General
Using The Terminal
Tips on using the Terminal interface will appear if you enter "help", as explained below. Beyond simply entering commands and reading their output, there are a couple of things to know about this gadget.
The first is, just because the Terminal is written in Java, it may be wont to "lose focus" as you switch windows (depending on the operating system you are using, etc.), after which it will not receive your keystrokes when you type. If ever the rectangular box at the bottom of the interface--the text entry field--is not showing its caret (a little wedge-shaped symbol), then the Terminal has lost focus. Clicking anywhere in the interface should bring it back.
The output can be scrolled up and down, so if you missed something, you can scroll back up and find it again. To scroll a line at a time, hold down <ctrl> and press <up> or <down>. To scroll a page at a time, hold down <ctrl> and press <page-up> or <page-down>. And, to scroll quickly to the first or last line of output, hold down <ctrl> and press <home> or <end>, respectively. But here I must warn you, the Terminal can only hold a limited amount of output, so eventually the first lines displayed will begin to disappear.
As for entering commands, be aware that you can copy and paste within the text entry field, as you would with most other graphical interfaces (using <ctrl> and <shift> keys). Unfortunately, due to a lame-ass security restriction on Java applets, the Terminal uses its own "clipboard". This means you cannot copy something from another application and paste it directly into the Terminal's own, groovy-looking text entry field (or vice versa). So to get around that, I added a "native" text field, which you can access by the <escape> key. Use this (uglier looking but specially privileged) control to paste in links you've copied from Web pages, for example; and it should appear automatically in some cases as well, for your convenience. (It's too bad I had to add this workaround. I don't understand why the "native" control gets to use the system clipboard but mine doesn't. I could have used a "signed" applet instead, but then you, the user, would have to deal a security popup just to view the home page, and that blows, too.)
To make up for that, however, I've added a history feature to my text field, with which you can cycle back through what you've already typed simply by pressing the <up> and <down> arrow keys. If you find a command you want to replay, as it were, you can simply press <enter>. Or you can edit the command before reentering it. And here's the kicker: if you hold the <ctrl> key while you press <enter>, not only will the line currently showing (in the text field) be executed, but all subsequent lines in your history will be sent afterwards as well. So if you've executed a command requiring several lines of input, and you need to redo the whole thing with some modifications, just cycle back to the initial command line (changing any lines as you go), then hit <ctrl>-<enter> and let 'er rip!
help
An inline help system is available via the help command. Typing "help" alone will present a brief introduction to the Terminal, and typing "help" followed by any command will generate a brief explanation of that command. Additionally, there are just a few forms of help which do not represent commands. These include "help site", which provides an introduction to VanCleve.com; "help terminal", which gives some advice on using the Terminal; and "help terminal input", which gives more specific hints on the Terminal's text input field.
Commands can be formed of more than one word (and often are), as "create menu item". When used with a command suffix, for example "help create", help always display a list of "subcommands" as the last part of its output, if any are available for the given command. In this example, you might see a list words like "bookmark menu chat person". This list indicates additional words which are valid for the given command, so create bookmark, create menu, etc., are either valid commands or prefixes to one or more commands. Think of these commands, then, as a hierarchy (an n-tree, for you geeks). help will work for any part of this hierarchy, even if it doesn't amount to a valid command: create is not a usable command, but it is a prefix to other commands. By this means, you can examine your allotted "command tree" without having to know any of it in advance.
clear
Typing clear will clear your terminal's output, in case you're a digital neatnick or you have displayed something personal and wish to hide it.
Logging In
You're welcome to use VanCleve.com anonymously, but most of its really useful features are available only to registered users. At some point I mean to add a
create account command allowing you to register yourself, but I haven't yet. For now, you can
email the webmaster and ask for an account.
login
To log in to VanCleve.com and use all the neato, spiffy-cool features only registered users can access, just type login. You can also type your username afterward, on the same line, as an optional convenience. Logging in will produce some user-specific output, such as the number of unread message you have waiting (see "Messaging" below).
who am i
After logging in to VanCleve.com, if you wait too long without using the site, you may be automatically logged out. But as it is, nothing will indicate to you, automatically, that this has occurred. If you want to check as whom the server knows you currently, ask it who am i.