Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!iuvax!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!tank!dula
From: dula@tank.uchicago.edu (dulal  borthakur)
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions
Subject: Re: Help with Talk
Keywords: Talk command
Message-ID: <5030@tank.uchicago.edu>
Date: 17 Aug 89 14:00:29 GMT
Reply-To: dula@tank.uchicago.edu (dulal  borthakur)
Organization: University of Chicago
Lines: 21

You can also exit 'talk' with control-C.  You can do this anytime after
you've started the process, and it will send you back to the % prompt.

The reason your screen sits there 'frozen', as you put it, is that the
other person you requested talk to hasn't responded yet.  When they do,
the machine should say something like  [connection established].  At that
point, everything you type will immediately appear on the screen.  The
machine makes that line in the middle as soon as you request a 'talk', 
regardless of whether you ever get connected to the person or not.
It should be giving you status lines like 'no response yet--ringing again'
to let you know what's going on.  Since the other person has to get out of
whatever program they happen to be in at the moment before they can respond,
it may take a minute.

'Talk' uses a lot of cpu time, so is not a good indulgence if you're being
billed that way.  It is also a good idea, as I discovered one day, not to
start a talk session without first looking up from your terminal to see if
the other person is not sitting there just one or two seats away....
:-)

dB