COLLAB-CLIENTS(1) COLLAB-CLIENTS(1)
NAME
collab: chat, poll, poller, whiteboard - collaborative
activities
SYNOPSIS
collab/clients/chat [ servicedir ] chatroom
collab/clients/poll [ -d ] [ servicedir ] station
collab/clients/poller [ -d ] [ servicedir ] station
collab/clients/whiteboard [ servicedir ] id
DESCRIPTION
These commands are wm(1) programs that are clients of the
services of collabsrv(8). It must therefore be running in
the network for any of them to be usable. Furthermore,
collabsrv's service directory must appear somewhere in the
client's name space, for instance by using connect(1),
although plain mount (see bind(1)) can also be used. In all
cases, the optional parameter servicedir names the service
directory (default: /n/remote/services). Finally, collabsrv
must be configured to provide the service.
Chat is a simple multi-user chat program. Each user that
wishes to chat starts chat naming the desired chatroom,
which is an identifying string agreed amongst the clients.
(It is often convenient to use the path name of a shared
file.) Chat attempts to enter the given chatroom. It
announces the results of the connection, and if successful,
displays subsequent chat room messages. Its window provides
a scrollable text area that forms a transcript of the cur-
rent conversation, and a single line of editable text at the
bottom of the window for sending messages. Messages sent by
others appear in the transcript tagged with the sender's
name. When the user types a new line (return, enter) in the
text entry area, chat sends the text to all the members of
the chat room, and it subsequently appears in the user's own
transcript, tagged with <you> in place of the user's name.
Chat also notes in the transcript the arrival and departure
of other users.
Poll and poller together enable simple real-time polls. One
user runs poller, which activates the given polling station.
The other users can subsequently join using poll, naming the
same station, and can come and go as they please as long as
the poller remains. The polling station closes when the
poller leaves.
Poller drives the interaction for a sequence of one or more
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real-time polls. It is assumed that the poller is in the
same room as those polled, allowing the questions and
answers to be read out each time, as in quiz shows and exit
polls. Alternatively, something like chat could be used to
pose questions to a distant audience. For each poll, the
polling user selects, in poller's window, the number of pos-
sible answers (2, 3, or 4) using radio buttons, and hits the
Start button. A bar chart shows results as they come in:
each bar shows the percentage of those polled (thus far)
that have selected the corresponding alternative. Once the
polling user hits Stop, no further results are accepted, and
the bar chart represents the final result. The -d option
causes poller to display a debugging transcript of the mes-
sages it receives.
Each user being polled runs poll, and initially sees an
array of radio buttons with labels A, B, C and D. They
remain disabled until the poller hits Start, at which point
poll enables as many radio buttons as allowed by the poller
for this round. If the user selects a button, poll immedi-
ately send the selection to the polling station (and thus to
the poller), and disables all the buttons, although the
user's selection remains marked. All buttons are also dis-
abled when the poller says to stop, whether or not a choice
has been made. Buttons are enabled again at the start of
the next question. The -d option causes poll to display a
debugging transcript.
Whiteboard allows several users to draw on the shared canvas
with the given id, which is an identifying string agreed
amongst the clients. The whiteboard window contains a can-
vas to be drawn on with stylus, or mouse button 1. Strokes
drawn in a given whiteboard appear in all others with the
same board id. There are two controls at the bottom of the
window: the lower left-hand corner has a small pop-up menu
of brush shapes, including one for erasing; and a long
coloured button showing the current drawing colour that pops
up a choice of drawing colour from a palette. Artists can
come and go as they please, but the drawing vanishes for
ever when the last artist leaves the whiteboard.
FILES
/n/remote default mount point of collaborative
resources
/n/remote/services collabsrv(8) collaborative activity ser-
vices directory
SOURCE
/appl/collab/clients/chat.b
/appl/collab/clients/poll.b
/appl/collab/clients/poller.b
/appl/collab/clients/whiteboard.b
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SEE ALSO
connect(1), collabsrv(8)
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