When I log into my Fibs with my 110 baud teletype, I use tinyfugue, the text client that lets me edit my lines at a snail's pace and still be able to see what's going on. (joking aside, I really do)

I'm aware that tf is very powerfull, but I've never much explored that side of it.

conversely, GUIs often seem to feature excrutiatingly impoverished text input, sometimes even lacking the most basic history features, but I'd like to improve on that.

what features do the real power users around here use that they just can't get from fibs gui clients ?

what kind of scripting do you want embedded into your command line ?

Are there any such features that you'd like but have yet to find in any client ?

where can I get an emacs mode for fibs ?

text interface users, show us your text-fu!

Don,

thanks for helping with this.  Please accept my apologies for not answering sooner, but we were chatting on another thread.

I particularly value you input, not least because you've been on fibs for a long time and written client software yourself.

We've spoken at length about the values that go into the making of a client, and despite our minor points of disagreement, I think something that comes out of that is that we both clearly care about such things. As stepfibs matures, which is going to take some time, I hope you will be pleasantly surprised by the way the defaults are respectful of fibs and fibs users, and I hope I get your input on that when the time comes.

To reply specifically to a couple of things:


I confess I've never had one, only the part about tinyfugue is true   The oldest machine I have kicking around now is an apple][e which I picked up s/h out of sentimentality, but I've never gotten around to doing much with it.


I'm very interested in getting to a point where the client can log the whole session in detail to a backend (and I'm thinking configurable, but a database as an option).  I confess I'm more excited right now by what could be done with the analysis of the backgammon, but I recognise the importance of preserving the chat in context, and I can certainly imagine occassionally using chat history facilities myself, and I fancy they may be very popular with users.

Perhaps you, or someone else, will correct me on this, because I've seen only a few fibs clients, but am I right in thinking that there is no published client that offers facilities like this yet ?  Although I wonder if this (the text side of it anyway) is the kind of thing that might be relatively easy on a client like tf.


monster?  there is a fine tradition of sing-a-longs on fibs

I must say that its not so much a question for me of trying to second guess what creative things people might do with new tools as it is trying to create good tools to empower people being creative.

I do recognise that there is a point at which a technology has to be handled responsibly, and that there are such considerations in respect of fibs.

My feeling at the moment is that incorporating scriptability into stepfibs is desirable and doable without causing a problem, but it is an area where I will tread carefully, and am keen to hear from the community.


That really sounds like interesting work. I'd certainly like to hear more about it, even if you can't be persuaded to publish.

Personally, I find it a tough discipline publishing in this way.  The temptation to hold back commits because I'm not really happy with them is very strong, but hopefully in the end I will get to a point where I am happy with it.  Already I'm at the point where stepfibs is the client I use day-to-day, and (fingers-crossed) I seem to have cracked the worst of the bugs that were crashing my client and causing me to have to leave and resume, and that is very gatifying, even if stepfibs is still too buggy and basic to be of much interest to anyone but a developer.


Thank you, Don.  Likewise, I wish you luck with yours.

Regards,
Paddy