http://qs321.pair.com?node_id=130444

I would like my my fellow monks to consider /${username} be mapped to /msg ${username}. I have noticed many people (myself included) make this typo from time to time. Also as some have pointed out many new users attempt to use this syntax to affect a /me. Some might consider this saving them face.

Another thing to consider is mapping /msh and /msj to /msg. Another rather common typo.

It should be noted that this isn't really intended and shouldn't change much of anything in the CB per se exept reduce the # of untintentional messages. Although some might enjoy the occasional peek into the thoughts and conversations of others ;-)

--
perl -p -e "s/(?:\w);([st])/'\$1/mg"

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
(jcwren) Re: CB aliases
by jcwren (Prior) on Dec 08, 2001 at 23:25 UTC

    Nothing personal, but I don't like this idea (and I didn't vote you down for it either!)

    Seriously, this should be a chatterbox client function, not a change to the chatterbox code. There have been plenty of nodes in the past suggesting adding such features as bad commands not being accepted, etc. None have been well received. In fact, for a while, you couldn't /msh. It was changed back (for two reasons. Popular demand, and also some heavy breakage in other parts of the CB code as a result of it).

    Things like this change the personality of the monastery. Some of the best fun is watching people /msh people with amusing comments. If you're that concerned about typos like that, use a tool to fix it, not change the basic look'n'feel of the place. I had that problem (badly), by the way, but I fixed it on my end.

    --Chris

    e-mail jcwren

[reply]
      Fair enough. And for those interested here are past discussions. (Simple search turns up nothing.) However the /msg typos were only of secondary concern to me. My main point was to consider /${username} as syntactic sugar.

      --
      perl -p -e "s/(?:\w);([st])/'\$1/mg"

[reply]
Re: CB aliases
by grinder (Bishop) on Dec 09, 2001 at 03:39 UTC
    Hmm. Oh well, after having dug up the node... at first I thought you were talking about real CB aliases.

    If you are worried about send tyoped private messages to the world at large, then you should be using the java chatterbox which, by default, runs in fascist mode, which prevents you from sending mal-formed /cmds to the CB.

    It's always annoyed me, because when I want to play around and /rnsg someone, it just so happens that I'm using it at the time and so of course it won't let me, until I turn the option off. Then I'll be in the ordinary CB, and I'll reply to a private message, and leave off the /msg foo, and reply to the world at large. I just can't win.

    --
    g r i n d e r

    print@_{sort keys %_},$/if%_=split//,'= & *a?b:e\f/h^h!j+n,o@o;r$s-t%t#u';
[reply]
      That reminds me of the -i option to rm on unix systems... -i stands for interactive which means it will ask you "Delete yes/no?" questions before each filename you pass it. Neat feature for newbies right? Just alias 'rm => rm -i' and now they wont come running to you after accidentally deleting something.

      Well, it turns out that people that learned on these aliased systems developed the habit of typing 'rm *' then using the y/n questions to filter out which files they really wanted to remove. You can imagine the havoc caused later on when these people were let loose on a system that didn't have the alias set up for them......

      -Blake

[reply]
(crazyinsomniac) Re: CB aliases
by crazyinsomniac (Prior) on Dec 09, 2001 at 13:21 UTC
    I agree with jcwren, however, I would like to add: The saying goes something along the lines of "Larry", as in Wall, gives you plenty of rope to hang yourself with perl. Same goes for the chatterbox.

     
    ___crazyinsomniac_______________________________________
    Disclaimer: Don't blame. It came from inside the void
    perl -e "$q=$_;map({chr unpack qq;H*;,$_}split(q;;,q*H*));print;$q/$q;"

[reply]
Re: CB aliases
by TomK32 (Monk) on Dec 09, 2001 at 00:02 UTC
    First of all, learn to type. There's no good coder who can't type with the MTV-method (I watch MTV while coding ;-) Second, what if someone creates a user name msg or msh or whatever you like to type? It's no good idea. Instead I suggest you to hack one of the various clients and edit its source. You should add some security checks, like allowing it only for certain usernames so you don't send a msg to vrooom instead of vroom. 
    --
package Lizard::King;
sub can { do { 'anything'} };

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
      I had thought of the username thing had think it would be more than reasonable that for any user with a username matching (one of the few) keywords, they would not have access to the syntactic sugar. And as for vroom vs. vroomm, that "problem" already exists.

      And I would have to disagree with your comment about MTV-method. Though in the grand scheme, I myself could careless whether or not I make typos; that's what perl -c is for.

      --
      perl -p -e "s/(?:\w);([st])/'\$1/mg"

[reply]

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