Use with JCL of HELP for generally useful information.
HELP:
It is highly recommended that you read and, if possible, obtain a
copy of MADMAN;TVDOC >. Be warned: it's over 4 blocks long.
It is important to recognize the distinction among the three
types of input TRIVIA will take: text, symbolic, and numerical. The
first and third are very straightforward: appropriate characters,
followed by an altmode. The third often causes difficulty. Symbolic
input is used in multiple choice, true/false, ranking, and matching
questions, for example: all cases where you are choosing from an
exactly specified set.
In symbolic input, TRIVIA is attempting to match what you've
typed against the set it's been given. Obviously it isn't necessary to
type the entire thing you want to get, so TRIVIA will try to complete
it for you. There are four characters of interest here:
<space>: completes the string you're typing in as far as it can. If
more than one string is possible, '&' will be typed. If no string is
possible, '?' will be typed.
<altmode>: completes the string you're typing in, and, if only one
choice remains, confirms it. This is typically the best way to
terminate input.
<carriage return>: confirms the string you have so far typed in,
without completing it. This will typically lose, unless you're sure
you've typed in the entire choice. Note that <space> <carriage return>
is equivalent to <altmode>.
<control-F>: lists the possibilities remaining. Thus, to find all
the choices on a multiple-choice question, type control-F. Similarly,
if you can't figure out why TRIVIA keeps typing '&' at you, type
control-F after one and find out.
In performing the matches, TRIVIA ignores case: 'TV/Radio',
'TV/RADIO', and 'tv/radio' are all the same.
Note that since you are matching strings, it is NOT sufficient
to say '1' in answer to a multiple choice question: you're really
saying '1. Mumble foo'. Typically, using completion, you'll only have
to type the '1', followed by altmode. But not if there are more than 10
choices.
READTHIS:
In this file the letter '.' has been replated by
the letter '-' where it appears as the name of a section
(e.g. UPDATE.QUESTION ==> UPDATE-QUESTION.)
Only the first 6 characters are used.
HOURS:
TRIVIA is loaded by typing either TRIVIA or :TRIVIA to DDT.
TRIVIA will check for the availability of the game (see below) and then
load the actual TRIVIA program.
The availability of TRIVIA for non-directory owners is as
follows:
Mon-Fri : 10pm - 9am
Sat-Sun : All day
Holidays: All day
PASSWORDS:
Each TRIVIA player is required to have a password which will
be checked upon each entrance into the game. The first time a player
uses TRIVIA, he will be asked to supply his password. He will also
be allowed to check this password. If the check fails (i.e. he has
forgotten it in the last 5 seconds or has thought of a better one),
he will be asked for his password again.
PROMPTS:
TRIVIA uses a number of different of methods for eliciting
information from the user. In each of these methods there is a prompt
indicating the type of information being elicited and a SYNTACTIC prompt
indicating the method by which the information must be entered.
This second prompt is not standardly available but can be made so by
typing the VERBOSE command to the TRIVIA command reader (see below).
See individual sections for the meanings of the following verbose
commands: BUFFER, FIX, FLOAT, SYM, MULT.
BUFFER:
Text terminated by an altmode (but see 'Safety' command).
The following special characters are recognized inside BUFFERs
i. Control-D -- display BUFFER
ii. Control-E -- edit BUFFER (TECO)
iii. Control-F -- read from file. This is NOT safe as ctrl-F to a SYM.
iv. Control-L -- clear screen and display BUFFER
v. Control-Q -- quote the next character
vi. Control-T -- toggle 'Tell answer' mode
vii. Control-V -- toggle Verbose 'More questions' mode
viii. Control-W -- delete the last word
ix. Control-X -- delete the last line
x. Control-Y -- insert a file
xi. Control-@ -- delete the entire buffer
N.B.
When control-E has been typed at a buffer, it conses up an
inferior TECO, defaultly TS T (the particular program may be set
by using the 'Which.teco' command). This first prints out a
warning, which probably no one will understand, then dumps
whatever you had in the TRIVIA buffer into the TECO buffer. You
may perform whatever obscenities you like, then return to TRIVIA
via ctrl-C, ctrl-K, or any other tasteful TECO exit. Due to
obscure interactions among MUDDLE, TECO, and ITS, this is not
guaranteed to be totally winning. If you are foolish enough to
use it, be sure to check what you get back when you return from
TECO. Your TRIVIA will print something like 'Back to MUDDLE',
whereupon you should redisplay your buffer (via ctrl-D or
ctrl-L) BEFORE typing <altmode>, to ensure that winnage has
occurred.
TECO:
When control-E has been typed at a buffer, it conses up an
inferior TECO, defaultly TS T (the particular program may be set
by using the 'Which.teco' command). This first prints out a
warning, which probably no one will understand, then dumps
whatever you had in the TRIVIA buffer into the TECO buffer. You
may perform whatever obscenities you like, then return to TRIVIA
via ctrl-C, ctrl-K, or any other tasteful TECO exit. Due to
obscure interactions among MUDDLE, TECO, and ITS, this is not
guaranteed to be totally winning. If you are foolish enough to
use it, be sure to check what you get back when you return from
TECO. Your TRIVIA will print something like 'Back to MUDDLE',
whereupon you should redisplay your buffer (via ctrl-D or
ctrl-L) BEFORE typing <altmode>, to ensure that winnage has
occurred.
FIX:
Integer terminated by altmode or <cr>
FLOAT:
Floating point decimal number terminated by altmode or <cr>
SYM:
Symbolic input.
The following special characters are recognized by SYM
i. <altmode> will complete a symbol if possible (printing ? if not)
and terminate the response.
ii. <space> will cause completion to take place, but not terminate.
iii. <cr> will cause termination without completion.
iv. Control-F -- print all possible symbols at this point
MULT:
Multiple items allowed, with SYM.
The following special characters are recognized by MULT (in addition
to those for SYM)
i. <comma> is used to separate items
ii. Control-A -- use all possibilities at this point
iii. Control-R -- flush the last item entered
Y-N:
Yes/No switch.
The first character typed is eaten
and compared to Y or N. If Y, the answer will be yes.
If N, the answer will be no. Otherwise, it will ask again
until a Y or N is typed. The only exceptions to this are
that Control-T may be used for 'Want the answer' and Control-V
may be used for 'More'.
COMMANDS:
TRIVIA has a command level from which all of the available
operations of TRIVIA may be called.
TRIVIA command level prompts with an '@' and has an implicit
SYNTACTIC prompt of SYM.
See sections for individual commands
ANNOUNCE:
Make an announcement to all trivia players. This command is
NOT intended to be used randomly and should ONLY be used if
there is an urgent need to tell everyone something. Its main
use is in announcing changes to TRIVIA. Announcements now
vanish after roughly two weeks.
ANSWER:
Answer new questions.
AUTO.READ:
This tailorable switch toggles the state of automatic reading of
mail received while in teleconference mode. If it is on, mail
will be read at some point after the --MESSAGE HERE-- message,
though not immediately. It takes the place of the old
Immediate.read switch; the tailored state of immediate reading
will automatically become that of automatic reading.
BABBLE:
Print comparative scores of the TRIVIA players. The scores
may be sorted on any of the Categories, Name, and Total.
Within this designation, the scores are sorted either on
total points, maximum possible points, percentage
(batting average), or questions (number of questions submitted).
The first call to BABBLE is rather slow but future calls
are very rapid. The first is slow because it loads scores
for all of the players. Thus, future BABBLEs are fast at
the expense of being non-current (see LOAD.SCORES command).
The TINY.BABBLE command (q.v.) performs a similar function. The
program TS BABBLE does the same thing for totals only, but is
much faster. See the section on auxiliary programs, far below.
DDT-BABBLE:
Runs a TS BABBLE inferior to your TRIVIA. TRIVIA will request
JCL, which should be identical to that given to :BABBLE in DDT.
The feature of this is that it is much faster than the normal
TRIVIA babble, at the expense of having far fewer options.
END-TELECONFERENCE:
End teleconference mode (see Teleconference).
GRADE:
Grade incoming mail and read responses to Answered questions
Another feature of the new TRIVIA is postponing grading of
any number of questions. This may be done by typing altmode to the
prompt 'Score (out of xx.xxx)'.
Another feature in grading is automagic scoring of long answer
questions when the answerer 'gives up'. The question maker is still asked
to provide a comment for the poor loser, but this is not required.
INTEST:
Repeats the start-up sequence: reads announcements, and does
whatever the player's tailor information specifies.
KILL-TECO:
When an inferior TECO is created by typing to a buffer, it is
kept around, since the process of creating a new one may be
fairly slow and painful. However, the TECO is also holding down
a job slot and some virtual pages, and may therefore need to be
flushed. This command does that. There is a facility which
allows the maintainer to kill all inferior TECOs if it is
absolutely necessary.
LOAD-SCORES:
Load the current score tables into TRIVIA. This must be done
if it is necessary to insure that BABBLE (other than the initial
one) has the most up-to-date score information.
MAKE:
Make new questions.
TRIVIA requests all of the information required for making up
any sort of TRIVIA question. The following are interesting tidbits
about quirks, etc. in making questions:
a. To indicate that the last choice for a multiple choice, true/false,
or matching question has come, type an altmode.
b. After supplying the information for 'Column A' and 'Column B' for
matching questions, TRIVIA will simululate asking you the question.
The responses you give will be taken to be correct.
c. To flush a question,
i. In multiple choice, true/false - type Control-R to the
request for correct answer
ii. In matching, type Control-R to any request for correct match.
iii. In long answer, type altmode to an empty BUFFER.
In any case, a NULL question (i.e. empty BUFFER) is a loser.
Also, Control-S takes you back to command level from anywhere.
NO-SIMPLE:
Toggle a tailorable switch which determines whether simple
questions will be seen. Normally they will be.
PEEK:
Print some information about people presently playing TRIVIA.
This causes an inferior TS TVPEEK to be run with no JCL. See
also the RPEEK command. See the section on auxiliary programs.
PRINT-SCORE:
Print the scores (by category) of various players. This will
also print the players' progress, and the number of questions
submitted in each category.
QUESTION-PRINT:
Print various of the questions submitted by the current user,
with their answers and scores, and a total score for all
questions printed. This is intimately related to
Status.of.question and Summary.status.of.question.
QUIT:
Leave TRIVIA
READ-MAIL:
Read the personal mail file. There is no way to save mail
once it has been read.
RPEEK:
Run an inferior TS TVPEEK with JCL of "R", causing it to loop.
See also the section on auxiliary programs, and the PEEK
command.
SAFETY:
Toggle safe BUFFERs mode. In 'safe' mode, a BUFFER will
type [Confirm] after an altmode. To terminate (i.e. Confirm),
type another altmode.
SAVE-TAILOR:
Save the current state of switches and sequence as the
state in which future uses of TRIVIA will come up (see section IX).
SEND-MAIL:
Send personal mail to another TRIVIA user.
SEQUENCE:
Set the start up sequence for TRIVIA (see section IX).
SHOUT:
For normal users, this command is a no-op. It allows the
maintainers to send a message to all TRIVIAs simultaneously, to
be printed when it is convenient for the receiving TRIVIAs (NOT
for the receiving player, necessarily.) Should you receive such
an unsolicited message, please pay attention to it. There is
also a facility which allows the maintainers to cause all
TRIVIAs to go away if that should ever prove necessary; it is
used very rarely, for obvious reasons.
SIMP-LOAD: (SIMPLE.LOAD)
Create a new symbol table of the current player's simple
questions, for use by the Simple.print and Simple.update (q.v.)
commands. This is performed automatically the first time either
of the aforementioned two commands is invoked. It used to be
quite slow, but is now quite fast. This command is only
necessary when simple questions have been created since the last
invocation of Simple.print or Simple.update.
SIMP-PRINT: (SIMPLE.PRINT)
Print simple questions. Any player's simple questions may be
printed by anyone (in the unlikely event that one desires to
savor the 'wit' exhibited therein), but only the author can
perform an update.
SIMP-UPDATE: (SIMPLE.UPDATE)
Update a specified simple question. See Update.question. There
are separate commands because simple questions are stored
differently in the data base.
STATUS-OF-QUESTION:
Print the questions listed and give their status (how many
people have answered it and how they did)
This only works if you are the author of the question.
SUMMARY-STATUS-OF-QUESTION:
Prints the cumulative score for the specified questions. This
is a nonverbose form of Status.of.question.
TELECONFERENCE:
Listen for new personal mail arriving every n seconds and tell
when a message has arrived. The Auto.read command controls
whether the mail will be printed by TRIVIA without user
intervention. Peek indicates when a player is in this mode by
printing a "T" next to his name.
TINY-BABBLE:
This is like Babble, except that it asks how many players it
should babble on, and only prints out the scores for the top n
players by whatever criteria you have selected.
TVBUG:
Runs TS TVBUG as an inferior, without JCL. See the section on
auxiliary programs.
TVTODO:
After requesting JCL (for which, see the section on auxiliary
programs; giving none (by typing altmode) is generally
suitable), this runs a TS TVTODO as an inferior.
TWHOIS:
After requesting JCL (none will often win, but see the section
on auxiliary programs), prints the information provided by
TVPEEK, BABBLE, and optionally TVTODO for a single player.
UPDATE-QUESTION:
Update a question you have authored. The category and the
value may not be altered. This does not yet work for ranking
questions.
VERBOSITY:
Toggle verbose prompt mode
WHICH-TECO:
Choose a particular incarnation of TECO for use when is typed
at a buffer.
QUESTION TYPES:
LONG:
The user is asked to respond by typing in a response.
The author must grade these questions before scoring is done.
MULTIPLE CHOICE:
The user is asked to select the correct choice among those printed.
This type of question is scored instantly.
TRUE-FALSE:
See Multiple Choice
MATCHING:
The user is asked to select something from Column A, and is then
asked for a match. The default (obtained by typing altmode) for
the choice from column A is the lowest-numbered item in that
column which as yet has no answer. When all have been answered,
the default action is to end the question. In this method,
therefore, it is possible to change the answer given for one of
the items in Column A, or even to give up on one of the choices.
When you are through, type <cr> or <altmode> to the request for
something from Column A. This type of question in scored
instantly with 1/N credit for each correct match (for N items in
'Column A'). To give up, type Control-R to a request for
something from column a (perhaps even to a request for something
from column b).
JOINT:
Joint questions have more than one author associated with them;
none of the authors is asked the question. Grading mail goes to
the person in whose TRIVIA the question was made, but all authors
are indicated when the question is printed. Joint questions also
have one of the four types above: if "Joint" is given as the
type of a question being made, TRIVIA will then ask for the type
of question again.
RANKING:
Ranking questions ask you to order a list of choices. The
interface attempts to look similar to that for matching
questions: once the question has been printed, TRIVIA prompts
with 'Rank ', and waits for input. To this, you may type
'Print', 'Terminate', or one or more of the items to be ranked.
Print and Terminate are complete commands: Print prints the
choices as you have ranked them so far, while Terminate causes
your answer to be scored. 'Terminate' is now the ONLY way to
get out of a ranking question, and is never the default: you
have to explicitly tell TRIVIA that you're through. If you wish
to enter more than one item, those entered must be separated by
commas; at this point, comma is exactly like altmode except that
TRIVIA expects another choice to follow a comma. When you have
entered as many items as you wish, type carriage return in
response to the 'and' prompt, or follow the last item with
altmode rather than comma.
When the list of items has been obtained, TRIVIA will ask you
what to do with it: 'as'--put the list of possibilities in the
ranking, unranking them if they are already there, and
clobbering any choices which are already in the specified slots.
This is the default. TRIVIA will ask for a number, which is the
position where it will start putting the list in the ranking;
the default is the lowest unused slot. The simple way to answer
ranking questions is now as follows: to 'Rank', give all the
possibilities, in the order you desire, separated by commas.
Default the action to 'as', and the location to '1'. This will
specify all the positions in the ranking, and you can then say
'Terminate' to the next 'Rank' prompt to get out. 'after'--put
the list of possibilities in the ranking after some possibility
already there. TRIVIA will attempt to preserve all the items
currently ranked by filling in holes in the ranking.
'before'--put the list before some possibility already there.
'nowhere'--remove each item in the list from the ranking.
You may answer the question in one fell swoop, therefore, by
giving all the choices in the desired order, then defaulting the
next two things TRIVIA asks for. Answering 'Terminate' to the
next 'Rank' prompt will then terminate.
Your score is computed by a method that is obscure: 50% of it
is for correct positioning, 50% for correct ordering, so you
don't lose completely if you get one choice out of order.
A Ranking question is made just as it is answered. It is
possible to give more choices than there are positions in the
ordering. In making a ranking question, you are asked for the
item to rank, how it is to be ranked (increasing/decreasing) and
the attribute by which to do the ranking. By convention,
'increasing order of size' means that the smallest thing will
come first.
***MAKE SURE THE QUESTION IS NOT AMBIGUOUS***
CATEGORIES:
TRIVIA questions are also broken into categories for purposes
of scoring. Users may not opt to answer questions that fall into only
one category or other.
Athletics
Cinema
Events
General
History
Literature
Music
Science Fiction
TV/Radio
SCORING:
TRIVIA questions have values attached to them by their authors.
Legal values are greater than 0.0 and less than 2.0. In grading these
questions, only scores less than or equal to the given value will be
allowed.
SIMPLE questions have no value in the score. At present,
a simple question is printed, immediately followed by its answer; you
will then be asked for "Nonsense". If nothing is given, no response
will be sent to the author; otherwise the nonsense will appear in the
author's grading mail. Reading of simple questions may be prevented
or reinstated by using the No.simple command. The following commands
are also useful: Simple.load, Simple.print, and Simple.update.
TAILORING:
The status of the various toggle switches (6 currently) and
the sequence of actions TRIVIA takes upon starting up may be tailored
to meet the needs (whims) of TRIVIA users.
The command SEQUENCE is used to set up the sequence of actions
TRIVIA is to take when starting. The possible actions are reading mail,
grading, answering, making, and checking the status of questions, doing
a babble, and printing scores. Up to 9 items may be selected for the
sequence. When the sequence is exhausted, TRIVIA enters command level.
The SEQUENCE command does not become effective until a SAVE.TAILOR command
is given.
The command SAVE.TAILOR is used to actually update the tailor
information in the user's personal area in the TRIVIA data base. It reads
the values of the toggle switches and the results of any SEQUENCE commands
given and saves this information. When TRIVIA starts up, the switches
are put in the correct state and the sequence is performed. The result
of any 'Which.teco' command is also saved.
AUXILIARY-PROGRAMS:
There are, at the moment, five programs other than TRIVIA
itself which may be found useful.
TS BABBLE
Performs much the same function as a Babble on Total, but is
much faster. However, it is not guaranteed to be current if the system
is flaky. The following JCL is appropriate:
V (used in combination with any of the below) means print information
on all players; BABBLE normally gives only those who have
answered a reasonable proportion of the questions.
P Sort on progress
S Sort on total score
M Sort on maximum possible score
A Sort alphabetically
When given no JCL, BABBLE sorts on the percentage.
TS TVPEEK
Looks like Peek in TRIVIA. :PEEK R causes it to go into a loop,
redisplaying every n seconds. "n" may be set by typing numbers between
1 and 9 at a running TVPEEK.
TS CHECK, TS TVTODO
Determine whether TRIVIA is available, and how much grading and
answering the player in question has. Most useful in .ddt. (init)
files, where it can be invoked with :CHECK or :TVTODO. CHECK always
prints whether TRIVIA is up; if the player has anything to do, it prints
that as well. TVTODO normally prints TRIVIA's status and how much the
player has to do, including perhaps 'nothing.' If given JCL 'W'
(:TVTODO W) it will print nothing unless the player has something to do,
in which case it prints TRIVIA's status and what there is to do. JCL
'N' is like 'W', except that only information about grading is printed.
TS TWHOIS
Prints the 'peek line' for a player (if he is in the game, what
he's doing and how long he's been in; otherwise, when he last played),
along with the line BABBLE would give. Defaults to the person running
it; specify someone else with JCL of /<name>. JCL of 'V' causes the
information given by TVTODO to be provided also. (:TVTODO V/TAA, for
example.) The W and N switches of TVTODO are also applicable here.
TS TVBUG
Is used to report TRIVIA bugs, and, when, necessary, bring it
down. For further information, see MADMAN;TVLOSE >.