Chatter is a program that allows more or less real time text message communication with other computers that are running Chatter and are connected to an AppleTalk network. It can support up to 4 connecions at once, and does not require program linking to be turned on.
At the user’s request, it can install an extension, Chatter Listener, in the System Folder so that the user can be notified of connection requests when Chatter isn’t running.
Network impact statement:
Chatter is very network friendly. It only sends broadcasts when searching for other Chatter users. Packets are sent when the user hits return, presses Send, or selects a new icon during a conversation. The icon data it transmits is only about 2 kilobytes ( this translates to be about 5 or 6 appletalk packets, which is fairly trivial. )
Quality Assurance:
It has been tested on Macintoshes ranging from a Mac Classic to a Powermac 8100/80, and ran fine on AppleTalk, EtherTalk, and FDDITalk networks. It has been tested on both local and wide area networks ( wide here means from the East Coast of the United States to England ). Chatter does require System 7 or later.
Chatter is essentially free. It may be uploaded to BBSes, copied and passed around as much as you like, but with the following three restrictions:
1) Keep the Readme, Version History, and Dangercons files with Chatter.
2) Any person or organization that plans to redistribute it commercially ( say, on disks of shareware ) must obtain my permission before doing so.
3) If you like it, send me a postcard or an email message telling me how you’re using it. Programmers love to get feedback about their code ( yes, even negative feedback ) because it tells them that someone out has looked at what they’ve written. If you really like it send me a disk with something on it (fonts, source code, other shareware, pictures, etc. ) See the Credits section for my address. I’d like to hear from you if you have suggestions or bug reports. If you do have a bug report, please include your system software version, extensions/control panels being used, hardware configuration, and how to create the bug.
I can make no guarantees about how fast program changes will get made, but I will try to get back to you.
