>> 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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).