Is it possible to edit one of my previous responses to a conference item?

32 responses total.

The most you can do is "scribble" it (make it unreadable), although
any such scribbled text is stored in a special "censored" log that
anyone can read.

The "info" conference is intended for "how to use the system" questions
of this kind.  Perhaps this item could be linked there?

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And after you scribble the "previous" response, put in a new, different,
better, whatever, response if you wish to.
 

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I've only scribbled when I'm interrupted by someone wanting to chat, while
I'm typing a response - and I get into a "mess". Which leads me to ask -
what should I do to both 1. finish my response without the "chat" inquiry
intruding, and 2. respond to the chat request? (Or, one, or the other,
along.)

Now, if I could only edit that "along" to an "alone"..consider it done.

Valerie, the scribble/re-enter option is for when you only notice your
problems after the response was entered.  :e  won't help you then.

Rane, here is your procedure:

1. Get to the beginning of a line (in your response, not the screen -
   in other words, press the Enter-or-whatever key if you hadn't just
   done so).

2a. If you want to chat:  Enter a line of the form:  :!write username
    (colon, bang, "write", blank, and the username, at the beginning of the
    line).  Finish your chat session as usual & go to step 3.

2b. If you DON'T want to chat: Enter this line: :!mesg n
    (colon, bang, "mesg", blank, "n" - as always, right at the beginning)

3. Back at the Picospan item-entry prompt, enter :p
   (colon, "p") to redisplay your response so far.  At this point you
   may just continue it if you like by typing more material.  If you
   want to edit anything, enter a line :e (at the beginning) to invoke
   whatever editor you've set up.  From there you're on your own.

re 7.2a
        PLEASE don't use write.  It's annoying to wait for a full
line, because you can't tell if the person is alive or not.  PLEASE
use !chat.

If someone has used !write or !chat to me, do I have to respond in the
same mode? If it matters, how do I know in which mode I was addressed?
Are the instructions (for saving a response in progress) the same for
either?

The instructions are the same, you don't have to respond in the same mode,
you won't know which mode you were addressed, and I for one prefer write
so nobody chat me please.

(That should say - you won't know in which mode you were addressed until
the other part starts typing)

yes..  to reply to a chat/write, type   !chat or !write or omit the bang if at
a unix shell prompt

 I really prefer !talk. 

Aha.  I'm not used to having !chat, so that explains why sometimes I get
line-buffered stuff & sometimes not.  (I prefer talk myself.)

I dislike "chat", because I hate having to watch the other person
correct typos.  If you can't type fast enough to assure me that you're
alive in line-by-line mode, then use e-mail please.  (Yes, that's
somewhat hardnosed, but I really *really* dislike having to wait several
minutes for someone to hunt-and-peck out a line, especially when I
don't have a lot of time to spend on-line.)  I dislike "talk" because
it's much more difficult (read: impossible) to scroll back a "talk"
conversation, or log it to disk.  You can do both with a "write"
conversation.

Remember, also, that the message about the write request does *not*
get entered into your item or response, even though it might appear
in the middle of your text on your screen.  You can hit ^R at any
time to redisplay the system's idea of your current input line, or
type ":p" at the beginning of a line (as mentioned above) to print
the current response/item.

  well then use !write -c. That I believe is the letter by letter mode
of write.

No wonder I'm confused. Please describe how !write, !chat and !talk
each look, so I can get them sorted out in my unixbobulated mind.

write and chat are basically identical, except that write's default
behavior apparently gives you the other party's input a line at a time,
whereas chat's gives it to you a keystroke at a time or so.

With either of them, one party initiates, and the other party sees what's
typed until an EOF (control-D unless you specified something else) is done.
The normal procedure is to carry on a conversation by having one party
initiate and wait while the other also runs write or chat, and then
taking turns.  Common protocol is to type a line or whatever, then a line
with   o   on it & wait for the other party to respond, with   oo   to say
"I'm about to do EOF".

With talk as it works on Grex, both parties *must* run talk.  You get a
message that someone is trying to talk to you and that you should run
talk back to them.  When both have it going, the responses appear in 
separate sections of the screen, & both can type at the same time.  I
don't remember whether it's control-D or control-C to end the session.

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Should be.

Yes.  chat is the same as write -c

excerpt from /etc/wrttab
* -f
chat -c

the -f doesn't let you pipe stuff, or input anything but from the
keyboard.. (but I know a way around that...)
and the -c tells it char by char.

Is that amin program source publicly available for use on other systems?
It sounds very handy.
 
Also, is there some way to "talk" to another person on another system
so that the lines intermingle in a single window?  (I'm sick of talk
doing the split screen thing, and not being able to get a decent log
of the conversation, or an indication of the time order of responses.
*And* I'm trying to get this to work at UM, not on Grex, though I would
prefer a single-window a approach here, also -- and a line-at-a-time
approach -- watching spelling errors get corrected *is* truly annoying).

Kent, try using "write" instead of talk.  It's pretty much what you've
described.

(I on the other hand, prefer to use "talk" so that I can tell if my
companion of the moment is still typing, or if s/he has forgotten
the "o" since I often communicate with people who are new to GREX
and may or may not be slow typists.

"write" only works locally, though, not over the internet as "talk" does.

Yes.  I like !talk, because I can type at a moderate rate, which is always
good for programmers.. :-)

The amin source is probably available on M-Net, but you could also ask
janc - send mail to wolter@cs.tamu.edu

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

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Thanks.

  Kent: if you don't want to use talk, and write's driving you up a wall,
do write -c (or chat), which will do a normal bbs type chat thing--one
character at a time :)

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I wondered about that.  Makes sense once you look at the amin source.

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