On Sat, 6 Sep 2003, Jan L. Peterson wrote:
> Yes, I have a suggestion. Don't use talk. The talk protocol is really
> ugly and confusing, and relies on both TCP and UDP traffic going in
> both directions. It's also not very efficient as it sends each
> character as it is typed. If you're looking for a reasonable bit of
> software for text-based communications, I'd recommend setting up an IRC
> server and letting the users connect to it with an IRC client of some
> kind.
Talk has a niche between messaging clients and voice communication that's
often overlooked. Sometimes I find email is the best way to communicate
something, particularly if I need a while to think as I write. IMs are good
when I might be away or I'm concurrently doing other things. But talk hits
the spot when I don't quite want to pick up the phone and call.
Plus, some talk clients (ytalk?) will let you do things like open a shell in
your own window - great for demonstrating unix commands.
I've been disappointed to see it neglected; logging into a unix machine when
somebody else was there used to be a social experience. Nowadays we don't
even look to see if anyone else is there.
-J
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