MacZephyr 1.5.4 Read Me - January 16, 2004 ======================= Overview -------- This is a native Mac OS X version of MacZephyr. It is based on the original MacZephyr code. As such, it looks and behaves similarly to the original MacZephyr for classic Mac OS, but is also subject to most of the limitations of the original client. The location of some support files has changed; see "What's New and What's Changed" below for more information. MacZephyr is a Macintosh client for zephyr, a real-time messaging and notification protocol. Zephyr is used by MIT students, faculty, and staff for academic and personal communication with other zephyr users (including MacZephyr, zephyr on Athena, and WinZephyr). It can also be used at institutions other than MIT that have a zephyr infrastructure. System Requirements ------------------- Mac OS X 10.2.x or later, a network connection. MacZephyr 1.5.x will not work on any earlier version of Mac OS X or any "classic" version of Mac OS. Mac OS 8.x and 9.x users should continue to use MacZephyr 1.3.4. Note that MacZephyr is a client only and requires a zephyr server to work with. There is not a zephyr server available for Mac OS. Installing ---------- Drag the MacZephyr application to the desired location on your hard disk (typically the Applications folder). If you are upgrading from a previous version of MacZephyr 1.5.x, you can just drag the new application to the same location to replace the old one, but be sure to quit MacZephyr if it's running before doing so. When you launch MacZephyr, MacZephyr will automatically check for the presence of the zephyr host manager (zhm) on your disk and will install or update it as necessary. This will require you to enter your admin password. Upgrading from MacZephyr 1.3.x ------------------------------ There is no way to convert your old MacZephyr preferences and window positions over; you will have to reset them. You can convert your old subscriptions (zephyr.subs) and znol anyone files for use with the new MacZephyr by using the included "Import Old MacZephyr Files" applet. See its read me for further information. If you want to convert them manually: The format of the subscriptions and znol anyone files remains essentially the same, although they now use Unix newlines instead of Mac newlines. If you want to use your old subscription and anyone files, you will need to copy them, rename them, and use a text editor such as BBedit (TextEdit is not sufficient) to change the newlines from Mac to Unix. Rename "zephyr.subs" in your old MacZephyr application folder to "edu.mit.MacZephyr.zephyr.subs" and copy it to ~/Library/Preferences . Change the new lines. Rename "anyone" to "edu.mit.MacZephyr.anyone" and copy it to ~/Library/Preferences . Change the new lines. What's New and Changed Since MacZephyr 1.5.3 -------------------------------------------- * New option: "Delete current message when moving to next." In a received message window, whenever you use the next message button or one of the keyboard commands to move to the next message (command-right-arrow or space bar), the current message will be deleted. Hold down the option key when this option is enabled to advance to the next message without deleting it. Off by default. This option does not apply to the previous message button or previous message keyboard commands. If only one message is left, you cannot delete it using this method. * "Fewer status messages" option returns. * Fixed problem where znol would fail when edu.mit.Maczephyr.anyone was an alias. Note, however, that edu.mit.MacZephyr.zephyr.subs cannot be an alias, because it is always recreated whenever a change is made to subscriptions. * Buttons in dialogs highlight properly when command-key equivalents are used. What's New and Changed Since MacZephyr 1.3.3 -------------------------------------------- * Now a native Mac OS X Mach-O application. * Carbonized old MacZephyr application code. * Now uses standard Unix zephyr library and zephyr host manager (zhm) instead of using its own special copy of each. * Will automatically install or update the zephyr host manager (zhm) on startup if necessary. * Will attempt to launch zhm on startup, and give error message if that fails. * You can send personal zephyrs to multiple recipients. Separate usernames with spaces on the recipient line (as per Unix zwrite). You will get an error if "*" is one of the recipients. * Command-clicking on URLs in text now sends them to the OS to be opened by default helpers. * New "Open URL" command in the Edit menu (command-key equivalent command-shift-U). This allows you to open a URL of a message selected in the List Window without opening it. If a message contains two URLs, it will only open the first. In a text window, the caret must be in the URL for this to work, or you'll get an error. * You can specify the fonts for the list window and the message windows (New Message, Received Message, Outgoing Messages, TTY Window) using the "Set List Window Font..." and "Set Message Window Font..." menu items under the Edit menu. (Only font face and size will be honored.) Defaults are Lucida Grande 10 for the List Window, and Courier 11 for the message windows. * Now displays hostname sender is zwriting from in the full message window. When a user sends a zephyr from a machine without a hostname, the hostname is displayed as a dotted quad IP address. * Will now display the realm of a sender when they are in a different realm from the recipient. Replies to such a sender will automatically pick up the realm, making cross-realm communication easier. * Displaying realms of external users in the list window is optional (controlled by the "Show external users' realm in list window" checkbox in the Preferences dialog). * External realm locates and external realms in znol lists now supported. * Now behaves better when multiple Kerberos principals are authenticated on the same Macintosh. * Now works with Kerberos principals with instances. * Preferences now saved to plist in ~/Library/Preferences instead of application resource fork. * Preferences now saved when you click on "OK" in Preferences dialog instead of when application is quit. * Window positions and sizes saved when you close windows instead of when application is quit. * Zephyr subscriptions now stored in "edu.mit.MacZephyr.zephyr.subs" file in ~/Library/Preferences * Znol now looks for file named ""edu.mit.MacZephyr.anyone" in ~/Library/Preferences * Znol now expects file with Unix newlines, not Mac newlines. * Default format of outgoing zephyrs matches Athena default format. * Improved window zoom behavior. * Status window now appears on the same screen as the front window (which may not be the same as the list window, for instance if your zwrite window is on a different screen from the list window). * "Preferences" and "Quit" menu items moved to proper Mac OS X location. * "Save as Text..." now has command-key equivalent of command-S because it is the only Save option. * "Anyone There?" (aka ping) now has command-key equivalent of command-option-E . * "Open," "Save," "Page Setup," and "Print" menu items removed because they are not supported. * New "Minimize" menu item in the "Windows" menu. * "Show Subscriptions" command-key equivalent changed to command-shift-H so as not to conflict with Mac OS X "hide" command key. * "Show List Window" command-key equivalent changed to command-shift-M so as not to conflict with Mac OS X "minimize" command key equivalent. * Took away command-key equivalents from "Next Window" and "Previous Window" since the OS handles those for us now (command-` and command-shift-`). Left the menu items in place. * "Reauthenticate" menu item removed. * "Sub & Save", "Unsub & Remove", "Filter & Save" buttons now the default in Subscribe, Unsubscribe, and Filter dialogs respectively. * "MacZephyr Read Me" now an option under "Help" menu. * "MacZephyr Shortcuts" help item now opens a text file instead of displaying a PICT. Updated list of shortcuts. Known Limitations in This Release --------------------------------- * Cannot be used without Kerberos. * MacZephyr will not work behind a NAT. This is a limitation of the zephyr protocol. * MacZephyr requires that your machine have a hostname. This is a limitation of the zephyr protocol. * If you put your computer to sleep while MacZephyr is still running, MacZephyr will often but not always recover when you wake it up. Do the following: - If you don't seem to be receiving zephyrs, try "Resend subs to server." - If you get an error after doing that, check to make sure your tickets are not expired. If they are, renew them, and try "Resend subs to server" again. - If neither of these works, you must quit MacZephyr, kill the zhm process, and relaunch MacZephyr to fix this problem - if you are not familiar with killing processes from the command-line, you should restart. Unfortunately the best work around for this problem is to remember to quit MacZephyr before putting your Mac to sleep. * You can only tell Eudora to get mail based on mail notifications, not any other mail client. * Printing no longer supported (you can save as text and print the text file from a text editor though, though). * You cannot run the old MacZephyr 1.3.x in Classic and MacZephyr 1.5.x in OS X at the same time. * Clicking on "Cancel" in Preferences dialog doesn't do quite the right thing - while any changes will not be saved to disk, they will still apply until you quit MacZephyr. * If you have an unsent new message window open when you change the message window font, the font of it won't change. The next new message window will honor the fonts. * Window positions and sizes are not saved when you actually move or size the windows, only when you close them. * Random signatures no longer supported. Troubleshooting --------------- If you have to repeatedly launch MacZephyr to get zhm to launch, check your DNS Server entries in your Network control panel. One of them may be incorrect. You can force zhm to be reinstalled if you suspect there is a problem by holding down the option key while launching MacZephyr. Creating an anyone file ----------------------- Create a text-only file and enter the username of each person you would like to locate, one username per line. The line should contain just the username, for example, "jdoe" not "jdoe@mit.edu." (Exception: if you want to locate someone in a different realm than you, enter their full username, including the realm.) You can create this file in several ways: * Use emacs or BBEdit. * Use your favorite word processor or Mac OS X's TextEdit, but save the file as a text only file (this option is usually found by choosing "Save As" instead of "Save" from the File menu). * If you already have a ".anyone" file on Athena, you can transfer this file to your Macintosh. Name the file "edu.mit.MacZephyr.anyone" and place it in ~/Library/Preferences (in your Home folder). *Not* /System/Library/Preferences ! Specifying a Zephyr Server -------------------------- You can now tell MacZephyr to use a particular zephyr server instead of using hesiod to determine a server - you will probably have to do this if you are at another institution besides MIT. (At MIT, you should always use hesiod, the default setting.) Either hold down the option key while launching MacZephyr or edit the "MZServerToUse" key in the "edu.mit.MacZephyr.plist" file to change it. Leave the server blank to use hesiod. If ZHM is already running, you'll need to either sudo kill it or restart your Mac to pick up the changes. (Logging out is not sufficient!) Technical Notes --------------- Unlike previous MacZephyr releases, MacZephyr 1.5.x uses an essentially unmodified version of the Unix zephyr library (statically linked into the application) and depends on a separate process, the Unix zephyr host manager (zhm). As such, in theory it can be used with other Unix clients if they were compiled for Mac OS X, although no other clients are officially supported or distributed at this time. The MacZephyr 1.5.x subscription and znol anyone files use the same format as their Unix counterparts, although it names and locates them differently. As such, you can copy your Unix files to the appropriate locations and names on Mac OS X (see above) and use them without further modification. Feedback -------- Please send bug reports or suggestions to . --MIT Information Systems MacDev