Original Usenet thread from alt.ascii-art, started 11 Jul 1994.
TALK: Animations in .plan
alt.ascii-art
· 15 messages · 11 Jul 1994 - 24 Jul 1994
How do I put a vt animation in a .plan file, and how would I use an animation using the write command (for those of you using unix)? While we're at it, can these be sent in a mail message? Actually I expect that the answer to all of these questions is no, but I'm hoping somebody will prove me wrong.... @@@ Randall Nortman (aka Bob the WonderClown) _|=|_ | DISCLAIMER: @^ ^@ University of Chicago ^ ^ | My opinions are !~* *~! rcn...@midway.uchicago.edu + + | those of a clown. ( O ) mv *.complaint /dev/null O | Trust at your \`-'/ <---Yes, these are supposed to be clowns---> \_/ | own risk. ~~~
In article <2vs1db$5g...@gagme.wwa.com>, R. Nortman <rcn...@midway.uchicago.edu> wrote: > >How do I put a vt animation in a .plan file, and how would I use an >animation using the write command (for those of you using unix)? We can't use .plan files at my site since the mail machine is separate from those holding our unix accounts. However, I think you just need to rename the vt file into ".plan" using: unix% mv animation.vt .plan If you want to keep bits of the old .plan and have the animation before it or afterwards, then try unix% mv .plan temp.plan unix% cat animation.vt temp.plan > .plan unix% rm temp.plan Which puts the animation first. > >While we're at it, can these be sent in a mail message? They can, but those I've tried (sending them to myself) need you to press space in my mail reader because it waits at the end of every screenful. What I can do, though, is to press space a number of times and it works fine except the scrambled "-More-" messages on the left of the screen. >Actually I expect that the answer to all of these questions is no, but >I'm hoping somebody will prove me wrong.... Regards, Ryan. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Parallel lines DO meet but only incognito. Ryan Harding, Applied Optics, UKC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Now no-one's sitting on the fence, whose garden will we end up sitting in?" - John Wesley Harding, "The Person You Are" from "The Name Above The Title" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
In article <2vuaba$i3...@gagme.wwa.com> "R.K.Harding" <rkh...@ukc.ac.uk> writes: > >In article <2vs1db$5g...@gagme.wwa.com>, >R. Nortman <rcn...@midway.uchicago.edu> wrote: >> >>How do I put a vt animation in a .plan file, and how would I use an >>animation using the write command (for those of you using unix)? > >We can't use .plan files at my site since the mail machine is separate >from those holding our unix accounts. However, I think you just need to >rename the vt file into ".plan" using: > >unix% mv animation.vt .plan [...] Yes -- I did this, but somehow when the animation is viewed via the finger command, something happens and it comes out garbled. >>While we're at it, can these be sent in a mail message? > >They can, but those I've tried (sending them to myself) need you to press >space in my mail reader because it waits at the end of every screenful. >What I can do, though, is to press space a number of times and it works fine >except the scrambled "-More-" messages on the left of the screen. [...] Again, it comes out garbled. (BTW: I know I could uuencode and send, but I want it to be animated when they view their mail) @@@ Randall Nortman (aka Bob the WonderClown) _|=|_ | DISCLAIMER: @^ ^@ University of Chicago ^ ^ | My opinions are !~* *~! rcn...@midway.uchicago.edu + + | those of a clown. ( O ) mv *.complaint /dev/null O | Trust at your \`-'/ <---Yes, these are supposed to be clowns---> \_/ | own risk. ~~~
In article <2vs1db$5g...@gagme.wwa.com>, rcn...@midway.uchicago.edu (R. Nortman) writes: |> How do I put a vt animation in a .plan file, You can't and still expect just anyone to be able to read them. RFC1288, the "finger" standard, specifies that the finger daemon should return binary data. Whether this data is presented to the end user in it's entirety is up to the user interface. The case SHOULD be, according to the RFC, that escape codes < 32 should not be printed unless the user specifically asked for them. There SHOULD also be a user-settable flag to say whether of not chars with the top bit set should be printed. The default for this should be system-settable. Now, I've never actually seen an implementation of finger that complies with this. The behaviour of most unix fingers (derived from the BSD finger sources) is to never even send non-printable data. |> Actually I expect that the answer to all of these questions is no, but |> I'm hoping somebody will prove me wrong.... I'm hoping not. I really wouldn't like to finger someone and find it reprogram my terminal! That is not just anti-social, but a significant security risk. Tim. -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |University of Cambridge Computing Service - Unix-Support | |Tim Auckland <tda...@ucs.cam.ac.uk> | |Light a Candle and support Global Warming |
The first place I ever saw an animation (the only place for that matter) was on a .plan. Only unix machines can see these as far as I know. Mail works just fine, as long as the recipient reads it with the unix mail command. A lot of mailers mess them up =] Oh, and instead of mv animation .plan you may want to use cp animation .plan which will copy it and not rename it =] emacs is the editor I used to make my tiny cartoons (availiable upon request) and can be useful for adding animations to existing plans or v.v. ctrl-q is "quote character" for most emacs' =] Sean Lambert sum...@cs.montana.edu
In article <2vuaba$i3...@gagme.wwa.com> , rkh...@ukc.ac.uk writes: > In article <2vs1db$5g...@gagme.wwa.com>, > R. Nortman <rcn...@midway.uchicago.edu> wrote: > > > >How do I put a vt animation in a .plan file, and how would I use an > >animation using the write command (for those of you using unix)? > > from those holding our unix accounts. However, I think you just need to > rename the vt file into ".plan" using: Randy Don't Do this you will be disappointed. Midway is a secure machine. All control codes are filtered out of all .plan files. This prevents users from making mean little .plan bombs that can do things like remap your keyboard or lock up you screen. > > > >While we're at it, can these be sent in a mail message? > > They can, but those I've tried (sending them to myself) need you to press > space in my mail reader because it waits at the end of every screenful. > Ryan. > Oh you are just asking for trouble now aren't you. This is also not a good idea. If the mail system were local and just appended the messages to your mail file then this might be OK.... but in general mail transport systems use control codes to "work their magic" Heaven forbid you put the right code in the wrong place. And again, It is possible to do mean evil things via control/escape codes so many sites purposefully strip out these codes. ..::''''::.. .:::. .;'' ``;. .... ::::: :: :: :: :: ,;' .;: () ..: `:::' :: :: :: :: ::. ..:,:;.,:;. . :: .::::. `:' :: .:' :: :: `:. :: '''::, :: :: :: `:: :: ;: .:: : :: : : :: ,:'; ::; :: :: :: :: :: ::,::''. . :: `:. .:' :: `:,,,,;;' ,;; ,;;, ;;, ,;;, ,;;, `:,,,,:' :;: `;..``::::''..;' ========================================= - ``::,,,,::'' And everyone will wonder what you're up to. (this document Spellchecked.... Don't blame me Blame Microsoft)
rcn...@midway.uchicago.edu (R. Nortman) writes: >"R.K.Harding" <rkh...@ukc.ac.uk> mentions: >>rename the vt file into ".plan" using: >>unix% mv animation.vt .plan Nup - no go unfortunately. finger does some interesting text filtering (deliberate - for security reasons) >>>While we're at it, can these be sent in a mail message? Short Answer? maybe ;) It really depends on what terminal the receiver of the message has, and what mail reader they are using. Most people who use vt100 terminals/emulators will use 'more' or 'less' to read their mail anyway, which will really stuff an anim up. But yeah, it's possible. I've included a quick & easy 'delete line' semi-anim below... ctrl-m characters shouldn't worry non-vt users, but things may look a little funny.... It's also possible that our mail server may mangle this post.. Oh well, cross the fingers, and we'll find out: (btw: Most, if not all, newsreaders will destroy the lines below - I think they do a bit of pre-processing on the text, and filter out the ctrl-m's) h actual animations, with cursor control etc... not much chance of working unfortunately... (depending on the target users setup) ///, //// Hope this helps a little! \ /, / >. \ /, _/ /. l8r!! \_ /_/ /. _____ _____ \__/_ < / __ \__________ / __ \___ _ _____ _________ _ ____ __ /<<< \_\_ / / / / ___/ __ \ / / / / // \/ __ \/ ___/ Y \/__/ \/ / /,)^>>_._ \ / /_/ / _/_/ /_/ // /_/ / _~ / /_/ / _/_/ \ / /> < (/ \\ /\\\ /__/ \ >____/_____// ____/__//__/\_____/_____/__//__/\_//__/\_\ // ```` ======\/============\_/========[Pur...@zeus.usq.edu.au]===============((`=======
In article <2vv20j$l...@gagme.wwa.com> tda...@cus.cam.ac.uk (Tim) writes: > >In article <2vs1db$5g...@gagme.wwa.com>, rcn...@midway.uchicago.edu (R. Nortman) writes: >|> How do I put a vt animation in a .plan file, > >You can't and still expect just anyone to be able to read them. Try this instead of fingering: telnet twinbrook.cis.uab.edu 79 And don't forget the "79" that is the finger port. After you are connected, type the userID you wanted to finger, like: spinweb This will circumvent the problems with FINGER clients mucking up an animation. The problem is not usually your local FINGER server. For more information on this, see the items on the .plan file in the "Discussions" menu in the ASCII Art Bazaar under the Continuum on my Gopher server. Regards, R L Samuell -- E-MAIL: sam...@cis.uab.edu FINGER: @twinbrook.cis.uab.edu .. an OS/2 FINGER Server GOPHER: twinbrook.cis.uab.edu 70 .. an OS/2 GOPHER Server WoWWeb: gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/hhomepage.80 .. (w/HTML support)
R. Nortman (rcn...@midway.uchicago.edu) wrote:
: How do I put a vt animation in a .plan file, and how would I use an
: animation using the write command (for those of you using unix)?
you can rename the file containing the animation to '~/.plan'
on most systems if you are fingered locally (finger yourname) the user will
see a garbled sequence of control codes, but if you are fingered remotely
(finger yourname@yoursite) the user will see the animation. Some systems
will not allow remote fingers at all, because of traffic.
for an example of an animated .plan, try:
finger jpa...@mole.uvm.edu
^^^^
for an example of a site that does not allow remote fingers, try:
finger jpa...@moose.uvm.edu
^^^^^
: While we're at it, can these be sent in a mail message?
only if they are uuencoded first. They can't be sent so that the user
will see the animation in their mail reader.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jake Patterson "...You'll see my teeth in the stars above..."
jpa...@moose.uvm.edu
jpa...@mole.uvm.edu -TMBG
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
In article <3066s0$b1...@gagme.wwa.com>, jpa...@moose.uvm.edu (Jake Patterson) writes: |> for an example of an animated .plan, try: |> finger jpa...@mole.uvm.edu When I finger this address, I get several hundred lines like this: [1;1H [1;1H [1;1H ... then it says this: Error: timed out while doing something indeterminable Couldn't see any info about jpatters (which is usually why you finger somebody). Maybe animated plans aren't such a hot idea after all... -- tdk
Timothy Kimball (kim...@stsci.edu) wrote:
: In article <3066s0$b1...@gagme.wwa.com>, jpa...@moose.uvm.edu (Jake Patterson) writes:
: |> for an example of an animated .plan, try:
: |> finger jpa...@mole.uvm.edu
: When I finger this address, I get several hundred lines like this:
: [1;1H
: [1;1H
: [1;1H
: ...
: then it says this:
: Error: timed out while doing something indeterminable
The intention was for it to pause for a few seconds then give
a cryptic error message. (I actually got this error message
once, and no, it wasn't after fingering someone :) )
the .plan file consists of several copies of delay.vt and
the line 'Error: timed out while doing simething indeterminable'
did anyone actually see the plan as it was intended?
To give it a try, finger jpa...@mole.uvm.edu before monday,
^^^^
July 25, when I will change my .plan back to something normal.
############\ ############\ ############\
## ##\ KKKKKK ### ####\ KKKKKK ## ###\
###### ####\ KK KKK ## #### ##\ KK KK ## #### ##\
###### ####\ KKKKK ## ########\ KK KK ## ###\
## ## ####\ KKK KKK ## #### ##\ KK KK ## #### ##\
## #####\ KKKKKKK K ### ####\ KKKKKK ## ###\
############\ ############\ ############\
\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ \\\\\\\\\\\\\
In <30jc66$rn...@gagme.wwa.com> jpa...@moose.uvm.edu (Jake Patterson) writes: >Timothy Kimball (kim...@stsci.edu) wrote: >did anyone actually see the plan as it was intended? Hello, I tried it, but I also got the [1;1H [1;1H [1;1H, etc. Sorry. But the last line worked ok. Brian Park bpr...@troi.cc.rochester.edu >To give it a try, finger jpa...@mole.uvm.edu before monday, > >July 25, when I will change my .plan back to something normal.
You can try fingering this address......
gan...@ss0.eng.wayne.edu
PS : It might not be the 'least' funny for an average American ;-)
--
Sriram Ganapathy \ _/|\_ /
<gan...@nova.eng.wayne.edu> \ _/__|__\_ / "*^%K5ja7@gdjf%HD5sks*^|!D><_#69
\ \___/ / {-4^#0(*}w065K%8N7h3*98&5=)*@3 "
\ /
:-) Chinese_Wisdom.ZIP
Boy, when I fingered gan...@ss0.eng.wayne.edu, the whole things just ZOOMED
right by me - I didn't see hardly a thing!
-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-
_____
/'\_/`\ /\___ \ gra...@acsu.buffalo.edu
/\ \ __ _ __ ___ __ __ \/__/\ \ ___
\ \ \__\ \ /'__`\ /\`'__\/'___\/\ \/\ \ _\ \ \ / __`\
\ \ \_/\ \/\ \_\.\_\ \ \//\ \__/\ \ \_\ \ /\ \_\ \/\ \_\ \
\ \_\\ \_\ \__/.\_\\ \_\\ \____\\/`____ \ \ \____/\ \____/
\/_/ \/_/\/__/\/_/ \/_/ \/____/ `/___/> \ \/___/ \/___/ ____~O __
/\___/ ,' _ `~'_ ".
\/__/ `-'o`---'o`-'
-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-
Jake Patterson (jpa...@moose.uvm.edu) wrote: : did anyone actually see the plan as it was intended? : To give it a try, finger jpa...@mole.uvm.edu before monday, : ^^^^ : July 25, when I will change my .plan back to something normal. Well, I tried to test it on the 24th but nothing happened! The test was to see it once in Turbo C-shell and once in Bourne-Again-SHell -=[ Gandalf ]=- --
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