DESCRIPTION

The Net::Hotline modules implement a Hotline interface in Perl.  Currently,
this includes only Net::Hotline::Client.  Hotline is an internet client/server
system that's sort of a cross between IRC and a traditional BBS.  See
http://www.hotlinesw.com/ for more information.

PREREQUISITES

Net::Hotline has been tested with perl version 5.004_04, MacPerl 5.2.0r4,
and Hotline server versions 1.2.1 and 1.2.3.  It should work fine on any
version of Perl 5 and any 1.2.x version of Hotline, however.  You'll need
to install the IO:: modules (for IO::Socket, etc.) if you have an older
Perl distribution that didn't include them.  You'll also probably want to
upgrade to the latest version if your IO:: modules are not up to date.

CHANGES

Version 0.73 includes minor bug-fixes to signal handling and "hlftp.pl"
See the "Changes" file for more details.

INSTALLATION

The standard incantations should work:

	perl Makefile.PL
	make
	make install

Here are a few common variations on that theme:

* If you don't want to (or can't) install in the system-wide directories,
  you can use PREFIX to install elsewhere.  Example:

	perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=~
	make
	make install

  You'll probably have to create some dummy directories before this works.
  Just look at the error messages and create the directories it says it
  can't find.

* If you're installing on a Mac OS system, simply duplicate the folder
  hierarchy inside the distribution's "lib" folder in your MacPerl folder.
  For example, "lib/Net/Hotline/Protocol/Packet.pm" would be copied to
  "<Your MacPerl Folder>/lib/Net/Hotline/Protocol/Packet.pm"  (You'll have
  to create any nonexistent folders in the path)

  I'm not sure how to AutoSplit in MacPerl, so what I've been doing is
  commenting out three lines in "Client.pm" to disable AutoLoading.  The
  lines are:

          31: require AutoLoader;
          32: @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);
        1490: __END__

  Just add a "#" character to the beginning of those lines.

EXAMPLES

There are two example scripts in the "Examples" directory.

1. "hlftp.pl" is a simple command line FTP-like Hotline client included
   to demonstrate Net::Hotline::Client's "blocking task mode" (read the
   documentation for an explanation).  Its operation should be familiar
   to anyone who's used ncftp or the regular Unix ftp client.

2. "hibot.pl" is a very simple Hotline "bot" included to demonstrate
   Net::Hotline::Client's "event loop mode" (again, RTFM).  It works a
   lot like hlftp.pl in terms of connecting to servers.  Log the bot
   onto your local Hotline server an message it with the text "help"
   for more information.

BUGS, TROUBLESHOOTING, ETC.

Send problems and/or praise to John C. Siracusa (siracusa@mindspring.com)

COPYRIGHT

Copyright(c) 1998 by John C. Siracusa.  All rights reserved.  This program is
free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms
as Perl itself.