BOSS
BOSS is an interactive job controller.  It lets you run several interactive
jobs simultaneously. (That is, BOSS is a multisession monitor.)

BOSS can operate in one of two modes:
* regular mode.  This works with any terminal.  See subtopic Description for
  an overview.
* multi-window mode; this ONLY works with a Macintosh running the UW terminal
  emulator.  See subtopic Windows for an overview and further details.

 Description
BOSS lets you create up to 8 processes on a VAX/VMS system.  Each process is
identified by a single letter (A thru Z).  This letter is used in the
process name and in the DCL prompt.  At most one of these processes is
`current'.  What you type is sent to that process, and output from that
process is sent to your terminal.  A process which is not current can run
but normally cannot do output.  (What happens to the output is governed by
the output flag for a particular process.  See topic Output_flags.)  You
usually switch between processes by typing control-\ followed by the
identifying letter.  It is also possible to have have of your processes
initiate the switch.  (See topic Communicating.)

You can run any program under BOSS.  For example, you might
    run Emacs or EVE                   in process E
    SET HOST to another machine        in process H
    run NETTY to the B machine         in process B
    do a FORTRAN compilation           in process F
    execute DCL commands               in process D
    talk to your colleague using PHONE in process P
and so on.

Of course, you would normally not need to run so many processes.  (Indeed
your subprocess quota may only let you run 5 processes.)  When you are
through with a process, you should log out of it (with `logout') and switch
to some other process.

BOSS makes no attempt to keep track of what is on your screen.  Usually when
switching to a process which manages the screen in an advanced manner, you
should issue a command to the program to get it to re-draw the screen.
(This is control-w for EVE, PHONE, SPELL; control-l for Emacs.)

However, you can GET Boss to remember things on your screen by giving the
Control-J and control-I commands, which cause BOSS to remember what is typed
to your screen for the last 4000 characters and restore it when returning to
your process. You can also get BOSS to record output to a virtual terminal
in a file BOSS<n>.LOG (where <n> is the 1-character process name) with the
control-L command. BOSS can also play back a fixed character sequence
with each context shift, such as a control-W, to repaint the screen for
full-screen applications without the overhead of having to save the
characters sent to it.

BOSS uses needs to know the escape sequences for clearing your screen, etc.
By default, it uses the VT100 sequences which work for a wide range of
terminals.  See topic Terminal_types.

 Commands    
Usually, all commands to BOSS begin with the command character which by
default is C-\ (control-\).  The command character can be changed by using
the /COMMAND_CHARACTER qualifier to BOSS.  The command character is not
required when there is no current process (i.e., initially and immediately
after logging out of a process).  In that case the command character is
optional.

The commands are:

    C-h (or BS) Print command summary
    C-z     Quit (asking confirmation if there are processes)
    C-x     Quit after the last process has terminated
    a       Switch to process labeled A (and similarly with a thru z)
    A       Clear screen and then switch to process A
    C-n a   Create new process A as a subprocess (C-n A clears screen first)
    C-t a   Create process A at top level (C-t A clears screen first)
    C-k     Kill the current process (asks for confirmation)
    C-b     Buffer output for this process
    C-o     Discard output for this process
    C-p     Print output from this process
    C-w     Stop output from this process
    C-i     Toggle buffering active output
    C-j     Toggle keeping buffer for more than 1
                process transition
    C-l (ell) Toggle logging to BOSSn.LOG. Separate logfiles to
                each process are kept and logging is of what is
                sent to the pseudoterminal, not the real one, so
                you can log a process that is in discard-output mode.
    C-v       Toggle logging to BOSSn.LOG. Similar to C-L except
		that C-L logging suspends the logfile write when
		toggled off again, and C-V logging closes the log
		file when toggled off.
    C-e     Toggle logging. This is similar to C-l except that it
    		closes the logfile when it stops logging. Thus you
		can use C-l when you need to log several items but
		want to skip the material between, keeping all the
		logged data in one file. Use control-E to log a bit
		of a session which you can then examine in a second
		session, without having to leave BOSS. Note that
		logging must be on to close the file.
    C-g n   Allows saving of n lines of buffered output (needs to be
                in C-i C-j mode) and replaying them into the next
                process you switch to, enabling cut/paste.
    +	    Enter command mode for one line
		(This is used to specify characters to emit at process
		change, size of buffer to use for refresh, and some other
		functions.)
    ?       List processes and output flags
             (* means current, +/- means waiting for output)
    C-\     Sends the command character to the current process
    DEL     Do nothing
    other   Sound the bell on the terminal

  Command mode allows one command to be entered. This is done with a
normal $QIOW, so should be used for setup, as it may cause character
ASTs to be lost if used in heavy activity. A number of commands are
supported, short to minimize time needed to enter them:

  Schars  Sets current process to get chars (up to 7 of them)
	when the process is switched to. A common use will be
	S^W, where "^W" means the control-W character, which
	gets many fullscreen applications to repaint the screen.
  Gchars  Like Schars but sets the prefix for all processes. The
	prefix is initially nonexistent.
  Enumber  Causes the terminal buffer to only write "number" characters
	to the screen on a process switch where ^I and ^J modes
	are active. Otherwise the entire saved buffer is dumped
	on each switch, which may be more than is desired. The
	value is clamped between 100 and the buffer size. Enumber
	affects only the current process.
  Gnumber  Like Enumber, but resets the output size for all processes.

	The Enumber and Gnumber commands are designed to allow one to
	buffer a large number of characters, but only display a
	smaller number on context switches. Reissuing the commands
	with a larger value of "number" will allow the rest to be
	seen. Also, if ^I^J mode is not in use, the entire buffer
	is displayed as was the case in earlier versions of BOSS.

BOSS can also record and play back input sessions, at different speeds
if desired, as well as logging terminal output. There are also a variety
of controls for interprocess communication, and BOSS can communicate with
UW protocol programs on Amiga and Mac, providing up to 7 concurrent
windows on an Amiga or Mac each talking to a separate VMS process and
all running over one asynchronous connection. See BOSS.HLP for more
information. BOSS has been maintained by a variety of individuals.

Bugs, questions, etc. to
   Charles Karney
   Plasma Physics Laboratory      E-mail:  Karney@Princeton.EDU
   Princeton University           Phone:   +1 609 243 2607
   Princeton, NJ 08543-0451       FAX:     +1 609 243 2662