The first few chapters of this guide presented the absolute minimum amount of information necessary to use the system. These got you going quickly but didn't explore some of the features of DECUServe and VAX Notes in detail.

Later chapters of this guide consist of advanced reference material. They are intended for reading after you have become experienced with the system.

This chapter explores DECUServe and VAX Notes concepts more fully than the earlier chapters and, it is hoped, in a more interesting fashion than the later reference chapters. The presentation style here is more like a recipe starting from scratch, adding one or two ingredients at a time, mixing them up, until the final product (your understanding) is complete. That's why we call this chapter the The DECUServe Cookbook.

7.1 About the Master Chefs

Chris Rhode wrote the very first cookbook user guide. Linwood Ferguson volunteered to format it using RUNOFF and cleaned up errors related to changes in the DECUServe environment. It was then published as a stand-alone document and distributed informally at a past DECUS Symposium. Fred Scholldorf subsequently integrated most of the cookbook as this chapter of the DECUServe User Guide using DECwrite. Fred also performed some minimal editing to reduce duplication of material already in other chapters. Further editing was done by Larry Stone for this version of the User Guide.

7.2 Introduction

This chapter is aimed at the subscriber whose usual use of the system will be to follow discussions in selected conferences on an ongoing basis, contributing to discussions from time to time. Please read this chapter in sequence as each section introduces concepts which elaborate upon the concepts developed in earlier sections. You will notice substantial duplication of material presented elsewhere in this guide. This is intentional. The DECUServe User Guide aims to present the same material in several ways both to reinforce the concepts through repetition and to allow you to choose the presentation style you prefer.

We realize that some subscribers wish to minimize their contact with the large volume of notes on the system, desiring merely to look for existing information (quickly, without reading every note on the system), or to post questions (again, without reading most of the material on the system or caring much how it is organized). Later sections of this chapter will help you to navigate through the volume of information available. However, we strongly encourage you to read through this entire chapter, ideally while sitting at a terminal. Try reading part of a conference and posting a note or two. The WHO_AM_I conference, where subscribers tell each other about themselves, is a great place to start.

We welcome suggestions for improvements to this document; send them via VAX Mail to ``@ASSIST'' (see Section 7.18, Sending Mail To The Customer Service Representative or the description of VAX Mail in Chapter 10 to learn how to do this).

Thank you, and once again, welcome to DECUServe!

7.3 VAX Notes and VMS

Most of your activity on the DECUServe system takes place inside a software product known as VAX Notes. It is an electronic conferencing product which makes extensive use of VT100-type screen features, so use of a VTxxx or a VTxxx-emulator on a PC or MAC is essential.

DECUServe runs the VAX/VMS operating system. If you are not familiar with VMS, about all you need to know is that you enter a command at the ``$'' prompt. For example, $ NOTES to activate the VAX Notes application, or $ MAIL to activate VAX Mail. When the command completes you are given another ``$'' prompt. At that point you can type another command, and so on. Use the $ LOGOUT command to disconnect from the system.

7.3.1 Keyboard and Keypad Functions

Most input to VMS and to programs such as VAX Notes and VAX Mail is terminated (sent to the system) by pressing the RETURN key on the main keyboard, not the ENTER key on the numeric keypad. The exceptions are the control and numeric keypad commands discussed in the next two paragraphs.

Some functions on DECUServe involve use of the control key on your keyboard, which may be labeled CTRL or CTL or something similar. This document will use the notation CTRL/X to denote a control key sequence. Use the CONTROL key as you use the SHIFT key. For example, you can use CTRL/U at almost any time to delete the current line you are typing so that you can start over. Hold the control key down and press `U'. You do not press the RETURN key after using a Control function. Here are some other common control functions:

CTRL/S	Stops the flow of output to the screen.
CTRL/Q	Resumes the flow of output to the screen.
CTRL/Y	Gets you out of almost anything back to the system ``$'' prompt. (Use only in an emergency.)
CTRL/C	Aborts the current operation, e.g. Notes> SEARCH. (CTRL/C acts like a CTRL/Y if a program does not support CTRL/C.)
CTRL/Z	Substitutes for the EXIT command while in most programs such as VAX Notes or VAX Mail.

You should use the RUBOUT or DELETE key on your keyboard (often at the upper right of the main keyboard) to delete characters. BACKSPACE or CONTROL-H will not have the desired effect.

You will often make use of the numeric keypad on your terminal or PC in order to send commands to VAX Notes, VAX Mail, and most of the editors on the system. In virtually every case, pressing a keypad key causes some action to take place immediately; there is no need to press RETURN after pressing these keys. In fact, doing so will usually result in unexpected behavior. This document will use the notation KPX to denote a key on the numeric keypad; for example, KP3 means the `3' key on the keypad.

The layout and names of keypad keys for standard VAX Notes are given in Chapter 5, for OneKey VAX Notes in Chapter 6 and Chapter 8, and for many of the VAX Notes Editors in Chapter 12. This chapter explains the functions many of these keys and provides examples of their use. If you are using a terminal emulator program on another computer, make sure you understand how your keys map to the VTxxx numeric keypad keys. Also make sure your terminal emulator is setup to use ``Keypad Application Mode''.

7.3.2 VAX Notes Conferences

Through VAX Notes, you have access to a large number of conferences. A conference is a collection of notes (messages written by DECUServe subscribers) in a specific major subject area (e.g. VMS, PERSONAL_COMPUTING, DEC_NETWORKING, etc.). Each conference consists of a number of discussions, each consisting of a base or topic note (typically a question posed by a subscriber), usually followed by one or more replies or reply notes (answers and discussion authored by other subscribers). Every note in a conference is assigned a number of the form n.m. A topic note has a note number of the form n.0 (e.g. 1.0). The topic note may be followed by a number of reply notes with numbers of the form n.1, n.2, etc. (e.g. 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, ...).

We strive to keep each discussion tightly focused on one concept, idea, or question, and to prevent discussions from drifting into material that really belongs in a different conference or discussion.

7.3.3 Your VAX Notes Notebook

DECUServe has a large number of conferences; you may only want to follow a small number of them. VAX Notes automatically keeps track of the conferences you are following, and for each conference, which notes you have read (seen) in that conference, so that each time you open a conference, you pick up reading approximately where you left off. The data file that keeps track of this information for you is known as a notebook.

7.4 Accessing the System

Once you have successfully entered your username and password, you see a number of informational messages. These are followed by either a banner announcing that you are entering the New Subscriber Environment Generation Procedure or the VMS system prompt ``$'' if the New Subscriber Environment Generation Procedure is not available.

7.4.2 Subsequent Logins

Always read the informational messages that appear during login carefully. They do change from time to time. The information is typically exceptionally useful or important.

If your connection to the computer is dropped at any time after you have logged in, simply redial; after entering your username and password again you are given the opportunity to resume your old session (provided you redial within a few minutes). If you have repeated problems getting into the system or being disconnected from the system, call the DECUServe Customer Service Representative for assistance at the telephone number listed on the cover letter or follow the instructions listed in Chapters 3 and 13 of this document.

7.4.3 New User Environment Setup

Upon your first login, the system runs the DECUServe New User Environment Generation Procedure, which walks you through some important first steps on the system. It assists you in tailoring your environment to your preferences. It also takes care of some important initial chores, including changing your password.

One of the most important steps through which the New User Environment leads you is choosing the conferences, or major subject areas, which you wish to follow. Since there are a lot of conferences, it shows you typical areas of interest, such as:

• 3rd Party and Pubic Domain Software, Software Development, Status
• Site Management, Business Practices, Security, Law, News
• VMS, Digital's Layered Products, Other Digital Software
• PDP-11 Operating Systems, Software and Hardware
• Ultrix, Unix, Xenix Operating Systems, Software, Workstations

These general areas of interest and others are presented. You may choose those that appeal to you. Each of these broad areas of interest correspond to several VAX Notes conferences which are then added to your notebook. This allows you to follow new developments in them each time you log on. A fairly complete list of conference areas is given in Chapter 11 of this guide. You may always add or delete individual conferences manually later; this is just an initial way to setup your personal notebook quickly.

If you simply get the ``$'' prompt instead of the New User Environment Generation Procedure, there are at several things you should do immediately:

1. Change your password if the system has not already forced you to do so. Issue the command SET PASSWORD at the ``$'' prompt. You are asked to enter your old password, a new password, and your new password again at the Verification prompt. This is to guard against typing mistakes since none of these entries are displayed as you type them.
   Choose any string of letters and digits of at least 6 characters in length which you can easily remember but will be difficult for others to guess. For example, use a phrase such as ``PASSTHESALT'' rather than your first name, nickname, or other easily guessed passwords.
2. The next two steps require that you enter VAX Notes. Simply type NOTES at the ``$'' prompt (followed by the RETURN key). Ignore the displays generated by VAX Notes for now.
3. Set your default VAX Notes editor. The default editor is EVE. If you are familiar with it, you may wish to leave the default intact. People familiar with EDT but unfamiliar with EVE should issue the following command at the Notes> prompt:

   Notes> SET PROFILE/EDITOR=(EDT,CALL)

   
   Once again, the command is followed by the RETURN key at the Notes> prompt. The EDT editor (described in Chapter 12) is now set as the default. This default setting applies across all further logins until you choose to change it again.

4. Set up an initial set of conferences. You can get a paginated list of all conferences available on DECUServe by issuing the command:

   Notes> DIR/CONFERENCES EISNER::

   
   Press RETURN to advance to the next page of the listing. Write down the names of any conferences which appear interesting (ignore ``>'' symbols which may appear to the left of the conference names), and then add them to your notebook one at a time using the command:

   Notes> ADD ENTRY EISNER::conference_name

   
   It is very important that you always specify the string EISNER:: in these two commands. When you are done adding conferences, issue the command

   Notes> UPDATE

   
   Wait until it completes, and then issue the EXIT command to exit Notes.

The following outline procedure for using NOTES probably suffices for your first few ventures into DECUServe; you can review each step and perform it after you read it.

1. Log into your account. When you log in, look at any messages displayed as they may tell you important things about availability of DECUServe or other information. They do change periodically.
   A few seconds after you reach the ``$'' prompt, you will notice a message Subprocess username_1 has completed. You may want to wait for this message. When you logged in, a subprocess was started which updates the unseen counts in your notebook. Running in parallel with your login, this updates your notebook faster and saves you the trouble of having to do it yourself.
2. Issue the NOTES command at the ``$'' prompt to enter VAX Notes and display the contents of your notebook, indicating which conferences (if any) contain unseen notes.
3. If there are no conferences with unseen notes, you may use CTRL/Z or the EXIT command to exit VAX Notes. Then proceed to step (6). Or, you may select the conference you wish to read by using the command OPEN conferencename.
4. The first unseen note in the conference is automatically presented to you. Use the numeric keypad keys to read the notes in the conference:

   ENTER	to proceed through all unseen notes in sequence
   KP3	to skip to the next reply in the current discussion
   KP,	to skip to the next discussion

   
   You can also reply to any note you are reading via the REPLY command; see below for instructions on the REPLY command. If you feel overwhelmed by the number of unseen notes in the conference, read about the SET SEEN command.
5. When all notes are read, or when you wish to stop reading notes and come back later and pick up approximately where you left off, use CTRL/Z or the CLOSE command to return to your notebook listing, and go back to step (3).
6. Log out of your account using $ LOGOUT.

When you log into DECUServe, a background process is started which goes through your notebook and updates all of the unseen counts. Once completed, you can quickly ascertain which conferences contain notes you haven't seen. To avoid confusion, you may wish to wait until you see the Subprocess username_1 has completed message before entering VAX NOTES. It does no harm if you do not wait and enter VAX Notes anyway, but some of your unseen counts may not be updated when you first see the directory. However, if you read or post notes in some conference and come back to the directory display after the subprocess is complete, they are then updated.

7.6.2 Starting VAX Notes

To get into VAX Notes, simply issue the command:

$ NOTES

Note that ``$'' is used to indicate that the command NOTES is typed in response to the ``$'' prompt you get after logging in; the ``$'' is not typed as part of the command. Remember to press RETURN to send the command to the system.

Shortly after typing NOTES, you get a ``notebook listing'' on your screen that looks something like this:

Directory of Notebook class MAIN Entry Name Unseen Last new note Topics Update status DEC_SOFTWARE 28 18-FEB-1986 14:23 9 PERSONAL_COMPUTING 2 6-MAR-1989 18:50 10 VMS 2 6-MAR-1989 18:51 289

You may now select a conference to read. Do this by issuing the command OPEN conferencename. For example:

Notes> OPEN VMS

You can abbreviate the conference name in the OPEN command as long as the abbreviation is unique in your notebook listing or you are satisfied opening the first conference whose prefix matches the string you type. VAX Notes opens the specified conference and displays the first unseen note in the conference, if any.

7.6.3 Reading A Conference

Normally you read all unseen notes in sequence until there are no more notes to be read, although you can exit the conference at any time and return later to pick up where you left off. When you wish to exit the conference and return to the notebook listing, issue the EXIT command.

To exit VAX Notes and get back to the ``$'' prompt when at the notebook directory listing, use the EXIT command a second time. Remember that you can use CTRL/Z as a shortcut for typing EXIT. At the ``$'' prompt you can issue the command LOGOUT to disconnect from the system.

As mentioned earlier, when you enter a conference, VAX Notes finds a discussion containing unseen notes and presents the unseen notes in that discussion to you in order. When you finish reading a discussion, VAX Notes proceeds to the next discussion with unseen notes. This process continues until all unseen notes have been read.

A few comments are appropriate about the order in which notes are presented by default. When you enter a conference, VAX Notes displays an unseen note. This note may not be related to where you left off reading when you were last in the conference. As an example, if you last read 500.1 and exited and then someone posted a reply in 1.3, when you next open that conference, you may find yourself reading 1.3 first, not 500.2.

The base note (n.0) and all replies to it (n.1, n.2, etc.) are often called a ``thread''. They all relate to one topic, and represent a collective train of thought. Because of this (in VAX Notes's normal order of presentation), after the first unseen note (say 3.24) you move on to 3.25, 3.26, etc. until you come to the end of that thread. In this situation, VAX Notes is presenting replies in numeric order to help you follow the meaning of that thread. It does not matter that replies to other topics were posted in between, say, the time stamps of 3.26 and 3.27. It would be confusing to jump from 3.26 to 5.1 and back to 3.27.

The above behavior is intended to help you in following discussions. It may at first appear confusing, since you find yourself jumping back from high numbered topics in one session to low numbered ones later. The important thing to remember is that VAX Notes is keeping track of all unseen topics and replies, and unless you tell it not to (see SET SEEN), VAX Notes will eventually show you everything you have yet to see.

Often, you can use just the ENTER key on the numeric keypad for note reading. This is known as the VAX Notes OneKey-Noting key. The ENTER key will do the following:

• If there is more of the current note to be read,(many notes are longer than one screen)the next screen of the note is displayed.
• If the current note has been completely read, the next reply in the discussion is presented.
• If no more replies exist in the current discussion, the next unseen discussion is presented.

Two other keys on the numeric keypad may be immediately useful to you:

• The keypad 3 key on the keypad (KP3) which may be used to skip to the next reply in a discussion (if the current note is too long or uninteresting to you).
• The keypad comma key (KP,) which may be used to skip to the next unseen discussion (if the entire discussion you are currently reading is uninteresting to you).

Further details on these and other keypad commands are provided in the next section.

7.7 Additional VAX Notes Commands And Keys

OneKey noting presents unseen notes to you in order, one discussion at a time. You can alter this method of presentation by pressing numeric keypad keys as follows:

• To go back to the previous screen of a long note, use the keypad period key (KP. or ``PREV SCREEN''). To display the next screen, use the keypad zero key (KP0 or ``NEXT SCREEN''). If your terminal has NEXT SCREEN and PREV SCREEN keys, they work in the same way.
• To skip to the next reply in a discussion, use the keypad ``3'' key (KP3 or ``NEXT REPLY'').
• To skip to the next discussion with unseen notes, use the keypad comma key (KP, or ``NEXT UNSEEN''). Note that all remaining notes in the discussion you were reading are marked as ``seen'' when you do this. The keypad comma key only discards notes currently in existence in the discussion. If new notes are posted in the same discussion later, you will have to use the keypad comma key again to discard them if you still have no interest in that discussion.
• To go back to the previous note you were reading (as when you've accidentally pressed the ENTER key one time too many), use the keypad minus key (KP- or ``LAST NOTE READ'').