In article <1995Oct18.132313@miavx1>, [log in to unmask] (R.E.
 Williams, Jr.) writes:
> Is there some way to change the switch hook character in PHONE to something
> else? I noticed that the help system refers to it as the "default," but it
> doesn't say how to change it. Unfortunately, the % symbol is one that I
> type quite frequently (and use in some of my favorite smilies :-), so it
> gets quite frustrating to have to type "percent" all the time.
 
Try:
    $ PHONE/SWITCH_HOOK="#"
This will change it to the # character
 
> Along the same lines, is there some way to change TALK so that when the
> text goes off the bottom of the screen, it just scrolls the old text up,
> instead of wrapping to the top (making it difficult to see what's happening
> sometimes)?
 
Not that I'm aware of.
 
> I actually prefer TALK, since it lets you go outside Miami,
> supports more people at once, and gives you a lot more room to work with,
> but I simply cannot stand that scrolling behavior.
 
Actually, TALK only allows you to talk to a single person (I think).  PHONE
can handle multiple people all talking simultaneously.  Have you found a
way to make TALK allow more than 2 people on a conversation?
 
> One other question about PHONE: how can I ask it for help, and keep all the
> text from scrolling up underneath the command line where I can't see
> it? Some kind of qualifier to have it show a page at a time would be
> fine... as it is now I have to capture to a text file, and look at
> that--not exactly convenient.
 
Unfortunately, I don't see anything.  I agree, though, this is pretty
annoying.  The only "solution" I can come up with is to press control-S to
stop the display and control-Q to start it again.  Of course, you've got to
be pretty quick if you've got a fast connection.
 
> One last question... is there any way to use TALK or PHONE between the IBM
> and the Alpha? Some of the people I want to talk to are mainly IBM users,
> and I am mainly an Alpha user, and neither of us can stand the other's
> preference. Any suggestions?
 
Not currently.  PHONE uses DECnet for it's communications protocol.  The
IBM doesn't run DECnet.  TALK uses TCP/IP for it's communications protocol,
but the IBM doesn't currently have a TALK client.  Have you tried the SEND
(on the Alpha) and TELL (on the IBM) commands?  The don't work quite the
same, but are possibly similar enough for what you're trying to do.
 
 
--
                                     Kent Covert, Software Coordinator
                                     Miami Computing and Information Services
                                     Miami University, Oxford, OH
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