Documentation for The Mad Chatter - A Novell Network based chat system. 95-96.

the-mad-chatter.txt

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                                Brought to you by
                                  Neat Software:

LICENSING AGREEMENT
  We believe that you should be required to have a license in order to
drive.  Every thirty seconds someone is killed in a car accident. That's
BAD.  We are a positive company. We believe in you, and thats why we
believe that you will register this software. Hell, it's FREE. That's
cheaper than some of those Child Saving Institute campaigns. Cheaper
than water, you drink water don't you? (Good one Madan).

DISCLAIMER
  The programmers of this software can't be held if this program decides
to get a mind of its own and crashes your server.  YOU RUN THIS PROGRAM
AT YOUR OWN RISK! In fact, if you report any damages, we won't even claim
the program.  The Mad Chatter places high demands on a server.
In other words, kids, don't try this at home.

REGISTRATION IS FREE!
  Send us a postcard or something.  Send us a picture of your favorite
pet. Just because we are programmers doesn't mean that we couldn't use
a few friends. There is a registration form included for those of you who
dread picking up a pencil. Be sure to include the name (make sure it's
exactly the way you want it) in which you want the software to be registered
to. Once we receive the form (or a postcard and that picture of your pet),
we will send you a postcard back with your registration number. Once you
have your registration number, go to the directory in which the Mad Chatter
is installed, and type "CHAT REGISTER". It will then prompt you for your
registration name (enter it exactly the way you did on the form), press
return, and then enter your registration number. Registering the Mad Chatter
allows you to use the sysop utilities (read on for information on the sysop
utilities).

"I've been working with computers for a long time, and I can honestly
 say the MadChatter is the best program I've ever used! That's why I
 registered it."
                                        --B. Gates, WA

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
  Neat Software consists of me (Jim Jones) and my friend Madan
Ramakrishnan.  I am 18 years old and Madan is 17.  We are just two
teenagers with nothing better to do than programming stuff and crack
stupid jokes.  We have fun programming together and plan to own our own
game development company someday (watch for us on the Fortune 500 list).
Maybe your company would like to hire us? We'll program for food.

INTRODUCTION
  Once again, Congratulations!!! You've just downloaded the most advanced
teleconferencing program money can't buy!!!  The MadChatter includes advanced
features too numerous to count (examples such as sysop-definable chat forums
variable message formats pop to mind). Video conferencing also included (Ummmm,
next version). You can chat with your grandma (if your network is that
big).

"Chat changed my whole life.  I used to be a loner - never had any
friends.  Now with Chat, I'm the life of the party"
                                        Stuart G., IA


REQUIREMENTS
  The Madchatter requires a networked PC with access to a shared drive.  (Each
user must have read AND write access). 3 out of 4 doctors recommend
daily doses of chat. Surgeon General Warning: Too much Mad Chatter could
result in anxiety, fatigue, dizziness, and may act withdrawn.


INSTALLATION
  Copy CHAT.EXE to the shared drive.  Installation is that easy!  The MadChatter
takes care of the rest.

"I couldn't believe how easy the MadChatter was to set up.  It was a
dream - like walking on clouds.  I love this program!"
                                        John D., NE

GETTING STARTED
  For those of you who like to jump right into a program, go ahead and run
MadChatter.  Follow all onscreen instructions; all features are clearly
displayed at the bottom of the main window.
  Upon running MadChatter, you will be asked to enter a handle.  Handles are
restricted to eight characters, and cannot include any extended keys.  After
entering your handle, you will be presented with the main menu, where you can
join a channel, list users currently on the system, or logoff from the system.
For example: If a user wanted to go by "StudPants" they couldn't. Why
not? Because "StudPants" is 9 characters long silly! But they could go
by "StudPant", but that sounds rather odd.


USER LEVELS
  The chat system is made up of 4 different user access levels. Each
user level give you access to different functions.

Regular User: Self explanitory. The user is allowed to send and recieve
messages of all types, send and receive pages, and join other channels.

Channel Moderator: A channel moderator has all the access priveledges
like a regular user, except for one thing.  When a sysop makes a channel
they are allowed to define up to 10 LAN members to monitor that channel.
When the user is within the channel the are assigned to moderate, they
may kick off the system any member within the channel or they just may
kick the user out of their channel.  If a user is assigned to be a
moderator of a channel, even if the channel is password protected, when
joining the channel, the moderator will NOT have to enter the password
of their channel.

System Moderator: A system moderator has all the capabilities of a
channel moderator, except that they are able to perform the same
function within ANY channel.  When entering another channel, a system
moderator does not have to enter a password.  They may kick a user off
the system in any channel.

Sysop: The sysop carries all of the access priveledges of a system
moderator, except that they also carry the ability to define who are the
system moderators, and also get to create their own channels (more on
that later).

"I decided to take charge of my life, so I installed CHAT onto my server.
 The Mad Chatter helped me to find my "needle in the haystack". That's
 where I met John. A big thanks to the people at Neat Software!"
                                        -- Richard S., San Francisco

ASSIGNING SYSOP ACCESS LEVEL
  Unlike the user levels of channel and system moderator, the sysop
access level must be assigned through Novell admninistration.  Make a
subdirectory within the CHAT.EXE install directory called "SYSTEM"
(example path: "C:\CHAT\SYSTEM").  Once the system directory is setup
give all regular users READ ONLY access to the SYSTEM subdirectory.  In
order for someone to have sysop access they MUST have READ & WRITE
access to the SYSTEM subdirectory.  Having WRITE access allows the
sysops to write the channel data files to the SYSTEM subdirectory.

CHATTING WITH OTHERS
  To join a channel, you must press 1 from the main menu.  You will then
be prompted for which channel you wish to join.  If you wish to join the
main channel (default), just press return.
  You are now within the main channel.  This is the place where you can
type messages to other users from within the channel. Here is a rundown
of the various functions that can be performed from within a chat
channel.

F1 = Public Mode.  This means that any message that you type and send
out will be broadcasted to everyone withint your current channel.
Public mode is the default mode for all messages.

F2 = Whisper Mode. When you first press the F2 key, you must enter the
name of the member in which you wish to whisper to.  If the member is
valid (currently within the channel), you will then be returned to the
comment prompt in which you enter the message that you wish to send to
your particular member.  The message will only be sent to the member
that you specified.

F3 = Action Mode.  Since you cannot express your emotions from within the
text based system,  you can tell the others how you feel by using an
action message. If you wanted to tell other members in the channel that
you are smiling, you would just press F3 and complete the
rest of the sentence.  Example: "is touching himself.<cr>" Would be broadcasted
to others as "Jim is touching himself."

F4 = Who's in channel.  This function allows you to view
all of the users currently within their channel.  The channel listing
includes each member's node #, their network ID, handle, and time they
arrived in the channel.

F5 = Who's on the system.  This function you to view everyone that
currently logged into the chat system.  This includes all members who are
within the various channels and the members at the the main menu.  The
listing includes the members handle and the time that they logged into
the chat system.

F6 = Join another channel.  Just like option 2 from the main menu, this
function will allow you to join other channels that have been defined by
the sysop.  So say if your friend had a channel called "Chat", you would
just press F6, and enter the name chat.  Channel passwords are allowed,
so if your buddy protected his channel with a password, that is going to
be needed to get into that particular channel.  You are allowed to
join the channel if you know the particular password (if channel is
password protected) and that the channel is not full (maximum of 20
members per channel).

F7 = Logout. If you do not want to chat on the system anymore and are
ready to leave, just simply press F7, and it will log you out from the
system.  You may also logout from the system by pressing selection 3
from the main menu.

F8 = Kick user out.  You are only allowed to kick a user out of a
channel if A) You are the sysop of the chat system, B) you are defined
as one of the system moderators, or C) a channel moderator of the
channel you are currently within. Kicking a user out will result
returning that particular user to the main menu.  Since some channels
may be password protected, and you wouldn't want that particular member
to return to the channel, after kicking a member out of a password
protected channel, it prompts you to change the password of the channel
to assure that the member cannot return to the channel.

F9 = Kick user off.  Again, you are only allowed to kick a user off the
system if you are A) a sysop, B) a system moderator, or C) a channel
moderator of the channel you are currently within.  Kicking a user off
of the system results in that member being logged out of the chat system
and being returned to the DOS prompt.

F10 = Sysop menu.

  Remember, you only get to use the sysop utilities if you register the Mad
Chatter! Come on it's free!

<G>rant/Revoke system moderator access.
This option allows the sysop to define who carries the system moderator
access level. Entering the LAN ID once results in giving the LAN ID
access, entering the particular ID again, will revoke the access.

<ESC> = Clear comment.
By pressing the escape button, it will clear any text within the field
you are currently using.

<M>ake channel.
This option allows the sysop to define their own channel.  The sysop is
first prompted to enter the name of the channel.
  After entering the name of the channel, the sysop is prompted in
whether they wish to password protect the channel or not.  If a password is
chosen for the channel, every *regular* user must enter the valid
password to enter the channel.  Otherwise, without a password defined,
any user may enter the channel at will.
  Next the sysop must define whether they want the channel to be
<N>ormal or <A>nonymous.  If the channel is defined as normal, messages
between the users are exchanged normally.  But if the channel is defined
as anonymous, the LAN ID will not appear on "who's in the channel"
listing and each user will be referred to by a user number, not by their
handle.  Example user listing:

Node #        Login Name          Handle               Time Entered
     0                            User #0                     10:30

  The purpose of having an anonymous channel is to allow users to
express their ideas without other users knowing who they are. From
within an anonymous channel, your users are free from biases. Dr. Martin
Luther King would be proud. Let freedom ring kids!
  Lastly, the sysop can enter up to ten LAN user ID's to be channel
moderators for the particular channel being created.

<R>emove channel.
  The function of the remove channel is to erase the configuration file
for the channel that you enter.

Please keep in mind, that if you are within a mode and wish to change to
another message mode, you just simply press that function key.  So say
you started to write a public message and wanted to make it a generic
action instead, then just press F3. It would then change you to Generic
Action mode. You could just as easily change back to Public mode by
pressing F1.  And whatever message that you started to type is kept, so
there is no need to retype your comment after switching modes!

SUMMARY:
  We hope that you enjoyed using The Mad Chatter as much as we enjoyed
programming it for you.  We want to hear your comments! Drop us some
comments about our software. Please report any bugs/undocumented
features to us.  Happy Chatting!