Channel Systems are non-standard and may vary from MOO to MOO. At Tecfa we have 2 channel systems (xymox's Channel FO #122) and Janus' new more versatile Channel FO (#3619).
Channel Systems allow people to ``chat'' over the same channel while in different rooms. They can be compared to CB or IRC channels in some ways with the difference that you can listen to several channels at the same time. Also, since channels are at the same time rooms, you can also @go to the ``channel room''. Things spoken there will be shown to everybody listening on a channel. Note that there are many different channel systems around, here we juste describe Janus' Channels System as installed at TECFAMOO.
Some channels are public, others may be private. Special channels may be used to convey system information (e.g. connections) to the users.
Within TECFAMOO you can get more information about the Channel System by typing: 'help &channel_feature'. It will give you a command summary.
Currently (May 96), there are 3 public channels. Stay tuned for other channels.
&public_channel -- general chat channel
&help_channel -- channel dedicated to help people
&prog_channel -- the place were to ask your prog questions
There are two ``one way'' channels (you can only listen to them):
&checkpoint_channel -- announce when a checkpoint start,
finish, if it succeeded, ...
&connection_channel -- announce when people login/logout