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cixman.txt
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CREDITS
Edited by: Alan Fleming, (alan@cix)
Contributors: Matthew Sims (mat@cix), D.J.Walker
Morgan (dj@cix), Sylvia Thornley (sthorn@cix),
Don Milne (mpack@cix), Nich Overend (nich@cix),
Graeme Hewson (ghewson@cix), Paul Gardner
(pag@cix), Dave Johnson (djohnson@cix), Gordon
Hundley (gh@cix).
Thanks to Robert Schifreen (hex@cix), Frank
Thornley (fthorn@cix), Michael Spalter
(segcom@cix) and Anders Heerfordt (anders@cix) for
many useful pointers.
The section on the Editor has been adapted from
the original CoSy manual.
CIX itself is a derivation of the University of
Guelph's CoSy conferencing system.
This manual is Copyright © CIX Ltd. 1989-94.
CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS MANUAL
@cix Means at CIX, follows a CIX
username.
<CR> Press the return key on your
keyboard.
<username> Nickname or account ID of a CIX
user
<filename> A filename. In some cases a
wildcard can be used.
<message> A CHAT message.
<msgno> Number of a mail / conference
message.
<confname> Name of a CIX conference.
<date> Date using the format dd/mmm/yy.
<number> A number. The format and length of
the number should be obvious.
<others> Some text, other than the above
examples.
CAPS A CIX command.
Note: CIX accepts text in both upper and lower
case except in certain circumstances, such as
usernames or filenames. Most people use lower case
on CIX because it looks better on a computer
screen. Upper case is used for the commands in
this manual simply to make them stand out from the
body of the text.
-----------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION TO CONFERENCING
Computer conferencing is a way of letting people
work and discuss matters, without the restriction
of time and location, which usually restricts
'real world' conferencing.
With a 'real world' conference, you meet fellow
participants at a specified location on a
specified date, and discuss a specified topic.
With computer conferencing, you 'meet' on the
computer system. As the computer is open 24 hours
a day, so the meeting can go on all day. You don't
all have to be there at the same time, as the
computer keeps everything that is said and when
you join a conference, you can catch up on what
has been said and make your own contributions.
This means you can exchange information with a
wide range of people, who access the system when
it suits them. It allows you to discuss matters
with people who you may not normally meet in day-
to-day work, and trade information on your areas
of expertise. It allows you to form groups of like-
minded people to develop new ideas or new
products. And all with the efficiency of computer
conferencing.
-----------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION TO CIX
CIX, the Compulink Information eXchange was set up
by Compulink Information eXchange Ltd, when it
realised that traditional Bulletin Board systems
were not enough for their users. CIX was developed
from the University of Guelph's CoSy (Conferencing
System) software and enhanced by CIX's
programmers, to allow the interchange of programs
as well as text, mail to users other than Cix
users, and to provide access to the internet.
CIX provides a system for computer users to
exchange information, though the scope of CIX has
widened to cover many non-technical subjects. It
is within this environment that CIX users can
develop a wider knowledge.
CIX strives to allow as many different users
online, and makes minimal restrictions on what
hardware is needed to access the system. This
gives a wide range of users, from IBM Mainframers
to Z80 machine coders, from Unix hackers to
customer support people, from computer users to
developers and journalists.
As well as electronic conferencing, CIX has
electronic mail (including binary mail) and real-
time chat facilities to allow users to carry on
either private conversations or on-the-spot
discussions.
This manual will help you harness the power of CIX
and computer conferencing.
IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS
If you have any problems with CIX, there are a
couple of things you can do:
Phone either CIX Technical Support on 081 390 8446
or CIX Customer Care on 0492 641961.
Send a Mail message on CIX to one of the following
usernames: cixadmin (admin questions) or cixtech
(technical support)
-----------------------------------------------------------
QUICK MANUAL
INTRODUCTION
The Conference is one of the most important
concepts to be understood before using CIX. A
Conference is a section on CIX set up by an
ordinary user, which is a forum for discussion of
a set of related topics - a topic being a more
specific form of sub-conference. For example, a
'hobbies' conference might have topics on aquaria,
fishing, ski-ing, etc., and a conference on IBM
PCs might have topics on hardware, software,
peripherals, and so on.
One of the key features of conferencing is the
ability of any user to set up their own
conferences. When they do so, they become the
Moderator of that conference, with the power to
control who joins the conference, what is
discussed, and how the discussion is to proceed.
Conferences can be open or closed; anyone can join
an open conference, but members of closed
conferences have to be invited in by the Moderator
before membership is granted. This enables the
setting up of conferences for strictly limited
groups, such as the holders of support contracts,
members of the sales team, or even the tactics
group of the local football club.
TO START WITH
Once you have established the connection (see the
chapter "Connecting to CIX" if you are having
problems), the next step is to let CIX know who
you are. CIX will display a brief identification
message, and then prompt you with
Type 'cix' at the 'login' prompt to get started.
login:
Do as it says. CIX will then display a banner
page, finishing with the prompt
Nickname? (Enter 'new' for new user)
If you have already been allocated a user name,
enter it, otherwise type new and follow the
instructions given on the screen. If CIX cannot
find your name, it will return you to the Nickname
prompt. If this happens try again - making sure
that you are typing CIX at the login prompt before
attempting to enter your nickname and password. If
CIX refuses to recognise your user name or your
password, call the CIX helpline on 0181 390 8446.
Note: nicknames and passwords are case-sensitive
and nicknames are always in lower case.
CIX will now ask you for your password. When you
enter this, it will not echo to the screen. Should
you make a typing error, CIX will give you three
chances to get it right before hanging up the
phone line.
YOUR PROFILE
Every time you log on, CIX will automatically
execute a sequence of operations which will
display summary information and configure the
system to your own preferences. This sequence can
be changed according to your own leanings but, to
begin with, all you need to know is that it is
there, and is responsible for the information that
appears on the screen when you first log in to
CIX.
In its original state, the Profile will display
any important messages from the CIX management,
tell you if you have any private mail waiting, and
let you know how many unread messages you have
waiting for you in the various conferences of
which you are a member.
THE MORE? PROMPT
Whenever CIX gets to the end of a page, it
displays the More? prompt. This is to stop
information going off the screen without giving
you a chance to read it. When it is displayed, you
have two choices: if you wish to see the next
page, then just hit <CR>, If you don't, then just
hit Q.
THE MAIN: PROMPT
When the Profile has finished its tasks, CIX will
arrive at the Main: prompt. This is the base level
of the CIX system, and from here you can access
all the various functions, such as Conferencing,
Private mail, and so on. To leave CIX, type BYE at
this prompt.
USING THE CONFERENCES
The main reason that you have subscribed to CIX is
almost certainly the conferencing facilities, so,
having got the preliminaries out of the way, it is
time to take a look at the conferences. To move
into the conferencing system, simply hit <CR> at
the Main: prompt. CIX will change the prompt and
move you into the first conference of which you
are a member that has unread messages. As a new
user, this will probably be the learn conference
which is an online tutorial. It makes a useful
alternative to this guide. Whilst reading through
a conference, after every message the Read: prompt
will be displayed, to return to the Main: prompt,
type QUIT.
To read the next message, you should hit <CR>
again. This will display a header describing the
message you are about to read, followed by the
text of the message itself. If there is a lot of
text in the message, you may get the More? prompt
again. If this happens, press <CR> again. You will
now find yourself at the Read: prompt, pressing
<CR> again will move you onto the next message.
There are several directions in which you can read
the messages in a conference. The default
direction is FORWARD mode. This means that
whenever you hit <CR> you will move on to the next
message in chronological order as to when they
were left. The opposite to this is the BACKWARD
mode, which moves from latest to earliest. The
third, and most useful mode, is the REFERENCE
mode. This will automatically move you to the next
message which is a reply (if there is one) to the
one which you have just read. You can find out
what message the current message is a reply to by
typing ORIGINAL. This is useful if you know a
message is important, but can't quite work out
why!
LEAVING MESSAGES
Sooner or later, you will come across a message
upon which you just have to comment - it may be a
question that you can answer, a point of view with
which you radically disagree, or just a statement
of such blinding stupidity that you can't let it
rest unchallenged. To make your point, type
COMMENT at the Read: prompt directly following the
message you wish to comment on.
You will now move to the CIX text entry prompt.
This is a cut down version of the CIX editor,
whose sole purpose is to let you enter lines of
text with no unnecessary distraction. Type in the
message - if you make any mistakes, and spot them
before you move to the next line, backspace up and
erase them; otherwise just leave them where they
are and edit them later. Do not attempt to move
the cursor with the arrow keys. Although it may
look all right to you, it will make the message
totally unreadable when you save it. When you have
finished entering your message, type a full stop
followed by a <CR> on a new line (.<CR>).
You will now find yourself at the Add/action:
prompt. If you made any mistakes, just type EDIT,
and you will go into the editor.
If you change your mind about leaving the comment,
or you have made so many mistakes that you would
rather start again, you can abort the process at
this prompt by typing QUIT, otherwise save the
message by typing ADD, or by pressing <CR>. Your
message is now saved and ready for other people to
read.
THE VERBOSE EDITOR
The first thing that we will do is get familiar
with the CIX Verbose editor. This is a simple line
editor designed to let you edit messages with the
minimum of fuss and complication. In order to
demonstrate this editor, we will edit your Resume.
This is a piece of text which can hold a
description of who you are, where you are from,
and what your interests are. When you first join
CIX, it only contains your real name - any extra
details you may wish to add must be added by you.
Before starting, it is best to get an idea of what
a sample Resume looks like. To see a Resume, type
SHOW RESUME <username>. If you wish to see your
own resume type SHOW RESUME. Now let us begin
editing your own resume. Type EDIT RESUME. CIX
will respond with a message letting you know what
you are editing, and what the available commands
are.
To see what text is already there, type L, for
list. As you can see there isn't a lot there. We
can improve on that.
To start with, let's add some text to the end of
the Resume. To do this, select A to append. The
prompt will change, and you can now enter some
lines of text. Type away; when you have finished,
end the input with .<CR>on a new line. The editor
will then return to the command mode. Check on
what you entered with the L command. If you have
made any mistakes, you can correct them by
deleting the offending line. To do this type D
followed by the number of the line you wish to
delete, e.g. D4 will delete line 4.
Inserting extra lines. To do this type I followed
by the line you wish to insert after, e.g: I5 will
start inserting text between lines 5 and 6. Finish
Insert mode with the same .<CR> command described
above.
To end editing and save the changes that you have
made, type X. To leave without saving, type Q.
STARTING A THREAD
The procedure for starting a new thread of
conversation is just as simple as commenting to a
message. Simply type SAY at the Read: prompt.
Enter the title when asked, and then carry on
exactly as for the Comment procedure.
JOINING AND RESIGNING CONFERENCES
Although you start off joined to a few
conferences, these are all oriented toward CIX
and, as such, of little interest once you have
started to find your way around. Before you can
get down to the interesting bits, you must find
out what they are. To get a listing of all
available conferences (called the conference
list), you can use one of the Show commands - this
time SHOW ALL. This produces a list of every
conference name, a brief description of what the
conference is for, and whether the conference is
open or closed.
Look through the list of conferences and see which
ones you fancy. To become a member of that
conference, type JOIN <confname>. If you are not a
member of that conference, you will be asked if
you wish to join, otherwise you will move to that
conference, regardless of whether there are any
unread messages or not. Once you have joined, you
will be moved to the Read: prompt and should
proceed as described above.
Should you at any time wish to stop reading a
conference permanently, you can RESIGN from it by
typing RESIGN <confname>. You can also resign from
a specific topic by using the form RESIGN
<confname> <topicname>.
THE MAIL SYSTEM
As well as conferences, CIX also has the facility
to let you exchange confidential mail with other
CIX members. The Mail system has many complex
options, but the basic command structure is
designed to be as similar as is possible to the
Conference system. If you have any incoming mail,
this is indicated to you when you first log-in. To
read this mail, type MAIL to move to the Mail
system, and when you see the Mail: prompt, hit
<CR>. This will display all the new messages
people have sent to you. As in the Conference
system, hitting <CR> will move you on to the next
unread message. To leave the Mail system, type
QUIT.
Replying to a mail item is virtually identical to
replying to a conference message, in fact the only
difference is that instead of adding a reply when
you have finished, you SEND it.
To send a piece of mail, you simply go to the
Mail: prompt as before, and type TO <username>.
This is a similar command to the SAY command used
in reading conferences.
THE FILE SYSTEM
As well as messages, CIX can also be used for file
transfer, such as programs, databases or large
text files. This is achieved through the FLIST
command (stands for File List) - (Files may also
be transferred using Binary mail, see the chapter
Mail In Depth). Not every topic has an Flist,
but the ones that do announce this fact whenever
you enter them.
To view the file list of a topic, type FLIST at
the Read: prompt. If one is present, it will be
displayed, showing the names of the files
available, and their length in bytes. Should you
wish to download a file, type FDL <filename>
(<filename> being the name of the file you wish to
receive.) CIX offers many File transfer Protocols,
but defaults to XMODEM (MODEM7 on some Comms
packages), but this can be changed via the options
menu (see the chapter "Files in Depth.")
Uploading is similar; type FUL and if you are
using the Xmodem file transfer protocol, type FUL
<filename>. When the Moderator has checked the
file out, it will be put into the Flist.
THE HELP SYSTEM
There are many commands on CIX and rather than you
having to refer to this manual every time you need
help, we decided a comprehensive online help
system would be a very good idea.
To obtain help on any command, type HELP
<command>, this help should give you enough help
on the command to enable you to understand how to
use it. If you find any of the help leaves
anything to be desired, we want to know about it,
send an Email message to an account on CIX called
cixadmin explaining the problem.
To find out the subjects you can get help on, type
HELP HFILES. This will give you a list of all the
help files available to you.
-----------------------------------------------------------
CONFERENCES IN DEPTH
INTRODUCTION
In CIX a conference is where CIX users can discuss
related matters. Each conference is split up into
a number of topics so discussions are easier to
keep track of. CIX users can do this by leaving
messages in the conference's topic which best
suits the message subject. CIX keeps a note of the
order messages should be read in, so questions are
followed by answers to questions, thus keeping the
flow of a topic going.
When you are using CIX, it assumes that you want
to use the Conference system, so if you are at the
Main: prompt and press the <CR> key, CIX starts
checking your conferences.
It will display a full stop for each conference it
has checked where there are no new messages in any
topic. When it finds a conference topic with a new
messages or messages in it, it will join you to
that conference and that topic.
CONFERENCES AND TOPICS
WHAT CONFERENCES ARE AVAILABLE
When you first subscribe to CIX you are
automatically joined to a couple of useful
conferences. To get a list of all the conferences
you are joined to, type SHOW ALL at either the
Main: prompt or the Read: prompt. This will
display every conference, a brief description and
show you if it's open or closed. You can search
for all open and closed conferences which may be
of interest by typing SHOW ALL <text>. This will
display every conference that includes <text> in
either its name or its description. If you use the
SHOW ALL QUICK command, CIX will display the
conference list in a compact format.
JOINING CONFERENCES
You can go directly to a conference from most
prompts with the JOIN command. Enter JOIN
<confname> (where <confname> is the name of the
conference you want to join) and CIX will attach
you to that conference. If there is only one topic
within that conference, CIX will automatically
attach you to that topic. If there is more than
one topic, CIX will ask what topic you want to
attach to after displaying the topics in that
conference e.g.:
Main: JOIN PC
Topics are: '7hardware', '7software', '3drives',
'2displays', '2buying', 'boards', 'applications',
'os'.
Topic?
You may enter the topic name, or press return
which will attach you to the first topic in the
list.
Topic? 7HARDWARE
Joining conference 'pc', topic '7hardware'.
(Files) 50 new message(s).
If you have not joined this conference before,
then you are not a member of the conference, and
CIX will ask if you want to register in that
conference e.g.
Main: JOIN PC
Not registered in 'pc'. Register (Y/N) ? Y
Once you have registered, CIX will make a note
that you are now a participant and then continue
as normal, displaying the list of topics. The
quickest way to get to a conference and topic is
to put it all on one line like so.
Main: JOIN PC 7HARDWARE
Joining conference 'pc', topic '7hardware'.
(Files) 50 new message(s).
When you are reading a topic, CIX will display the
Read: prompt. Pressing return at this prompt tells
CIX to display the next unread message.
YOUR CONFERENCE LIST
It is a good idea to regularly clean up your
conference list, resigning from those conferences
that don't really interest you, and looking for
new conferences to join. As you already know how
to look for conferences and how to join them, you
ought to know how to resign from conferences and
how to put your conference list into a more
efficient order.
To find out which conferences you are joined to
type SHOW, this will display your conference list
like this.
Conference: cix
6problems 0/162 modems 0/63 billing 0/36
events 0/26 2usenet 0/261 whinges 0/298
manual 0/18 settings 0/18 fax 4/943
internet 2/641 index 0/125 2stats 0/70
Conference: dtp
software 4/146 hardware 8/83 problems 1/158
Conference: ventura
general 0/164 style 0/3 windows 3/195
Show tells me I am a member of 3 conferences, cix,
dtp and ventura, it also tell me the topics I am
joined to. The numbers after topics signify the
number of messages I have to read against the
number of messages within the topic.
I find the dtp conference doesn't interest me any
more, nor does the settings topic in the cix
conference. I can resign from a whole conference,
or just a single topic in a conference using the
RESIGN command. To resign from dtp, I would type
RESIGN DTP from the Main: prompt or RESIGN from
the Read: prompt when I am in the dtp conference.
To resign from the settings topic in the cix
conference, I would type RESIGN CIX SETTINGS.
Often when you log on to CIX, you may not have
enough time to read all the unread messages in all
the conferences so you have to choose the more
important conferences to read first. You can do
this by remembering which conferences are the most
important, joining them and reading the messages.
A far better way to read the more important
conferences first would be to get CIX to remember.
The ORDER command will change the order CIX reads
your conferences. For instance, I am a member of
the jokes conference, the pc conference and the
unix conference. I really want CIX to display the
unix conference first, the pc conference second
and the jokes conference last. This is how I would
tell CIX to re order my conference list:
ORDER UNIX PC JOKES
If I was a member of many conferences, I would
have to use the FIRST and LAST symbols, for
instance.
ORDER FIRST UNIX PC JOKES
If I was a member of many conferences and I wanted
to put unix pc and jokes seventh, eighth and ninth
in my conference list I would have to find out the
name of the conference number six in my conference
list and type.
ORDER <CONFNAME> UNIX PC JOKES
This will find the sixth conference in the list
and insert unix, pc and jokes after it.
INSIDE A CONFERENCE
READING MODES
CIX keeps track of all the messages which are
comments to each message and which ones start new
message chains. There are three ways to read
through CIX conferences, Forward, Reference and
Backward.
Normally, CIX uses Forward mode, so if you read
message 123 then the next message you read will be
124 then 125 and so on. Reference mode looks at
the message, and if it has a comment to it, it
displays the comments. So say message 125 is a
comment to 123, in our example, Reference mode
would display message 123, 125 and then 124.
Reference mode is the best way to read CIX
conferences because you will be reading messages
and then the comments to those messages. This
should make it easier to understand the relevance
of each message.
To turn on Reference mode, enter the command
REFERENCE at the Read: prompt. The Read: prompt
will change to Read Ref: and CIX will display the
next message by reference. CIX will stay in
Reference mode until you turn it off by entering
FORWARD at the Read Ref: prompt.
There is also a Backward mode, type BACKWARD at
the Read: prompt to read messages in descending
order.
If you want Reference mode as your default reading
mode, add the line OPTION REFERENCE Y Q to your
Profile. (See Chapter "Options and Extras.")
MOVING AROUND CONFERENCE
Whilst reading messages, the + or - keys will move
you forwards or backwards one message at a time in
chronological order. These are very useful in
moving forwards or backwards one message without
moving out of the Read mode you are using.
In both FORWARD and REFERENCE modes there is the
command ORIGINAL which displays the message that
the current message is a comment to.
The ROOT command is another useful command, it
allows you display the first message of a chain.
For example, if you read a message that is half
way through a message chain and it interested you,
typing ROOT would display the message which
sparked off this chain of messages and you could
then use the REFERENCE command to read each
message until you reached the end of the message
chain.
Not really a command to move around a conference,
more to stay in the same place, the AGAIN command
will display the last message you read without you
having to know the message number.
Another command, not really for moving around a
conference, more to find out where you are in that
conference, SHOW CURRENT will tell you which topic
you are in and the last message number you have
read. This command is available from the Read: and
Mail: prompts and comes in very handy.
SKIPPING
CIX maintains a pointer to the last message read
in each conference, which is updated when you log
off. You may wish to move forward or back from
that position to reread messages or ignore
messages. Whichever you want to do, the SKIP
command is available to help. SKIP has many
options, but its most basic form is SKIP <number>
where the number is the number of messages to move
forward. SKIP 5 for example would skip over 5
messages.
You may want to move back to re-read messages.
SKIP BACKWARD <number>allows you to move back that
number of messages, so SKIP BACKWARD 10 would move
you ten messages back.
You may want to move to a specific message and
read all the messages since that message. SKIP TO
<number> allows you to do this. The number is the
message number of the message you want to start
reading from. SKIP TO 1000 would move you to
message 1000. SKIP TO can move you forwards or
backwards through a set of messages.
SKIP TO also has some special options. SKIP TO
FIRST will move you to the first message in a
Topic, and SKIP TO LAST will move you to the last
message in a Conference.
SKIP TO DATE <date> will move you to the first
message entered on or after that date. The date is
in the format similar to 10jun94 or 1aug94, so to
read all the messages from the start of 4th of
July 1994 you'd enter SKIP TO DATE 4JUL94.
SKIP TO BACK <days> will move your message
pointers in a topic back the number of days you
specify.
There is a special skip, SKIP TO RECENT which
moves you to the last message less 100. So if you
join a conference and find 2000 messages and want
to catch up, SKIP TO RECENT will move you to
message 1900 and allow you to carry on reading
from there. The value of 100 is the default, and
you can change that value with the command OPTION
RECENT <number> QUIT where <number> is how many
messages from the end of the conference you wish
to skip to.
SEARCHING
CIX has three search facilities for you to find
text within a topic's messages. The commands are:
SEARCH <pattern> FROM <msgno> [TO] <msgno>
SQUICK <"pattern"> [<days>]
FIND <pattern>FROM <msgno> [TO] <msgno>
Only the SQUICK command allows question marks and
spaces in its search criteria, this is the reason
for encasing the search criteria in "" marks,
however, only two question marks are allowed next
to each other.
In all the commands, patterns may be in upper or
lower case, which is of no concern, as none of
CIX's search commands are case sensitive. Search
patterns can be up to 13 characters long.
SEARCH
Searches forwards through a topic finding all
occurrences of the specified pattern within the
specified message numbers in the conference topic
you are currently joined to.
Using the command SEARCH TEST as an example, every
time SEARCH matches your criteria it will display
a line similar to this:
354 : This is a message to see if our new 'Tester'
works
The number is the message where this pattern was
matched, the ':' denotes that the pattern was
matched within the text of a message and the text
after that is the line where that pattern is
contained. The other type of line CIX outputs when
a pattern is matched looks like this:
678 - mat
Again the number is the message number, but the '-
' denotes that the pattern was matched against the
author of the message, and the text is the
author's name. This is useful if you are tracking
down one person's contributions to a topic.
To allow you to narrow down the SEARCH command,
you can follow a SEARCH TEST with FROM <number> or
TO<number> or both. These commands allow the
SEARCH command to search FROM a specified message
number to the end of the topic, from the beginning
of a topic TO a specified message number or FROM a
specified message number TO a specified message
number. If they are not specified, SEARCH defaults
to the first and last message numbers. For
example:
SEARCH TEST FROM 100 TO 200
Would search from message 100 to message 200 for
the word 'test'.
SEARCH TEST FROM 500
Would search from message 500 to the last message
for 'test'.
SEARCH TEST TO 400
Would search from the first message to message
400.
SQUICK
This works in a slightly different way to SEARCH.
SQUICK starts at the end of a topic and searches
towards the beginning. Thus to narrow down the
SQUICK command, you can follow the
SQUICK<"pattern"> command with the number of days
previous to the current date SQUICK should search.
If you do not specify SQUICK to search any days
backwards, only the current days messages will be
searched. For example:
SQUICK "TEST" 7
Would search all messages entered within the last
7 days for a match to 'test'.
SQUICK "TEST"
Would search only messages added on the current
day.
Before you enter a question in a conference, it's
always worth doing a search to see if anyone has
asked a similar question before, or even recently.
FIND
FIND works like SEARCH. However, instead of just
listing the message number and displaying the line
the SEARCH found, if FIND gets a match for your
criteria, it will display the complete message the
criteria was found in.
HEADERS
If you want to catch up on what's been going on,
CIX can display just the Header of the message.
That is the information on who wrote it and when,
whether there are comments, and the first non-
blank line from the message.
There are a number of ways of using Headers. To
get a quick listing of messages you could type
HEADER 10 TO 20 which would display the headers of
messages 10 to 20.
You can turn Header mode on with the commands
OPTION HEADER YES Q. After this command is issued,
CIX will only display the header of any message
you display. How do you read the full message?
When Header mode is on, the action of the HEADER
command changes to display the full message. So
suppose you see a message header and you want to
see the message in full, you would type HEADER
AGAIN or HEADER <msgno> to display the message.
To turn off Header mode type OPTION HEADER NO Q.
See the section on Options and Extras for more on
this command and other ways of using it.
WITHDRAWING / DELETING MESSAGES
You may want to remove a message you entered. To
do this use the WITHDRAW command. If you entered
message 123 and want to remove it, enter WITHDRAW
123 and the message will no longer be visible. To
read a message you have withdrawn, you can use the
VIEW command. This of course only works on
messages you have withdrawn, not other CIX users'
withdrawn messages. To read the withdrawn message
123 type VIEW 123.
COPYING MESSAGES
If you find a message in a conference topic and
you want to copy it to another conference topic,
use the COPY command. To copy message number 20 in
the current topic into building/general, just type
COPY 20 BUILDING GENERAL. If the message you want
to copy is the one you have just read type COPY
CURRENT BUILDING GENERAL.
MOVING FROM TOPIC TO TOPIC
Whilst reading messages in a conference topic, you
may want to get into another topic to read what's
in there first or to obtain some information
before making a comment. There are three commands
to allow you to do this.
Firstly SWITCHTOPIC <topic> which will jump out of
the current topic, leaving all the unread messages
there still unread, and into the topic you
specify. If you do not specify a topic, the list
of topics contained in that conference is
displayed and you can choose from that. To get
back to the original topic, you will need to issue
the SWITCHTOPIC <topic> command again. TNEXT and
TPREVIOUS are the other two commands you can use.
TNEXT moves you into the next topic in the
conference and TPREVIOUS moves you to the previous
topic. If you are in the first topic in a
conference, issuing a TPREVIOUS command will move
you into the last topic in the previous conference
in your conference list. You can also issue the
TNEXT command when you are in the last topic of a
conference will move you into the first topic of
the next conference in your conference list.
The NEXT command is also available. This will mark
all unread messages in the current topic as read
and try to join you to the next topic in your
conference list that contains an unread message.
VOTING MESSAGES
There is a special type of message on CIX called
the Voting message. It is denoted by the words
Voting message in its header, and will have been
set up by the Moderator of the conference. It
consists of some text, explaining what the vote is
about and a list of up to 9 options for you to
vote on. To vote type VOTE after you have read the
message you want to vote on and the options will
be redisplayed. Enter the number of the item that
you vote for and press return. Your vote will be
logged. You may confirm this by typing AGAIN to
redisplay the message.
Health Warning: Votes on CIX are for straw polls
and not life and death decisions. If you wish to
conduct a formal vote, we suggest you carry that
out via Email.
LEAVING MESSAGES
WHAT DOES A MESSAGE LOOK LIKE?
A message is made up of a header which gives
information about the conference the message is
in, the sender of the message, when it was sent,
how long in characters it is. Also part of the
header are some lines saying what the original
message was and where the comments to both this
message and the original message can be found.
Here is an example of a message:
==============
comms/bbs #29, from mat, 195 chars, Apr 2 8:22:50
1994
This is a comment to message 28.
There are comments to this message.
There are more comments to 28.
--------------
The online databases available do seem to be very
good, of course, they aren't as good as CIX :-).
This is a typical message. The text between the
====== and ---- is called the header. This is
information kept by CIX about the message. There
are in CIX three ways to display this information.
This is the Verbose version, which is the default
for CIX users.
On the first line, is the conference name (comms)
and topic name (bbs). Then, the message author
('mat') and the length of the message (195
characters). Finally, the date and time of when
the message was added to the conference (8:20pm on
April 2nd 1994).
The next three lines in our example message do not
always appear. They are indicators on whether or
not people have commented on this message and if
this message is itself a comment to another
message.
READING A CONFERENCE
Once you have joined a conference and topic and
you are at the Read: prompt, the easiest way to
read a message is to press the <CR> key. When you
do this, CIX automatically assumes that you want
to read the next available message in this topic,
and will move to that message and display it. If
there are no more messages available in that
topic, CIX then checks the other topics that you
are joined to in that conference to see if there
are any new/unread messages there. If there are,
then CIX will join you to that topic and display
the Joining message to say what it has joined you
to.
If there are no more new/unread messages in the
conference, CIX goes on to search all the other