassword to automatically log into MyCharacter. It would use the hostname daisy.learning.cs.cmu.edu, and port 4201. A line with the world name "default" (and no host address or port) is special. It defines a character and password to be used for all worlds which are not otherwise defined in the configuration file. If you define all the worlds you normally visit in the configuration file, this is not very useful; however, it may allow new worlds to be accessed through portals more easily. After the world definition section, any LP-Talk commands may be entered. These may include setting quiet modes, a wrap column, or defining macros. An example configuration file, with comments, follows. It really isn't as complicated as the above makes it sound! -------------------- ; ; This is an example LP-Talk configuration file. It can be copied to ; ~/.lptalk and modified to suit your needs and wishes. ; TinyMUD YourName YourPass daisy.learning.cs.cmu.edu 4201 TinyHELL YourName YourPass 192.35.96.111 6250 ; ; The preceding blank line terminates the list of worlds. ; Any legal commands can go in this section. ; /quiet /log /hilite tell /hilite whisper ; ; Here are a few example macros. (These lines are long, because ; macros must be defined on a single line.) ; ; Macros to move around are useful. This one is specific to my configuration; ; it moves from the endoplasmatorium to the pub. ; /def pub = s%\e%\e%\n%\e%\ ; ; Sober up quick macro. /def coffee = buy coffee%;buy coffee%;buy coffee%;buy coffee%;smile%; ; ; Note that the following 2 TinyMud macros would be useless in LP-Mud but ;are shown just as an example of the power of macros. ; ; Create a note and lock it to somebody. Invoked as /makenote (whoever). ; /def makenote = @create Note for %1%\@lock Note for %1 = *%1%\@osucc Note for %1 = reads the note%\@fail Note for %1 = You can't read the note.%\@ofail Note for %1 = tries to read a note, but can't.%\@desc Note for %1 = A private note for %1. ; ; Take an existing note and lock it to somebody. Invoked as /usenote (whoever). ; Assumes you are carrying an object named "Note for (whoever)". ; /def usenote = @lock Note for %1 = *%1%\@osucc Note for %1 = reads the note%\@fail Note for %1 = You can't read the note.%\@ofail Note for %1 = tries to read a note, but can't.%\@desc Note for %1 = A private note for %1.