PersonalChatware
The author and Lithic Software Corporation assume
no liability for the use of Lithic Personal Chatware. It is distributed
without any warrantee of any type.
This application and the accompanying documentation may not be distributed
for profit or on CD without the express written consent of the copyright
holder. The application and documentation are Copyright 1998 Lithic Software
Corporation, all rights reserved. Decompilation and/or reverse engineering
are violations of license.
This readme and linked files cover the following topics:
Purpose and Background
Setting Up The Client
Using The Client
Using The Server
Performance
License
Help, Consulting, and Advertising
Purpose and Background:
This chatware provides a tool for people to chat, hold classes, hold
other discussions, or use lithic chatware plugins on an IP network (for
example, the Internet). Most chatware includes just a client, and the server
runs on a host that is not under the conversants control. This chatware
lets you set up both the client and the server, letting the person who
hosts the server have more control over the conversation. The access
number and the dynamic nature of the IP address and port number of the
server provide a way to permit only certain people (for example, students
of a class) to attend a chat session. This tool is free for educational
(including classes that you get paid for teaching) and personal use. It
must be licensed for any other use.
A commercial version is under development.
If you want to subscribe to the Lithic Software Java Newsletter to get
notices of new releases, updates, tips and other news, send a note to
java@lithic.com
indicating that you want to subscribe to the Lithic Java Newsletter.
Setting up the Lithic Personal Chat Client:
Both the client and server require verion 1.x of the Java Runtime Environment
(JRE) . It is best to download the Java Development Kit (JDK), which
includes the JRE and is not a great deal larger (it includes development
tools, if you are a developer). You can download the JDK free from
Sun Microsystems. Follow the links at:
http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.1/
After you download and install the JDK, you can put the class files
for the chatware in the bin directory of the JDK (or you can set you Path
as discussed in the JDK documentation and then put the chatware files in
any directory you choose).
If you are using Windows 95/NT, you can create a bat file which launches
the client, create a shortcut, then drag the shortcut out onto your desktop,
so that you can just double click on the shortcut to launch the client.
Using the Lithic Personal Chat Client:
The server should be running prior to the clients. The person who is
running the server must send an IP address, port number, and, if applicable,
an access code to each of the people who want to log in.
After you receive the IP address and Port number via email, you can
launch the client by typing the following at the command line:
java lspcc
This assumes that you are at a command line in your bin directory, or
that you have set you path statement and your classpath statement.
You must then put in the following information, that the person who
is running the server must have sent you:
IP Address
Port Number
Access Code(if applicable, otherwise leave this blank)
Alias
Then click the Login button. You will see a new panel which has
a list of people on the left. The text area at the right displays
the conversation. The textfield at the bottom right has the focus
initially. To send a comment, just type and hit a return. To
logout, click quit, which will bring you back to the login panel.
To quit, click exit on the login panel.
The small button at the top left has links to sites. If you click
on it, Lithic Personal Chatware will attempt to launch your browser and
point it at the site associated with the displayed logo.
Error messages:
Most are self explanatory. If the server is not available, or
the IP Address or Port Number were not entered correctly, you will get
an error that says the "server is unavailable". If the server was
launched with an access code and you do not have the correct access code,
you will get an error that "Authentication Failed". If the person
running the server removed you, you will get an error that says that "You
have been removed from the chat session". If you choose an alias
that already exists, you will get an error that "The user exists, please
login using another user."
Lithic Personal Chatware uses a proprietary chat protocol. You can not
access standard IRC servers using Lithic Personal Chatware.
Whispering- You can send a message to selected other people by
clicking on their aliases in the list of people and then sending your message
(this does not stop the message from being displayed on the server or logged).
After you are done whispering, click the selected alias to de-select them,
and the whispering will be turned off.
Plugins- Plugins are covered in a separate
file.
Performance:
To get the best performance from Lithic Personal Chatware, the person
with the fastest connection should host the server. The connection
speed of the server is generally the key factor in performance. The
processor speed and processor availability may also be a factor.
If you surf as you converse, that will also slow things down (particularly
if the person hosting the server is surfing and has a slow dial up connection).
License:
Lithic Personal Chatware is distributed under the following license:
Free for personal or education use. If this chatware is used on an
intranet, for the promotion or sale of goods or services that are not educational,
or for corporate communications, you must contact Lithic Software Corporation
(java@lithic.com) to discuss license requirements.
Trademarks used in this document are the property of their respective
owners.
This file covers using the server. For information on using the
client, see the main file.
The topic in this file are:
launching the server
the server interface
Functions
Launching the server
to launch the server type:
java lspcs portnumber
or
java lspcs portnumber accesscode
for example
java lspcs 7007
starts the server listening for connections on port 7007, and does
not have an access code.
java lspcs 7003 lithic
starts the server listening for connections on port 7003, and will
drop connections from people who attach without lithic as their access
code.
The IP address and port number the server is listening on are listed
in a text box on the right side of the server interface. Send these
to the people you want to attach to your server. If you are using
an access code, you need to send that, also. It is generally
good to launch the client on your own machine and then use the IP address
and port number to attach to the server.
The server interface
The server interface has the following elements:
A list box at the top center contains a list of the people who are attached
to the server.
Under this on the left is a text box indicating the number of people
attached.
To the right of the number attached text box is a text box with lists
the IP Address and port number the server is listening on.
Below this is a text area where the conversation is displayed.
Below this is a text field for broadcast comments.
The button at the bottom labeled Remove will drop connections with
people that you select (click on) in the list at the top.
The button at the bottom labeled Close closes the application.
Functions
Removing-You can remove a person from the server by selecting the person
in the list of people connected and then clicking the Remove button
Logging-The server automatically logs the conversations
Broadcast Comments-Enter your comment to broadcast in the textfield
under Broadcast Comments and then hit a return to send.
Access code-If you start the server with an access code (described
above) the person attaching must supply that access
code in order to connect.
Back to the PersonalChatware page
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