Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!RODAN.ACS.SYR.EDU!jdpeek
From: jdpeek@RODAN.ACS.SYR.EDU ("Jerry Peek")
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: .plan
Message-ID: <8908261924.AA22052@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
Date: 26 Aug 89 20:24:33 GMT
References: <61@towernet.UUCP> <1989Aug23.192105.21328@ee.rochester.edu> <10814@smoke.BRL.MIL> <1810@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu> <28110@news.Think.COM>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: jdpeek@rodan.acs.syr.edu.uucp (Jerry Peek)
Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Lines: 19

In article <28110@news.Think.COM> barmar@think.com (Barry Margolin) writes:
> In article <1810@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu> fuat@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu (Fuat C. Baran) writes:
> >It's not really finger that needs to be fixed, but the terminal.
> 
> I think it's Unix that needs to be fixed.

About the animation from the '.plan' files... When I worked at
one company and we converted to 4.3BSD, all the cute animation in the
'.plan' files stopped screwing up peoples' screens.  It turned out that
'finger' had been fixed to filter out non-text characters.  I think
they did the same thing to commands like 'write' and 'talk', too.

I don't know who fixed 'finger': Berzerkley or our company's hackers.
It was a great idea [though I missed the .plan file that flashed a lightning
bolt across the screen on Tek 41xx terminals... I got over it :-)].

--Jerry Peek; Syracuse University Academic Computing Services; Syracuse, NY
  jdpeek@rodan.acs.syr.edu///JDPEEK@SUVM.BITNET///GEnie: J.PEEK1
  +1 315 443-3995