Econet: *Notify fun

[IanJeffray]

I've been having some fun playing with Econet *Notify

To send on a Beeb:
*NOTIFY <station> <message>
To receive on a Beeb:
The received message is dumped in the keyboard buffer!


To send on a RISC OS 2 Archimedes:
The NetFiler icon has a "Notify" submenu. Neat.
To recieve on a RISC OS 2 Archimedes:
The NetFiler handles the Event from the Econet module and generates an error dialog with the message.
If outside the desktop, the behaviour is as per the beeb - the message gets dumped in the keyboard buffer.

RISC OS 2 displaying a notification

To send on a RISC OS 3.1 Archimedes:
Use !Notify or !Notified app
To receive on a RISC OS 3.1 Archimedes:
The NetFiler handles the Event from the Econet module and generates a registered WIMP message which is handled by !Notify or !Notified if they're running. If the WIMP message isn't acked by any app, then NetFiler generates an error dialog with the message.
If outside the desktop, the behaviour is as per the beeb - the message gets dumped in the keyboard buffer.

RISC OS 3.1 displaying a notification

To send on a RISC OS 3.5+/4.x/6.x RiscPC/A7000:
It's all as per RISC OS 3.1 except that 3.5 (probably, I only actually checked from 3.7) and above have an "Econet immediate protection" byte (byte 193) in CMOS RAM which defaults to disallowing "OS RPC" immediates, which are used for Notify. So to fix that, clear the CMOS RAM protection byte: *FX 162 193 0 (then reboot / reinit econet)

RISC OS 4.39 displaying a notification

For RISC OS 3.1 and above, note that running !Omni (Omniclient) kills off NetFiler, so apps like !Notify and !Notified never get the WIMP message sent to them, because Omni doesn't replicate the NetFiler behaviour of generating that WIMP message. Boo.

To send from a Raspberry Pi running Econet HPB:
Add a PIPESERVER line to the config file:
PIPESERVER ON 1.251 PATH /tmp/ecopipe NONE
(I found this had to be the very last line of the file, or the hpb falls over)
And then use the 'econet-notify' command, specifying the pipe you set up:
econet-notify -p /tmp/ecopipe -q -n 1 -s 2 -t "This is a really long notify message sent from the Raspberry Pi"
I found this was completely unreliable to all machine types until I slowed down the transmission from the pi slightly.

I expect there'll be errors and nitpicks in the above info - flame away.
This is mostly posted here for my own future reference when I forget things.

[BeebMaster]

And as the data goes in the keyboard buffer, if you include |U at the beginning of the text, and |M at the end, you can then execute a * command of your choice on your remote friend's machine...

[IanJeffray]

And as the data goes in the keyboard buffer, if you include |U at the beginning of the text, and |M at the end, you can then execute a * command of your choice on your remote friend's machine...

It's interesting to note that RISC OS 2's native Notify and !Notify don't include the __ and station ID stuff in the message, so no need for |U, but that's an amusing note. I was having much fun poking BASIC programs in to the beeb from the Arc.

[james]

[
It's interesting to note that RISC OS 2's native Notify and !Notify don't include the __ and station ID stuff in the message, so no need for |U,

You would if the recipient was already part way though typing a command of their own?

[flaxcottage]

BITD when we ran a Beeb network I noted a group of boys crowded around one computer laughing and generally having a good time. I used *VIEW to look at their screen and saw that they were typing in swear words and laughing when the BBC responded with "Mistake".

I used *NOTIFY to send a message saying that I did not like swearing. That caused even more riotous laughter. *NOTIFY again sent a message telling them to sit down and get on with their work. As one they all turned to look at me, issued a joint "Sorry Sir" and went back to their places.

I love *NOTIFY!