The mission board
The board is a handful of named lines kept beside a run, that you and the run both write and neither waits on. It belongs to the person agent in Humanize's lower agent layer, and a run that holds one shows it on the monitor, under the drawing.
A run of a flow never has a board
A flow has no way to read or write one, so no run started with /flow, $name or hmz exec shows it. This page is for programs built on the agent layer that hold a person agent.
At a glance
- You will read, add, change and remove the lines of a run's board.
- Use it when a program on the agent layer keeps its work list there, and you want to add to it or correct it without stopping anything.
- You need a run that holds a board. Where there is none, nothing is drawn.
Try it
Where a run has a board, press ← with nothing typed to go up to the monitor. The board is under the drawing: walk to + add entry and press enter.
How it works
A question stops the turn until somebody answers. The board is the other shape: lines anybody can change at any time, where nothing waits. A line is a name and what it says, and it says whose it is to change:
| Line | Who may change it |
|---|---|
| ordinary | you or the run |
marked flow's | the run alone |
What the lines mean is up to whoever reads them. todo, doing and done holding a few words each make a work list, but nothing here is that list: it is only lines.
Example: take a finished item off
The board holds todo, which is yours, and doing, which is the run's. You have written the parser yourself, so todo should go:
A line marked flow's is not yours to change.
What to look at, by number:
Board · shared by you and the flow. The heading. The board sits under the drawing, below the boxes.- A line you may change,
◈in colour, its name and then what it says. The cursor walks onto it as onto a box. · flow's. A line the run keeps for itself. enter on it saysdoing can only be changed by the flow.+ add entry, always last: enter on it puts a new line up.todo removed from the board. Saved empty, a line is taken off at once.
Check it worked
The line under the drawing says what happened to the board: <name> saved to the board, <name> removed from the board, or nothing was entered, so nothing was saved. The board itself changes at the same moment, in every interface reading the run.
The keys
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| ↑ ↓ | Move between the lines, as between the boxes above them. |
enter on + add entry | Put up a line, on a sheet over the monitor, monitor › Board entry: type its name, enter (or Next), then what it says, enter (or Save). |
| enter on a line | Change what it says, on the sheet monitor › <name>, then enter (or Save). Saved empty, the line is taken off. |
| esc | While writing a line: back, changing nothing. |
| → | Back to the log. |
On the sheet, typing writes and backspace deletes; tab reaches its one button, Next while it asks the name and Save once it asks what the line says. Its last line says the keys: type write backspace delete enter continue to value tab actions esc back while it asks the name.
A board line never stops the run, and nothing waits for it. To give a running flow more work, edit the file it reads each round instead; see Loops.
Troubleshooting
There is no board under the drawing
The run holds none, which is every run of a flow. See the warning at the top of this page.
a board entry needs a name
You pressed enter on an empty name. Type one, or esc to leave.
<name> can only be changed by the flow
That line is marked flow's. Put up a line of your own under another name instead.
Next steps
- Watching a run: the rest of the screen the board sits on.
- Questions: for an answer a run is waiting on.
- Agents reference: the layer a board belongs to.