Definition of Talk mode

talk mode
n. A feature supported by Unix, ITS, and some other OSes that allows two or more logged-in users to set up a real-time on-line conversation. It combines the immediacy of talking with all the precision (and verbosity) that written language entails. It is difficult to communicate inflection, though conventions have arisen for some of these (see the section on writing style in the Prependices for details).

Talk mode has a special set of jargon words, used to save typing, which are not used orally. Some of these are identical to (and probably derived from) Morse-code jargon used by ham-radio amateurs since the 1920s.

AFAIK

as far as I know

BCNU

be seeing you

BTW

by the way

BYE?

are you ready to unlink? (this is the standard way to end a talk-modeconversation; the other person types BYE to confirm, or else continuesthe conversation)

CUL

see you later

ENQ?

are you busy? (expects ACK or NAK in return)

FOO?

are you there? (often used on unexpected links, meaning also"Sorry if I butted in ..." (linker) or "What's up?" (linkee))

FWIW

for what it's worth

FYI

for your information

FYA

for your amusement

GA

go ahead (used when two people have tried to type simultaneously; thiscedes the right to type to the other)

GRMBL

grumble (expresses disquiet or disagreement)

HELLOP

hello? (an instance of the `-P' convention)

IIRC

if I recall correctly

JAM

just a minute (equivalent to SEC....)

MIN

same as JAM

NIL

no (see NIL)

NP

no problem

O

over to you

OO

over and out

/

another form of "over to you" (from x/y as "x over y")

\

lambda (used in discussing LISPy things)

OBTW

oh, by the way

OTOH

on the other hand

R U THERE?

are you there?

SEC

wait a second (sometimes written SEC...)

SYN

Are you busy? (expects ACK, SYN|ACK, or RST in return; this is modeledon the TCP/IP handshake sequence)

T

yes (see the main entry for T)

TNX

thanks

TNX 1.0E6

thanks a million (humorous)

TNXE6

another form of "thanks a million"

WRT

with regard to, or with respect to.

WTF

the universal interrogative particle; WTF knows what itmeans?

WTH

what the hell?

<double newline>

When the typing party has finished, he/she types two newlines tosignal that he/she is done; this leaves a blank line between`speeches' in the conversation, making it easier to reread thepreceding text.

<name>:

When three or more terminals are linked, it is conventional foreach typist to prepend his/her login name or handle and acolon (or a hyphen) to each line to indicate who is typing (someconferencing facilities do this automatically). The login name isoften shortened to a unique prefix (possibly a single letter)during a very long conversation.

/\/\/\

A giggle or chuckle. On a MUD, this usually means `earthquakefault'.

Most of the above sub-jargon is used at both Stanford and MIT. Several of these expressions are also common in email, esp. FYI, FYA, BTW, BCNU, WTF, and CUL. A few other abbreviations have been reported from commercial networks, such as GEnie and CompuServe, where on-line `live' chat including more than two people is common and usually involves a more `social' context, notably the following:

<g>

grin

<gd&r>

grinning, ducking,

talk mode

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talk mode
using a talk system. e.g., "b1ff had me in talk mode for hours last night. i had to bring his box down just to get him to shut up."

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