
README for faces, the visual mail and print monitor.

Version 1.3 December 1988.

Permission is given to distribute these sources, as long as the
copyright messages are not removed, and no monies are exchanged. 

This is the second general release of a "faces" server for
monitoring mail or print jobs.

It contains graphical interfaces for SunView and NeWS. The X11 and
blit versions are being worked on. Expect them in the near future.

Faces has three different modes of operation:

The default will monitor for new mail. Only the last ten messages are
displayed. In its iconic form, it is also possible to display the timestamp
of each message, and the open window format can give the username.

The second choice is to monitor the whole of a mail file. The icon and open
window display the appropriate faces, and dynamically change size as a new
check is made and if the mail file has altered size. In the iconic form, a
timestamp of the last message plus the number of mail messages from this
person are optional display parameters.

The final option allows this program to monitor a given print queue.
This will generate a single face icon showing the job at the top of the print
queue, and a text message will display the number of messages to be printed.
Opening the window will show all the jobs in the queue with the owners' name
and the size of the job in bytes.

Faces is based on the AT&T v8 face server called vismon, but is not derived
from vismon sources. With this version comes vismon compatibility. Note
that this has resulted in a few changes from the way faces v1.1 worked.
Please see the manual pages for details.

There is a face directory, and under that are directories which are hostnames.
Under that are username directories, and this is where the face images are
placed. The face images are currently stored in one of three ways:

  1.   NeWS .ps format, called face.ps.
  2.   Sun icon format, called sun.icon.
  3.   Blit ikon format, called 48x48x1.

The NeWS .ps allow for animation with the users' face. These files are
drawn when the rest of the static faces have been displayed. They will be
redrawn every time the mail or print queue is recheck or when the faces
window or icon is damaged. See the manual page for details on the
conditions imposed on these NeWS .ps files.

By default, after every sixty seconds, faces will recheck the mail file or
the print queue. If the mail spool file has changed size, it will produce a
chain of records for which it has face icons.

I welcome bug reports and suggestions for improvements.

    Rich.

Rich Burridge,          DOMAIN: richb@sunaus.oz.au
PHONE: +61 2 413 2666   UUCP:   {uunet,mcvax,ukc}!munnari!sunaus.oz!richb
