>> Note: I'm including a short description of the LsvTalk package at the end
>> of this note, for the benefit of REXXLIST readers, where LsvTalk was never
>> explained in detail. New LSTSRV-L subscribers may also find it interesting.
I've just stored on LISTSERV@DEARN the latest version of LSVTALK. News with
this release:
* The LSVTALK package contains a new file, "LSVTALK NEWS", which will be used
to describe the changes every time I'll store a new (non bog-fix) version.
* A new command line parameter (and Control Panel option) has been added to
request LsvTalk to start either in "Warm" or "Cold" mode. Warm start is now
the default. When you exit LsvTalk and the Warm switch is on, the current
session is checkpointed to a file called "LSVTALK LASTSESS A0". Next time
you inkove LsvTalk, your session, current dialog partner or host, PF-key
setting, mode stack, and current mode, will be restored automatically. This
can be very useful if you have to interrupt your session for whatever reason
-- you'll not loose any data, you'll stll be able to scroll back and see
what commands did you issue and which were their results, etc. You will of
course notice some increase of CPU time when entering and leaving LsvTalk,
since it now has to read and write the whole session.
Please note that the implementation of the warm start concept implies that
no profiles will be processed when a warm start is being performed, since
all settings are passed intact using the warm start data file.
All the preceding can be bypassed if you select the COLD start option.
LsvTalk will then behave as in the previous version.
* Some minor bugs in the handling of logfiles have been fixed.
These changes affect LSVTALK EXEC, LSVTALK HELPLIB, LSVTALK HELPCMS, LSVTALK
NEWS and PROFLTK XEDIT. Bitnet and Netnorth subscribers will receive
automatically a copy; I'd like to encourage other users of LsvTalk who like
the program to AFD also to the package.
This version makes obsolete the previous version, which I will no longer
support, fix or distribute. The present version is NOT available to EARN
users.
Jose Maria
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Short description of LsvTalk.
LsvTalk is a full-screen dialog manager. It works similarly to most chat
programs, and contains built-in drivers to facilitate the use of the most
important servers in the network (namely, LISTSERV and NETSERV). The whole
dialog is kept in an XEDIT file, which allows the use of several basic but
still powerful XEDIT facilities. You can scroll up and down, left and right,
to see what your dialog partner or host replied some time ago, and thus you
are not limited by the size of your terminal (and by messages which disappear
if you are using native CMS); you can also locate desired data using the
locate command, use "permanent" (&-prefixed) commands as in XEDIT, etc.
LsvTalk can be used as a conventional chat program, as a means to communicate
with servers (with a specialized mode to do LISTSERV DATABASE searches) or as
a limited form of full-screen CMS manager. A simple conventional helpfile is
offered with the package, along with a full contextual pop-up window help
builtin facility. Program options can be changed on invocation or from a
pop-up Control Panel. Other facilities (as password masking and prompting,
smooth scrolling, or cursor scrolling) are described in the builtin help
facility.
LsvTalk works on CMS releases 3, 4, 5 and 5.5 under VM/SP (with or without
HPO), VM/XA SF 2 and VM/XA SP 1 and 2 (but for VM/XA it is not supported in
XA-mode machines).
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