The word 'message'

has two meanings in PSYC.

Technically, a _message is the method family that is defined to only contain manually created messages from users for other users. No automated notice may use that method family.

Then there is the general word message which is being abused as a synonym for packet, or in the regular meaning of the word, as in wikipedia:message.

Therefore we plan to rename the _message family into something more precise, like _talk maybe. See Method Naming for the ongoing planning.

An important reading for developers will be the Message specification.

Sending Private Messages

Lets send a private message to fool:

=_source_identification psyc://beta.ve.symlynx.com/~loof
:_target                psyc://fi.ve.symlynx.com/~fool

_message_private
howdy!
.

recv: (this is echo...)

:_source        psyc://fi.ve.symlynx.com/~fool
:_target        psyc://ente.aquarium:-32872

_message_echo_private
howdy!
.
:_source        psyc://fi.ve.symlynx.com/~fool
:_target        psyc://ente.aquarium:-32872

:_nick  fool
_status_person_absent
Message recorded. [_nick] is absent.
.

Note that there is no format string for methods of the _message family.

Also quite important: You should not display your own outgoing messages, you should wait for the echo to return!

See also