In this section, we assume that jtalk is set up, and that jtalkd is running and connected to Jabber servers. If it is not, see below to do it.
To call Somebody, open a new command line terminal, and type jtalk_rl
somebody@jabber.org. You will get a prompt. Everything you type at
this prompt will be sent to Somebody, and everything Somebody sends you will
be displayed above the prompt.
jtalk_rl is a readline-based jtalk front-end. Others
front-ends are possible, but none are implemented yet.
Unlike the Unix talk system, starting jtalk somebody@jabber.org
will not notify Somebody that you want to talk to him. You have to actually
send him a line, maybe "Hi." or "Are you there?".
Unlike the Unix talk system, Jabber, and therefore jtalk, works on a line-by-line basis and not on a char-by-char basis. You must validate a line with enter to actually send it.
jtalk understands IRC-like commands starting with /. If you
want to send a line that actually starts with /, put an extra
slash at the start.
To connect to your Jabber accounts and be able to send and receive messages, you have to start jtalkd. One jtalkd must be started per Jabber user on the system.
At this time, there is no simple way to start and stop jtalkd. You have to start it, and put it in the background, and not forget to kill it when you log out. There are plans to have a simpler system later.
~/.jtalk
Before you use jtalk for the first time, you must create a directory
~/.jtalk which will keep the socket, the init file and the
discussions transcripts. You must also create a subdirectory
~/.jtalk/socket for the socket itself. Later, the creation of
these directories will be automatic.
Just after it has started, jtalkd reads ~/.jtalk/init as a list
of commands (without the initial slash). This init file is useful to
set default options (at this time, there are none), and, more importantly,
to configure Jabber accounts. See the
/account command description.
/account
The /account command takes a sequence of
key[=valye] options.