TOM/Ayourk BBS Client Manual
Configuration Options
The strongest point of the TOM/Ayourk BBS Client is its configurability.
This is also the most confusing part of the client, and the most over-looked.
Nearly every feature of the client behaves somewhat differently based on the
configuration settings.
To change or save your configuration settings, you have to know a little
something about using the menus.
Menus are slightly different depending on whether or not you use
ANSI colors. If you don't have colors turned on, then
each item on the menu is presented something like this:
<S>chemes
If you're viewing ANSI colors, it should be something like this:
Schemes
In both cases, the letter S should be pressed to activate the menu choice named
Schemes.
This controls the ability of the client to log you into your BBS account,
without pressing any keys. For this to work, the client has to save your
account name, and your password. Password are not saved in plain text, but
the encryption used to store them is very weak. If someone can read your
BBS Specific Files, that someone can probably
get your password. Because of this, many people choose to store only the
account name. Storing only the account name means the client will automatically
enter your account name, but not the password. This still reduces the number of
keystrokes needed for logging into the BBS.
- Name/Alias (TOM)>
- Enter your account name here. The name in the parentheses is the
currently configured account name. Pressing
<Enter> will retain the value. Enter
NONE to disable Autologin.
- Password..>
- If you want the client to store your password, enter your password here.
Press the <Enter> key to clear the password, or
enter NONE.
Pick a color scheme! The menu presents you with several numbered choices,
and 2 lettered choices. The numbered choices are the currently saved schemes.
By default, the TOM/Ayourk BBS Client comes with 4 pre-configured schemes.
Those schemes are described below along with the lettered choices.
The TOM/Ayourk BBS Client has the ability to display colors other than what
the BBS sends. You can choose which color is displayed when, by choosing a
pre-configured scheme, or creating your own.
- 0 Stock
- Choosing this scheme will make all the colors appear pretty much like
ISCA BBS's default. It's very dull, and I don't recommend it.
- 1 Enhanced
- This scheme is based on the Stock scheme, but includes a few other,
different colors, to jazz things up a bit. It's a good one, if you don't
feel like creating your own scheme, or as a base for your own scheme.
- 2 TOM
- This is TOM's personal color scheme. It's based on a BLUE background,
and does some stuff most people won't like, but give it a try, anyway.
- 3 Ayourk
- This is Ayourk's personal color scheme. He likes it.
- C Customize
- This brings you a menu from which you can create your own scheme. After
you finish changing all your colors, you need to save the new scheme by
giving it a name. If you don't give it a name, the scheme can be saved, but
only until you exit the client. When you restart the client, it'll be gone.
If you give it a name, then saving the scheme will save it to your
Schemes file, and it will appear on this
menu every time you run the client.
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These keys are very important keypresses with special meaning to the
client. To change a key, just press the key you want to use for it when
prompted. Pressing <Enter> will keep the current
setting, which is displayed in parentheses on each prompt.
- Enter key to indicate start of macro (^B) ->
- This key is called the Macro Key. It's used to start macros. It must
be the first keypress in any sequence involving the following keys.
- Enter key to quit client (^F) ->
- This is called the Quit Key. It's used to quit the current instance of
the client and disconnect from the BBS. You must press the Macro Key first
to use the Quit Key.
- Enter key to suspend client (^Z) ->
- This is called the Suspend Key. It's used to suspend the client. You are
not disconnected, but should be dropped to a shell prompt. To return to the
client, you must bring it back to the foreground. Normally, this is done by
entering the command "fg". You must press the Macro Key first to
use the Suspend Key.
- Enter key to start a new shell (!) ->
- This is called the Shell Key. It's used to start a new shell. You are
not disconnected, and any eXpress Messages you receive will be displayed to
your screen immediately. You won't be able to reply until you exit the shell. Normally, to exit the shell, you enter the command "exit". You
must press the Macro Key first to use the Shell Key.
- Enter key to toggle capture mode (C) ->
- This is called the Capture Key. It's used to start the
Capture feature. You must press the
Macro Key first to use the Capture Key.
- Enter key to toggle ANSI colors on/off (^A) ->
- This is called the ANSI Key. It's used to start turn ANSI colors on and
off. Please note that if the BBS is not sending ANSI colors to you, and you
use this to turn ANSI colors ON, certain things, such as eXpress Messages
and posts may not appear in color. This key is most useful for people who
have their client configured to automatically tell the BBS to use color,
but sometimes use terminals which are not capable of color. It's main use
is to turn ANSI colors OFF. You must press the Macro Key first to use the
ANSI Key.
- Enter key to toggle eXpress Message Logging (^X) ->
- This is called the Xlog key. It's used to start logging eXpress messages
to a bbs-specific file. This file is the BBS's basename "log". For
example, when logging eXpress messages on ISCA BBS, the log file could be
called "iscalog". This file is saved in the .tabbs directory.
- Enter key to launch URL (W) ->
- This is called the URL key. It's used to launch your web browser and
go to the URL the client saw most recently.
- Enter key to show URL list (^W) ->
- This is called the URLs key. It's used to display a list of the 10 most
URLs most recently seen by the client.
- Enter key to toggle killing enemy posts (^E) ->
- This is called the kptoggle key. It's used to tell the client whether
or not it should kill posts from enemies.
This feature allows you to change any keypress into any other for BBS
commands. It is highly recommended that you do
not use this feature. It exists only for compatibility with
other BBS clients, and because a few people really like it.
If you want a keypress of <p> to send
<P> to the BBS, you would type
<p> at the first prompt, and
<P> at the second. Many people use this setting in
particular on ISCA BBS because the default behavior of the
<p> command was changed, and a new command added,
<P>, which did what the old one used to.
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This is where all the other options are kept. Tons of neat stuff here.
Pressing <Enter> will keep the default for all of
these options.
- Enter name of local editor to use (vi) ->
- This is the editor that will be called if you choose to edit a
Post. The default is vi, which is almost
always available on unix systems, but probably is a bad idea for the novice
user. Try pico, if you don't know or don't like vi.
- Enter name of local shell to use (/bin/sh) ->
- This is the name shell. By default, it should be the shell you normally
have when logging into your unix account. Don't change this, if you don't
know what it is.
- Enter the number of seconds to idle before turning your auto-reply on?
- This question is asking if you want the client to automatically reply to
eXpress messages after you've been idle for a certain time. If you do,
enter the number of seconds the client should wait. If you don't want the
client to do this, and want to explicitly turn auto-reply on, enter 0.
TOM and Ayourk recommend 300, or 5 minutes.
- How do you want to sort the online Friend list? (Name/Time)
- The online who list is displayed when you hit
<ctrl-W>, and can be sorted both by the user's
name, and the time spent online.
- Display this list in reverse order? (y/N)
- The default is the letter which is capitalized.
- Autoanswer 'Are you on an ANSI terminal?'
- The client can automatically answer the above question from the BBS. This
is rather complicated; I'd better let Ayourk try to explain it later.
- Inform you when the client detects ANSI from the server? (Y/n)
- Again, I'd better let Ayourk explain it.
- Prefered shell> (Novice/Expert)
- This is poorly named. If you choose Novice, then you'll get to see all
the menu prompts, which tell you which keys to press. If you choose expert,
you won't see the menu prompts, and you'll be expected to know which keys to
press. Just choose Novice.
- Show message when X or post Killed? (y/N)
- If you want to see a message when the client kills posts or eXpress
Messages from an enemy, press
<y> The default is the capitalized letter. In this
example, that's No.
- Show ruler bar when making an X or post? (Y/n)
- Just say yes, see if you like it. If not, you can turn it off later.
- Display matched names on first [TAB] in [TAB] completion? (Y/n)
- If you want to see a list of all partial matches for names when you try
to use tab completion, answer Yes. Otherwise, answer No.
- Allow client to change the 'xterm' TitleBar? (Y/n)
- Answer Yes, if you want the client to change the title on your
xterms.
This option will display the Version Information for the TOM/Ayourk BBS
Client. This information is extremely useful for bug reports, and any other
questions you may have regarding the client.
This option quits the client configuration, and saves it for later use.
This option quits the client configuration, and saves it only for the
current session. The next time you start the TOM/Ayourk BBS Client, any changes
you made will be lost!