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VARITALE.HP2
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1987-12-29
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90 lines
This HELP article is 90 lines long.
VARITALE COMMANDS -- A BRIEF TUTORIAL
Whenever you see the COMMAND> prompt,
it means VariTale is waiting for you to
enter one of these commands:
BROWSE, BYE, HELP, MAP, PICK, READ,
START, TIME or WIDTH.
You don't have to type the whole word.
Just enough to be recognizable. One or
two letters is usually enough.
There are some other commands, known as
the "librarian" commands, but those are
reserved for the person who runs the
VariTale library. They are described
in the instructions sent with VariTale,
so we won't discuss them now.
ABOUT THE COMMANDS
BROWSE lets you see what's inside a
VariTale book. You can explore the
table of contents without having to
read the chapters. This is a good way
to see the various branches the story
is taking. It also provides the chap-
ter numbers, which you'll need to know
if you want to jump into the middle of
the book.
BYE disconnects you from VariTale and
returns you to the system you were on,
originally. Sometimes, though, you'll
run out of time while in VariTale, in
which case, you'll get a count-down for
each of the last 5 minutes, after which
you'll be disconnected automatically.
HELP is what you're reading right now.
MAP is an alternative to BROWSE. It
shows how the chapters refer to others.
PICK shows you the various books in the
VariTale library, along with a few in-
dictions of their popularity. You can
then pick one of the books to either
READ or BROWSE.
READ lets you read the book that you've
selected with the PICK command.
When you've read to the end of a chain
of chapters, you'll have the chance to
add your own, although there is a maxi-
mum of five alternatives to any chap-
ter. Type carefully, though; you can
edit while entering your chapter, but
once you've saved it, you won't be able
to change it again.
While you're entering a chapter, you
can use the special * edit command to
get back to the COMMAND> prompt. This
allows you to check earlier chapters of
the story, even as you write. Please
take care to get the facts right. It's
a courtesy that will be appreciated.
START is used to start a book of your
own. Note that there is limited space
in the VariTale library, so wait until
you have a really good idea before you
use this command.
WIDTH sets your screen's width. The
default is 80 characters. The word-
wrapping doesn't attempt to format the
text you'll see, but it does prevent
words from being chopped in two.
So ... stay a while. Peruse our fine
collection of VariTale books. Don't
forget to make your own contribution!