1.5 Screen and Keyboard activity

1.5 Screen and Keyboard activity
IRC is a full-screen utility. It takes over the screen, with the bulk of activity happening in the top (N-2) lines, a status line, (vaguely emacs-like), on the next to last line, and your input being entered on the last line. When typing commands at ircII, you have a minimalist line-editing facility in an emacs style.

Table 1: Editing keys
----------------------
Key Effects
~~~ ~~~~~~~
^P recalls previous command line
^N recalls next command line
^F moves forward one character
^B moves backward one character
^A moves the cursor to the beginning of the line
^E moves the cursor to the end of the line
^D deletes the character under the cursor
^K kills from the cursor to the end
^Y reinserts the last stretch of killed text
^U clears the whole line
^L redraws the screen

Table 2: Editing commands
--------------------------
Keyword Action
~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
! recalls previous commands for re-editing
HISTORY displays the command history
LASTLOG lists the most recent messages
CLEAR puts some white space on your screen

The ! command is used to recall previous commands in your command history for re-execution. The ! command is unique in that when it is used, it leaves the matching history entry in the input line for re-editing. You can specify a history entry either by its number in the history list, or by a match with a given wildcard expression. For instance, "/!10" will put entry 10 in the history list into the input line. "/!/MSG" will search the history for a line beginning with a /MSG, (a "*" is implied at the end).

/! [|]

Recalls previous commands for re-editing.

/HISTORY []

Displays the command history on the screen. You can specify the number of history entries you wish to view as well.

Almost everything happens in the upper bulk of the screen. This includes both messages from other users, as well as the output of the control commands. Normal messages from other users appear with the originating nickname in . Private messages arrive with the originating nickname in *asterisks*. Messages you send to everyone appear with a preceding "> " whereas messages you send privately to another user appear with "-> *nickname*". Other output (invitations from other users to join channels, and so forth), appears interspersed with other activity on the screen.

Table 3: Simple screen activity
--------------------------------

What is displayed What you typed Sender Recipients
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~
> Morning people Morning, people You Channel
hello some1else Channel
-> *some1else* hi! /msg some1else hi! You some1else (only)
*some1else* wassup? some1else You (only)


Last ircII outputs can be recalled with:
/LASTLOG [| []]

Displays the contents of the lastlog. This is a list of the most recent messages that have appeared on the screen, useful if you inadvertantly miss messages. If no arguments are given, the entire lastlog is displayed. If the first argument is a number, it determines how many log entries to show. Otherwise it is searched for in every lastlog entry. The second argument determines how many lines back to start display from.

/LASTLOG
> Public message I send to all in the channel
Public message from some1else
*some1else* Private message sent to me by some1else
-> *some1else* Private message I send to some1else

Finally, if your screen gets garbage from a 'talk', 'write', 'wall' or any other form of primitive communication (smirk), hit ^L to redraw it, or CLEAR it.

/CLEAR

Clears the screen.