Creating and Editing a $Note as a Blackboard

Although the Generic Classroom comes with a built-in blackboard, you can create your own blackboard by using a MOO object of type $note. A $note can be written on by its owner(s), read by anyone, erased by its owner(s), and so on. These instructions will show you how to create a blackboard for a classroom. You must be a builder to use this command.

Begin by typing @create $note named <name of blackboard>. For example, if you wanted a blackboard called Chalkboard, you would type

@create $note named Chalkboard

You can then use the @notedit command as the most effective way of writing on your blackboard. Type @notedit <name of blackboard>.text to begin the process. For a list of the commands to use in the Note Editor, you can type help @notedit. You can also look at Leslie's Guide to @notedit for a useful summary of the editor's commands.

To write on your newly created Chalkboard, for example, you would type:

@notedit chalkboard.text

This will launch the editor and prepare the appropriate field for editing (much like opening a file in a word-processing document). You add lines to your blackboard by "saying" them one at a time in the editor:

"Welcome to today's lesson.

The MOO returns: Line 1 added.
When you are done adding lines to your blackboard, type save (followed by return) and quit (also followed by return). This will move you back to the room from which you launched the editor.

After you have written on the blackboard, you will need to drop it in the room in which you want it to be read. You can do this by teleporting (using @go) or moving (using exit directions) to the appropriate room and typing:

drop <name of blackboard>

You can pick up your blackboard at any time by typing get blackboard. You can also edit it once again by using the @notedit and Text Editor commands.

To prevent students or other users from walking away with your blackboard, you might want to lock it to its appropriate room. After you have dropped the blackboard in its destination room, type the following command:

@lock <objectname> with <keys>

For chalkboard, you would type:

@lock chalkboard with here|me

That command will lock the blackboard so that only you can pick it up and so that no one else can take the blackboard out of its current room. The "|" key is usually found as the upper-case character for "\". It means "or". In other words, the command just above says to the MOO: lock the chalkboard so that it can exist only in this room or so that only I can pick it up.

Written by Chelsea Kuzma. Revised by Leslie Harris. Please send comments and corrections to leslie.harris@plattsburgh.edu.