xzwrite - X application to write to another user via Zephyr

xzwrite [ -toolkitoption ... ] [-s signature] [+d | -d] [+n | -n] [+v | -v] [+yd | -yd] [+av | -av] [+ci | -ci] [-my yanks] [+l | -l] [+a | -a] [+x | -x] [+z | -z] [+pong | -pong] [+reply | -reply]

Xzwrite is an X application that sends messages to other users through the Zephyr(1) notification service. It puts an icon on the screen that allows the user to send a message, select the destination of a message, or exit. The program remains active until explicity told to exit, thus eliminating the need to run a program every time the user wants to send a zephyr message.

Xzwrite maintains a list of 'destinations'; that is, a list of <class, instance, recipient> triples that a user can send messages to. When a user selects a destination, all subsequent messages will be sent to that triple, until a new destination is selected. Xzwrite can get its list of destinations from the files .xzwrite.dest, user's home directory. These files must consist of a list of lines, and each is interpreted in the following way: a line containing no commas is taken to mean <MESSAGE,PERSONAL,string>; a line with one comma is taken to be either <class,instance,*> or <MESSAGE,instance,recipient> depending on the value of the classInst resource (see below); a line with two commas is taken to be <class,instance,recipient>. A line that begins with an exclamation point (!) is treated as an "unsubscription" and has the effect of removing destinations read from any other file that match the destination on that line. The lines must appear WITHOUT WHITESPACE between the fields and with a linefeed between each line. Blank lines and lines beginning with an octothorpe (#) are ignored.

Clicking the left button in the xzwrite icon pops up the editor and destination list. Clicking with the left button in the destination list selects the highlighted destination; clicking with the right button deletes the highlighed destination. Clicking the middle button invokes the action CreateDest (see ACTIONS below) that prompts the user for a new <class,instance,recipient> triple to be added to the list.

If the user specifies a destination in the .xzwrite.dest file with an instance or recipient of "...", xzwrite will prompt the user to enter an instance or recipient when the message editor is popped up. Setting both instance and recipient to "..." (ie: <MESSAGE,...,...>) works. The new <class,instance,recipient> triple formed each time a destination with "..." is used may or may not be added to the destination list, depending on the addVars resource (see below.)

While the mouse pointer is inside the xzwrite icon, the mouse buttons have the following effect:

Left button:

Pops up the editor and destination list so the user can create and send messages.

Right button:

Pops up a list of things that can be changed while xzwrite is running. Clicking the "Change Signature" box causes xzwrite to prompt for a new signature, to be used in future messages. All the others toggle options which are initially set by resources or command-line arguments. The "Quit XZWRITE" causes xzwrite to exit.

Ctrl-Right button:

Exits xzwrite.

There are four buttons in the message editor. The Send button sends the text currently in the message editor to the current destination, optionally clearing the message editor at the same time. The Clear Editor button clears the message editor. The Yank-Prev button yanks the previous message, along with its destination, into the message editor. The Yank-Next button yanks the next message (or the first message in the yank buffer, if Yank-Prev has not been called) into the message editor. The yank buffer is circular, so old messages are periodically overwritten by new ones, and stores the previous (by default) 25 messages.

The following key sequences have been defined for convenience:

	Ctrl-Return		Send message
	Meta-O			Store current message, yank previous
	Meta-P			Yank Previous
	Meta-N			Yank Next

Xzwrite will accept all X Toolkit command-line options and resource database specifications, under the name 'XZwrite'; for more information, see X(1). The instance names of the different parts of xzwrite are as follows (each should be preceded by XZwrite* in the user's .Xresources file. For examples of how to use these resource names, look in /usr/athena/lib/zephyr/XZwrite.)

 toplevel - the top level shell
      icon - the top level "Z" icon

sendWindow - the popup shell for the editor/destlist sendForm - the form holding the edit tree and dest tree sendClose - button to close sendWindow

editPane - the pane holding editor widgets editTitle - the label holding the zephyr triple editForm - the box holding editor command buttons editSend - button to send message editClear - button to clear editor editPrev - button to yank previous editNext - button to yank next editor - the text editor

destForm - the form holding the destinations list/button destScroll - the scrollbar holding the list destList - the destination list

menuWindow - the popup shell for the menu menuForm - the form holding the menu list/button menuClose - the Close Window button for the dest list signature - button to change signature closeOnSend pings verbose authentic yankDest addGlobals classInst exitProgram

getStringWindow - the popup shell for dialog boxes (GetString.c) getStringForm - the form containing the dialog widgets getStringTitle - the title label width getStringEdit - the text editor getStringAccept - the accept button getStringCancel - the cancel button

In addition, xzwrite will accept the following command-line options (or resource database specifications). Each should be preceded by XZwrite* in the user's .Xresources file. When a command-lie

+d (auth = true)

-d (auth = false)

When true, Zephyr messages to be sent authentic. When false, Zephyr messages are sent unauthentic.

+v (verbose = true)

-v (verbose = false)

When true, causes xzwrite to inform the user no one received a sent message by beeping. This is useful if the user wants to know if someone logged out between the time when the editor is popped up (when a PING is sent) and when the message is actually sent.

+z (readZephyr = true)

-z (readZephyr = false)

When true, causes xzwrite to include the .zephyr.subs file for its initial list of destinations.

+a (readAnyone = true)

-a (readAnyone = false)

When true, causes xzwrite to include the user's .anyone file for its initial list of destinations.

+x (readXzwrite = true)

-x (readXzwrite = false)

When true, causes xzwrite to include the user's .xzwrite.dest file for its initial list of destinations.

+l (trackLogins = true)

-l (trackLogins = false)

When true, xzwrite determines (at startup) if each username on the destination list is logged on and removes those usernames that are not. It then subscribes to login and logout messages for each username on the list, and keeps the destination list up to date with respect to which users are zwrite-able.

+pong (pongScan = true)

-pong (pongScan = false)

Controls the method xzwrite uses determine whether a certain user is logged in. If true, xzwrite sends a notice with an opcode of PING (and a message body of PONG) and awaits a response; if false, xzwrite performs a "zlocate". Note that this resource is only used when trackLogins is true.

-s (signature)

Specifies the 'signature' for all messages sent. The signature will appear as the first field in every message sent. Xzwrite will also look in the user's .zephyr.vars file to a signature, first for the variable xzwrite-signature and then for the variable zwrite-signature. If neither is found, Xzwrite will look in the /etc/passwd file for the user's name.

+n (ping = true)

-n (ping = false)

When ping is set to true, xzwrite sends a PING to the destination when it is initially selected. Xzwrite uses the PING to determine if anyone will actually receive a message sent to that destination, and will not allow it to be selected if not.

+ci (classInst = true)

-ci (classInst = false)

When ci is set to true, a destination that contains two strings separated by a comma is interpreted as a class and instance, with a recipient of "*". When it is false, the same string is interpreted as an instance and recipient, with a class of MESSAGE.

+yd (yankDest = true)

-yd (yankDest = false)

When yd is set to true, yanking a previous message in the message editor also restores the original destination of the message. When set to false, only the message text is yanked, and the current destination remains unchanged.

+av (addVars = true)

-av (addVars = false)

When av is set to true, destinations that are specified as the result of a recipient or instance of "..." are added to the destinations list so they can be selected again.

+reply (autoReply = true)

-reply (autoReply = false)

When autoReply is set to true, xzwrite subscribes to <MESSAGE,*,%me%> (in other words, all messages sent directly to the user). Each time such a message is received, a destination that will reply to the sender on the same instance is added to the destination list, if it is not already there.

Every useful action that xzwrite can perform can be bound to any sequence of X events through the mechanism of translation tables. The following action procedures available to the user.

  OpenSend
  CloseSend
     Pops up/Pops down the message editor/destination list.  

SendMessage Sends the message in the editor to the current destination.

ClearEditor Clears the editor.

YankStore Stores the contents in the message editor in the Yank buffer.

YankPrev YankNext Puts the previous/next item in the yank buffer into the editor, optionally restoring the destination as well.

SelectDest DeleteDest Selects/deletes the hightlighed destination.

CreateDest Prompts the user for a <class,instance,recipient> triple to be added to the destinations list.

OpenMenu CloseMenu Pops up/Pops down the options menu.

ToggleOption Toggles the option corresponding to the hightlighed item on the options menu.

Signature Pops up a dialog box and changes the Zephyr signature to whatever is typed into it.

For examples on how to use these action procedures, look in /usr/athena/lib/zephyr/XZwrite.

/usr/athena/lib/zephyr/xzwrite.bitmap

Default icon bitmap

/usr/athena/lib/zephyr/XZwrite

Xzwrite program defaults

/etc/passwd

Signature field (from gecos information)

~/.Xresources

user X resources database file

~/.xzwrite.dest

The user's xzwrite destinations list. ~/.anyone The user's .anyone file. ~/.zephyr.subs The user's zephyr subscription file.

X(1), zephyr(1)

xzwrite occasionally decided to ignore the state of the "Pings" and "Authentic" menu options, unless you happen to be running the program under a debugger.

This man page contains many errors and omissions.

Written by Barry Jaspan (bjaspan@mit.edu), MIT Project Athena and MIT Student Information Processing Board.