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NAME

       tf - TinyFugue, a MUD client

SYNOPSIS

       tf [-ffile] [-lnq] [world]
       tf [-ffile] host port

DESCRIPTION

       TinyFugue  (also  known as "Fugue" or "TF") is a line-based client designed for connecting
       to MUD servers (note: LP, DIKU, and other servers which use prompts require "/lp on";  see
       /help prompts).

       Most  of  the  TF  documentation  is  in  the help file, which may be read online with the
       "/help" command.  This manual page may be obsolete in certain areas; however, the helpfile
       will always be up to date.

       TinyFugue  is  larger  than  most MUD clients, but has many more features and is much more
       flexible.  The goal is to provide the most functionality in a client that still  maintains
       the  user-friendliness  of  Tinytalk.   Clients  with extension languages such as Tcltt or
       VaporTalk can do a little more in certain areas, but are considerably harder  to  use  and
       learn.   TF provides most of these abilities in such a manner that learning to use any one
       function is relatively easy.

       Because I am continually adding new features and changing the code, TF  sometimes  becomes
       less stable in a new release.  Versions labled "alpha" are generally not as well tested as
       "beta" versions, so they have the potential for more bugs.  For this reason, I leave  some
       older  versions at the ftp site where I distribute TF (ftp.tcp.com), which do not have all
       the current features but may have fewer bugs than the most recent release.

COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS

       With no arguments, TF will try to connect to the first world defined in the  configuration
       file(s).

       With  a  world  argument, TF will try to connect to world, as defined in the configuration
       file.  If world is omitted, it will try to connect to the  first  world  defined  in  your
       configuration files.

       With  host  and port arguments, TF will define a temporary world and try to connect to it.
       The host may be an IP number or regular name format.

       OPTIONS

       -ffile Load file instead of $HOME/.tfrc at startup.

       -f     Do not load any personal configuration file.  The library will still be loaded.

       -l     Disable automatic login.

       -n     Do not connect to any world at startup.

       -q     Quiet login (overrides %{quiet} flag).

FEATURES

       Among other things, TF allows you to:

       Divide the screen into two parts, for input and output, with flexible  handling  of  input
       (/visual mode).

       Connect to multiple worlds and switch between them.

       Wrap MUD output at the edge of the screen.

       Edit text in the input buffer.

       Recall previous commands.

       Modify key sequences used to perform editing functions.

       Bind commands to key sequences.

       Define complex macros to perform MUD tasks easily.

       Create  triggers which automatically perform certain tasks when certain output is received
       from the MUD.

       Modify existing macros using either a command format or interactive editing.

       Support "portals" that automatically switch from world to world.

       Hilite or color all or part of a line that matches a certain pattern.

       Gag lines that match certain patterns.

       Suppress frequently repeated text ("spamming").

       Automatically log into a character on a world.

       Send a text file to the MUD in flexible ways, or echo it locally.

       Send the output of a system command to the MUD, or echo it locally.

       Send text previously received from the MUD to the MUD, or echo it locally.

       Repeat a MUD or TF command a number of times.

       Do the above four things at varying intervals, or at a rapid-fire rate.

       Log a session to a file.

       Separate LP and Diku style prompts from normal output.

       Page output using a --More-- prompt.

       Recall previously received text.

       Support for Mud Client Compression Protocol versions 1 and 2.

CONFIGURATION FILES

       TF will attempt to read two files when starting.  The first is a public configuration file
       "stdlib.tf",  located in TFLIBDIR.  TFLIBDIR is defined when TF is installed, and is often
       /usr/local/lib/tf.lib, or under  the  home  directory  of  the  installer.   This  library
       contains many macros and definitions essential to the correct operation of TF.

       Next,  TF will attempt to read your personal configuration file, $HOME/.tfrc, in which you
       can put any TF commands you want executed automatically  at  startup.   Two  of  the  most
       useful commands to use in a TF configuration file are /addworld and /load.

       For backward compatability, TF will also try to read the TinyTalk configuration file.  Its
       name defautls to $HOME/.tinytalk, or can be defined by the TINYTALK environment  variable.
       This file may start with a list of worlds that will be defined as if with /addworld.

HISTORY

       Anton  Rang (Tarrant) in February of 1990 released Tinytalk, the first Tinyclient with any
       great number of features, including hiliting and suppression of text, simple triggers, and
       separating  input  and  output  on  the  screen.  Leo Plotkin (Grod) made rather extensive
       modifications to Tinytalk to produce Tinywar, which was plagued with some serious bugs and
       was never officially released (the phrase "Tinywar doesn't exist" is often quoted), and is
       now an unsupported client.  TF began when Greg Hudson (Explorer_Bob) merged  many  of  the
       new  features  of Tinywar back into TinyTalk, and added many new features of his own, most
       notably the split screen.  Some of the code in Greg's  releases  was  contributed  by  Leo
       Plotkin.   After  Greg  moved  on  to  VaporTalk,  Ken Keys (Hawkeye) took over design and
       maintenance of TF in July 1991,  and  continues  to  make  improvements  in  features  and
       performance.

       The  code  size  of  TF  has surpassed 300K (unstripped), and is signifigantly larger than
       Tinytalk.  It is, in fact, more than three times the size of a number of existing servers.
       As  of version 3.0, it has 66 builtin commands and 57 library commands, each documented in
       the helpfile.

       It has been stated that TF is the most-used client in  MUDdom  at  the  current  time.   I
       haven't taken a poll, but I wouldn't be surprised.

REVIEWS

       TF has significantly changed the tinyclient world.  It has a number of merits and a number
       of flaws, and has frequently been criticized (mostly out of  boredom;  nobody  takes  this
       business too seriously) as having too many features and being too damn big.

            "Tinywar  doesn't  exist;  TinyFugue  merely  shouldn't."   --  Coined by Woodlock, I
       believe.

            "TinyFugue is a work of art."  -- Binder, obviously after having too much to drink.

            "TinyFugue is the biggest hack since the platform it was built on."  -- Explorer_Bob,
       in one of his lucid moments.

       The  New  York Times, the Christian Science Monitor and the Washington Post all refused to
       comment.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 1993, 1994 Ken Keys

       TinyFugue (aka "tf") is protected under the terms of the GNU General Public License.   See
       the file "COPYING" for details.

       TF is currently supported by Ken Keys, who may be contacted by e-mail at kkeys@ucsd.edu or
       hawkeye@tcp.com.

BACKWARD INCOMPATIBILTIES

       VERSION 3.2

       /rand has been replaced with rand().  Color names can no longer be user defined (but color
       codes still can).  The "=" operator does comparison, not assignment.

       VERSION 3.1

       Added type argument to WORLD and LOGIN hooks.

       VERSION 3.0

       Backslashes  in  macros  are  interpreted  slightly differently than in previous versions.
       Turning on the "backslash" flag will enable the old behavior.

       VERSION 2.1

       The CONNECT hook is now called before the LOGIN hook.  In 2.0, CONNECT  was  called  after
       autologin.

       VERSION 2.0

       In  versions  prior  to  2.0,  <space> was used to scroll the pager; 2.0 uses <tab> as the
       default, to allow the pager to be nonblocking.

       Tinytalk style name gags and hilites are no  longer  supported.   You  must  use  the  '*'
       wildcard explicitly, as in '/hilite hawkeye*'.

       Tinytalk  style  page  and whisper hilites are no longer supported.  However, /hilite_page
       and /hilite_whisper macros are provided in the default macro library.

       The .tinytalk file may not be supported in the future; use .tfrc instead.

       The '-' command line option in versions prior to 2.0 is no longer supported, and has  been
       replaced with '-l'.

BUGS

       When  unterbamfing,  the  old  connection  should  not  be closed until the new connection
       succeeds.

       If a shell quote (/quote !) reads a partial line from the pipe, the read will block  until
       the rest of the line is read.

WARNINGS

       The Surgeon General has determined that MUDding can be detrimental to your GPA.

                                              LOCAL                                         TF(1)