Lesson 6 Communicating with Other Users

• commands that send messages:

  • TELL

  • TELLOP

• blocking and unblocking messages:

  • SET;MSG= blocks or unblocks messages

  • the Quiet mode

Sending and receiving messages

You can send messages to other users on your system and receive messages from them:

	NOTE: In order to take full advantage of the exercises presented in this module, arrange to work with a partner who also logs on to your system.

Sending a message to another user

The TELL command allows you to send a message to another user (actually to another session) who is logged on to the same MPE/iX system.

First find the session number (#Snnn) or the logon identity of the person to whom you want to send the message.

Enter:

   SHOWJOBReturn

You should see something like this on the screen:

   :SHOWJOB



   JOBNUM  STATE IPRI JIN  JLIST    INTRODUCED  JOB NAME



   #S116   EXEC       101  101      FRI  9:57A  NORMA.DESMOND

   #S118   EXEC       107  107      FRI  3:57P  MILDRED.PIERCE

   #S119   EXEC QUIET 109  109      FRI  4:02P  LEDGER.ACCNTNG

   #J13    EXEC        10S LP       FRI  3:00P  JIM.HARINGTN

   #J10    EXEC        10S LP       FRI  6:00A  OPERATOR.SYS



   5 JOBS:

       0 INTRO

       0 WAIT; INCL 0 DEFERRED

       5 EXEC; INCL 3 SESSIONS

       0 SUSP

   JOBFENCE= 7; JLIMIT= 60; SLIMIT= 60

Norma Desmond is using session 116. You could send a message to her in two ways, both using the TELL command:

Use either method to send a message to your partner.

	NOTE: You cannot send a message to a job.

What the receiver sees

The person who receives the message sees something like this on the screen:

   FROM/S118 MILDRED.PIERCE/CAN YOU GET ME THE JAMES FILE?

Notice that the sender's session number and logon appear on the screen indicating the sender of the message. In this example, the sender is Mildred Pierce, working in session 118.

	NOTE: TELL messages are transmitted when the Return key is pressed. Lengthy messages that are longer than a terminal screen line wrap around (automatically continue) to the next line (you can type as many as 276 characters, including spaces, after the TELL command).

Have a partner send a message to you.

Blocking messages

There might be times when having a message appear on the screen is annoying. In some circumstances, the message might actually interfere with your work.

You can tell the computer to prevent messages from appearing on your terminal.

To block messages, use the SET command. Be sure to enter the command exactly this way:

   SET;MSG=OFFReturn

Try it.

Enter:

   SHOWJOBReturn



   :SHOWJOB



   JOBNUM  STATE IPRI JIN  JLIST    INTRODUCED  JOB NAME



   #S116   EXEC QUIET 101  101      FRI  9:57A  NORMA.DESMOND

   #S118   EXEC       107  107      FRI  3:57P  MILDRED.PIERCE

   #S119   EXEC QUIET 109  109      FRI  4:02P  LEDGER.ACCNTNG

   #J13    EXEC        10S LP       FRI  3:00P  JIM.HARINGTN

   #J10    EXEC        10S LP       FRI  6:00A  OPERATOR.SYS



   5 JOBS:

       0 INTRO

       0 WAIT; INCL 0 DEFERRED

       5 EXEC; INCL 3 SESSIONS

       0 SUSP

   JOBFENCE= 7; JLIMIT= 60; SLIMIT= 60

In this example, both NORMA.DESMOND and LEDGER.ACCNTNG have used the SET command to block messages from appearing on their terminals. Both users' terminals are now in Quiet mode.

Your terminal should be in Quiet mode. Does SHOWJOB confirm this?

If you try to send a message to someone whose terminal is in Quiet mode, you get a message from the system:

   S116 NORMA.DESMOND NOT ACCEPTING MESSAGES.

Unblocking messages

To permit messages to get through to your terminal again, enter this:

   SET;MSG=ONReturn

The ;MSG=ON part of this command line takes your terminal out of Quiet mode.

Practice the TELL command with a partner on your system. Get in and out of terminal Quiet Mode. Send messages to one another while in each mode (on and off). Use the SHOWJOB command to keep track of which mode you and your partner are in.

Message to the system operator: TELLOP

There may come a time when you need to send a message to the system operator who supports your HP 3000. The TELLOP command sends a message to the system operator's terminal (| system console|) and to nowhere else. For that reason, you do not have to specify a session number or a logon identity when you use TELLOP.

	NOTE: Your system operator is obliged to respond to TELLOP messages. That takes up the operator's time. Do not send messages to the operator unless you really need to do so. Instead, just study the examples below.

If you enter at the prompt:

   TELLOP WHAT TIME IS SYSTEM BACKUP TONIGHT?Return

what the system operator would see on the console screen is something like this:

   16:47/#S116/19/FROM/NORMA.DESMOND/WHAT TIME IS SYSTEM BACKUP

TONIGHT?

TELLOP supplies more information to the receiver than the TELL command:

Your system operator can also use the TELL command to send a message to you. If you get one, it will look something like this:

   FROM/S581 CONSOLE.SYS/SYSTEM BACK UP AT 8:00 PM.

On the lookout

At any time, the operator can deliver a terminal screen message to all users logged on to the system. These messages usually contain important information regarding your use of your MPE/iX system.

   OPERATOR WARNING: SYSTEM COMING DOWN IN 15 MINUTES.  PLEASE LOG OFF.