Amiga Ytalk 3.0 patch level 2


Ported on Amiga OS by Luca Viola on the 23rd of May, 1996.
This is Amiga release 1.0a.


Summary of topics
  1. WHAT IS YTALK?
  2. REQUIREMENTS
  3. THE TALK DAEMON
  4. THE NCURSES LIBRARY
  5. INSTALLATION
  6. USAGE
  7. BUGS
  8. TODO
  9. HISTORY
  10. LEGAL STUFF AND CREDITS

What is ytalk?


YTalk is a tool developed by Britt Yenne, which has some interesting features over the common Un*x Talk and Ntalk. One of the most nice is support for MULTIPLE talk connections: more than 2 people at a time are allowed to chat, it has logging features, and (in the original Un*x version, but not currently implemented in this Amiga version...) remote shell capabilities, whose output is shown in ytalk windows.

Requirements

I have tested it on an Amiga 4000/040 with OS3.1 and AmiTCP/IP 4.2. Anyway, it should work fine on every configuration. MINIMUM required is: NOTE: a '+' (plus) sign after version numbers means "or a better one".

The talk daemon

A talk program, to work, needs a talk daemon, that is a program wich checks on a particolar port incoming talk requests. I am including as part of this distributions the nice talk daemon written by Brian Gunn (author of AmiTALK, a traditional 2-user talk program available on Aminet and freely redistributable). This talk daemon, even if a bit buggy, works quite fine and spawns an arexx script for every incoming talk request, allowing easy customization.

The ncurses library

Ytalk relies heavily on the video terminal codes to move cursor,highlite it, etc. Since it was developed under Un*ix environment, it uses the termcap and curses libraries available to unix coders, which provide a standard way to access a database of terminal video codes. Doing so, all terminal based software will work on any terminal in a transparent way. The Amiga ytalk relies on a porting of ncurses library that I made (due to be released soon). Ncurses is an extension of traditional curses, and as a terminal database it uses the terminfo model. Provided with this installation there is a minimal terminfo database with amiga entries for use with the Amiga shell.

Installation

There are 2 shell scripts provided with this installation: install.shell and deinstall.shell. The first one shoud install in a secure way the talk daemon,ytalk and the terminfo database, backing up the 2 files amitcp:db/services and amitcp:db/inetd.conf that need to be modified. The backup names will be amitcp:db/inetd.conf.original and amitcp:db/services.original. Deinstall.shell will remove all the stuff. To automatically install it, do: 

execute install.shell (to install all the stuff)
execute deinstall.shell (to remove it)
NOTE: THESE SCRIPTS WORK FINE, BUT I HAVEN'T TESTED THEM UNDER EVERY CONDITION.
If you prefer having direct control, here there is what to do manually: To install the talk daemon: NOTE: Remember that RexxMast must be active to receive incoming talks, because the talk daemon spawns an arexx script when that happens.

Usage

Very easy. To talk a user, you have to type: 

ytalk user@host.bla.bla
Ytalk will start inside your shell. For further informations on its options and run time menues please check the original documentation, in the file docs/ytalk.cat. When someone will talk you, a requester will appear, asking wether to accept or not the incoming talk request. Clicking on "Answer", a new shell will be started with ytalk in it. If other users will talk you, ytalk will ask you wether to include them in the chat window. Pressing ESC during a ytalk session will pop up a menu with its options. By checking the global environment variable $CALLER you can now the address of the last person who talked you.

Bugs

Ytalk seems not to have bugs. The talk daemon has some. Under unix you can use the talk, ntalk and ytalk ;) programs to talk to another user. The talk protocol is older, while ntalk is better and more recent. Ytalk can handle both protocols and, while calling, it appears as an ntalk request. Unluckily, the talk daemon included in this distribution has some problems with handling the older talk protocol: sometimes it does not receive incoming requests at all, or creates other troubles. I am working since now to a port of a new talk daemon for Amiga, which I hope will resolve some of these problems. Anyway, you'll have no troubles with other users using ytalk or ntalk on their side (well, I HOPE it ;-) ). If you see a bug, please send me an email to viola@cli.di.unipi.it, with subject: Amiga Ytalk bug report
You can often find me on IRC, channel #italia or channel #amigaita, my nickname is BathMan. If you want to ytalk me, do a 

finger viola@helen.cli.di.unipi.it
In my .plan, if I am connected with my Amiga, you will find my dynamic IP address... grab it and call me with 

ytalk BathMan@DYNAMYC-IP.cnuce.cnr.it
And you'll help me to test it :)

Todo

The first need is a new talk daemon, and removing all bugs you will tell me about. Maybe I'll try to implement the remote shell feature: the Un*ix ytalk can open an interactive shell inside the ytalk chat window, and all users connected can see the commands you give and their output. If you have suggestions or ideas, let me know.

History

Legal stuff and credits

This Amiga release is placed in the freeware area. You can use it as you want, except for commercial purposes. The only people authorized to include this software in COMMERCIAL PD compilations are Fred Fish and the Aminet staff.

The original author of ytalk is Britt Yenne (yenne@austin.eds.com)
The author of talkd is Brian Gunn (gunnbr@cs.rose-hulman.edu)
The guy who ported this onto AmigaOS is Luca Viola (viola@cli.di.unipi.it)

Last updated: 26 May 1996