To start barnowl
, run the command add barnowl; barnowl
at the
prompt on any Athena machine or dialup, such as linerva.mit.edu
.
The simplest use of Zephyr is to send personal zephyrs to other
users. To send a zephyr, type :
to bring up a command line, and run
the command zwrite USERNAME
. You can also start a zwrite
command by simply typing z
.
You can then enter your message, and then enter a .
on a line by
itself to finish the zephyr. By convention, zephyrs are usually
word-wrapped to 70-character lines or so; Pressing M-q
(Alt-q) will
word-wrap the text you've entered for you.
Once you've sent and received zephyrs, you can navigate the message
list with the arrow keys. Press d
to mark a message as deleted,
u
to undelete it, and x
to expunge all messages that have
been marked as deleted.
Instead of entering a zwrite
command manually, you can also select
a message in the message list with the arrow keys, and reply to it
using r
, which will automatically set up an appropriate zwrite
command.
Most interesting discussion on Zephyr, however, happens on so-called Zephyr classes. A class is a bit like a chat room in other IM systems. Anyone can send a zephyr to a class, and anyone who is subscribed to that class will receive it. There is no security on classes -- anyone who knows the name of a class can subscribe, and there is no way to determine who is subscribed to a given class.
To subscribe to a class, use the subscribe
command:
:subscribe CLASSNAME * *
To send a zephyr to a class, use the zwrite
command with the -c
option:
:zwrite -c CLASSNAME
Zephyrs to classes usually have an instance attached. An instance
is a short “topic” or “subject” that indicates the context of a
zephyr. Different instances are often used to multiplex multiple
conversations on a high-traffic class. You can specify an instance
with the -i
option to zwrite
:
:zwrite -c CLASSNAME -i INSTANCE
A message without an instance specified will default to the instance “personal”.
Some common classes include:
-c help
is a class for asking (and answering) questions on
virtually any topic imaginable. Be sure to use an instance (such as
“linux”, “barnowl”, “campus”, or so on) when asking questions, since
it's a fairly high-traffic class.
-c sipb
is where most SIPB members hang out. It's a place for
technical discussion, questions, support, and organizing SIPB events
or projects. You should also always use an instance when sending to
-c sipb
.
By convention, nearly every Zephyr user has a "personal" class that is the same as their username. How this class is used varies from person to person, but it's often a sort of mini-blog, a place to report what one is working on or up to, or ask friends questions, or just rant about something.
If you have questions, you can send them via email to sipb@mit.edu
,
or to -c sipb
(with an appropriate instance).