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 con‐
nect(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 chat‐
room. It announces the results of the connection, and if successful,
displays subsequent chat room messages. Its window provides a scrol‐
lable text area that forms a transcript of the current 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 tran‐
script, 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 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 possible
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 alter‐
native. 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 messages 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 immediately send the selection to the polling station (and thus to
the poller), and disables all the buttons, although the user's selec‐
tion remains marked. All buttons are also disabled 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 canvas to be drawn on with stylus, or
mouse button 1. Strokes drawn in a given whiteboard appear in all oth‐
ers 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 services directory
SOURCE
/appl/collab/clients/chat.b
/appl/collab/clients/poll.b
/appl/collab/clients/poller.b
/appl/collab/clients/whiteboard.b
SEE ALSOconnect(1), collabsrv(8)COLLAB-CLIENTS(1)