Could we have some lily tisane, please?

Tisane

by Nancy Deschenes

Tisane is a java based client for lily, a Computer Mediated Communications system (CMC). More information can be obtained at the lily web site

Tisane gets its name from the French word for "herbal tea". It is nice to get away from that java-induced cafeine boost all over the Internet!

Contents:

Tisane is very simple, and only provides input and output to the server through a graphical user interface. The large text area, in the upper part of the screen, displays conversations, private messages and notifications. To send private messages, type messages to other users or discussions in the text field at the bottom of the page.

lily

sending messages

The lily CMC supports two types of messages: private and public. Private messages are sent to other users of the system, and public messages are sent to discussions, where all users in the discussion receive them. Both types of messages are sent the same way, which is by giving the user's name, or the discussion name, followed by a semi-colon, or a colon, and the message itself.

nala;hello!

would send the private message "hello" to the user named Nala. Username and discussion names are case-insensitive. User and discussion names can be abbreviated, or any unique substring of a name can be used. A semi-colon or a colon as the first character on a line sends the message to the previous user or discussion you sent a message to.

Many recipients can be specified, by separating their names with a comma; all the names must be before a colon or semi-colon. You can mix discussions and users as the recipients of a message:

nala,newuser;It is pretty sunny in Chicago today

If you simply type in a message, without specifying a recipient, the message is sent to your "default sendlist". A send list is one or more users, one or more discussions, or a combination of both, that you specify as the default recipients of your messages. By default, this sendlist contains only the newuser discussion. You can change it by giving a new sendlist with the command /send. Parameters to /send are the same as if you were to send to the users/discussions.

/send newuser
/send nala
/send newuser,nala

For more information on sending and messages, see the help from the server by logging on, and sending the command /help send

lily commands

You can also send commands to the lily server, such as

/join
chats

to join a discussion called "chat", /help for help about lily, and /bye to quit. All commands start with the character / to distinguish them from messages.

The most useful command, as expected is /help. You can specify commands you want help on, or some topics. When requesting help about a command, you do not need to use the / character before the command name:

/help bye

/help by itself returns a brief description of lily, and a few idea of other help commands to give. /help command gives a list of the commands you can use.

To leave the chats, use the /bye command. It disconnects you from the server. The next time you log on, the server remembers which discussions you were in, and automatically re-joins you in them, if they still exist.

Alternatively, you can /detach from the server. When you detach, you stay in the discussions even tho you are not connected. When you log in again, you can /review messages that were sent to you privately, and in the discussions where you are a member. However, the server can only afford to keep the most recent messages, and it is possible that you will lose the earlier messages if you stay detached for a long time. The server also has a time limit as to how long a user can stay detached. After that time, the server does an implicit /bye, removing you from the discussions in which you where, and discarding review information. Occasionally, network connections are disrupted, and some users can get "detached by accident". This is the same as if the user had sent a /detach command.

You can join one or more discussions by using the /join command. You can give more than one discussions by separating them with commas (no spaces). Similarly, you can /quit.

For LiveChat '96, the discussion panels will be moderated, which means that only one user can speak in the discussion at any given time. Permission is granted by the Speaker by selecting questions from the users. To submit a question, use the /ask command.

/ask How many books have you had published?

If the Speaker selects your question, you have the right to speak in the discussion, untill the Speaker feels your question has been answered, and moves on to someone else's question.

tisane specifics

Tisane has a few editing features that can save you some typing. Make sure that you type in the text field at the bottom of the screen, by making sure it is active. You should see a cursor in the field when it is active. Arrow keys within that field work as expected: move the cursor left or right, and goes up and down in the list of lines you have sent to the server (messages and commands).

When you type a semi-colon (;) as the first character in the text field, it immediately expands the recipient to the last person or discussion (or list of either or both) that you sent to. If you have not sent any messages yet, it will only display a semi-colon.

If you type a colon at the start of the line, it expands the recipient to the last person who sent a private message to you. If no one has sent you a private message, it will only display a colon.

The equal sign (=) at the start of the line will expand to the last group you received a private message from. This means that if Paul sent a message to you, Peter and Mary, = will expand to Paul, Peter and Mary. If you were not involved in any group messages, it will only display a semicolon.

The screen width of the text area is set to 65 character, as this seems to be the most common width on Netscape. The server is notified of that fact, and all messages should be nicely wrapped within the visible part of the text area (the scroll bars at the bottom of the text area should not be needed)