YTalk YTalk is a compatible replacement for the Unix talk(1) program, which adds a number of features. Mainly, it can talk to more than one person at a time, and it can the two different types of talk daemons out there. For compilation and installation instructions, please see the file `INSTALL' in the same directory. The gist of it is: ./configure make make install YTalk was written and maintained by Britt Yenne up to verison 3.0pl2. That version was released years ago, and there have been no new releases since then, so I (Roger Espel Llima, <roger.espel.llima@pobox.com>) have taken up maintenance, updating the code to work with newer Unixes, fixing bugs and adding new features. YTalk is free software, which can be freely redistributed, used and modified as long as the copyright notices are kept in the source and header files. If you hack in new neat things, or fix bugs, or have ideas about new features, feel free to mail me at <roger.espel.llima@pobox.com> about it. Same if you have trouble compiling or running YTalk. =========================================================================== Changes in YTalk since version 3.1 : + Now looks a bit harder for the fqdn of the current machine. + Fixed problems with ncurses resizing under Linux, and (again) with Ytalk shells under Solaris. + YTalk now complains (and prints the right hostname) if a connection is answered from an unexpected host. + Fixed the checks to prevent user duplication (getting twice the same user in an n-way talk where n>=4). + More portability fixes for 64-bit machines. + Fixed the "readdress" option somewhat. Changes in YTalk since version 3.0pl2 : * New features: + Configuration through GNU Autoconf, no more Imakefiles or Makefiles to edit "to suit your system". + Aliases: you can now alias hosts, usernames, and full addresses, by defining aliases in your ~/.ytalkrc: - "alias nick@ longusername@" will replace any "nick@anyhost" with "longusername@anyhost". - "alias @short @longhostname" will replace any user@short with "user@longhostname". - "alias nick username@hostname" will replace "nick" with "username@hostname". + Support for virtual hosts and multiple aliases; you can choose the interface (IP address) to use in either of 3 ways: - using the "-h hostname_or_ip" command-line option - setting the environment variable LOCALHOST to the hostname or IP address - putting the line "localhost my-hostname-or-ip" in ~/.ytalkrc + Command-line option "-Y" lets you require CAPS on all y/n answers, so you don't answer "yes" just because you happen to type a 'y' in the middle of conversation. Add "turn caps on" to your ~/.ytalkrc to have this by default. + Command-line option "-i" to turn off trying to catch new incoming talk requests (just get the usual message from talk_daemon instead). Add "turn noinvite on" to your ~/.ytalkrc to do this by default. + Added "Kill all unconnected" (k) to the main menu; if you're trying to ring some more people, and want to give up, just press ESC k. + You can now choose between three possibilities for auto-rering: no rerings at all ("turn rering off"), prompt for rerings ("turn rerings on" and "turn prompt-rering on"), and fully automatic rerings ("turn rerings on" and "turn prompt-rering off"). Both rerings and prompting are on by default. + YTalk attempts not to clears the screen when it exists if the other end ^C'd, so you get to see the end of the conversation even if you weren't paying attention. Depending on your terminal definitions, this may not work unless you take out the escape sequences that clear the screen, from the 'te' termcap entry, and/or from the rmcup terminfo entry. * Bug fixes: + Fixed a bug where Ytalk would often not find the talk daemon under Linux, because of the slightly different UDP error reporting. + Ytalk shells wrap their lines properly now. + The "set scrolling zone" escape sequence (ESC[r) now works in shells; this is used e.g. by IRC clients. + Added support for Solaris-style PTYs, so YTalk shells work under Solaris. + Made YTalk 8-bit clean, so you can use accented characters in your conversation (assuming the other side has an 8-bit clean (y)talk too). + Deleting is a bit more robust: both ^H and ^?, as well as what is defined by your stty, are now understood to be the delete key. + Made Ytalk attempt to send the fully qualified hostname when exporting user connections, so remote machines have a chance of finding the host. + Fixed some compatibility problems with BSD4.4 system like FreeBSD, where the definition of a struct sockaddr_in changed. The README for YTalk 3.0pl2 can be found in the file README.old.
