First off, just in case you closed your shell, terminal, screen session, whatever: you can easily resume your Arvo session
agam@myvm:~/urbit$ bin/vere frogstar
vere: urbit home is /home/agam/urbit/urb
loom: loaded 11MB
init: gc: 2.361.752 bytes live
time: ~2014.1.7..09.04.14..a902
ames: on localhost, UDP 57882.
http: live on 8080
rest: checkpoint to event 7.319
rest: old 0v1i.p6o91, new 0v1k.b3ul0
loaded passcode from /home/agam/.urbit/~fiddyn-lavpun.txt
rest: replaying through event 7323
---------------- playback starting----------------
.....
---------------- playback complete----------------
save: gc: 28 bytes shed; 2.361.836 bytes live
~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/try=>
(hmm ... "playback complete" ?? Yeah apparently everything you ever do is known forever, but that makes my head hurt right now so I won't try too hard to understand it just yet)
Alright, continuing on ...
If you remember from earlier on, we were dropped into a REPL.
Being a REPL means we can do stuff like
~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/try=> (add 4 5)
9
and
~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/try=> =a 17
~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/try=> (add 14 a)
31
and also
~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/try=> (mul 6 7)
42
or
~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/try=> (mul 5 (add 4 7))
55
If you look at some of the hoon files that were downloaded at the initial setup, you might intuit that they are executable-ish.
+ /~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/try/1/bin/reverse/hoon
...
+ /~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/try/1/bin/fib/hoon
...
and more.
These can be run ("evaluated" !!) at the command line. E.g. for fib/hoon:
~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/try=> :fib 0
1
~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/try=> :fib 1
1
~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/try=> :fib 2
2
~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/try=> :fib 3
3
~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/try=> :fib 4
5
Or for zero/hoon:
~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/try=> :zero
0 :: 0, ~zod
0 :: 1, ~nec
0 :: 2, ~bud
0 :: 3, ~wes
0 :: 4, ~sev
0 :: 5, ~per
0 :: 6, ~sut
0 :: 7, ~let
0 :: 8, ~ful
...
0 :: 252, ~pec
0 :: 253, ~nel
0 :: 254, ~nev
0 :: 255, ~fes
which is just 256 zeros ... but you get the idea.
(More on what hoon really is and how to parse it later (it has to be later because I don't know WTF it is right now))
As another example, let's examine cat/hoon (which fulfills a purpose similar to the Unix cat you're familiar with)
~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/try=> :cat /=main=/toy/cat/hoon
~ /cx/~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/main/~2014.1.7..09.24.24..4de6/toy/cat/hoon
The "real" file is at a location and a date! Yes, seriously. Running it again ...
~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/try=> :cat /=main=/toy/cat/hoon
~ /cx/~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/main/~2014.1.7..09.25.22..9bed/toy/cat/hoon
... will give a different path.
So far so good. What does the file actually contain ?
~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/try=> :cat /=main=/bin/cat/hoon
'!:'
':: /=main=/toy/cat/hoon'
'::'
'|= *'
'|= ape=(list path)'
':_ ~'
':_ ~'
'^- gift'
':+ %mu [%atom %t]'
'=- |- ^- (list ,@t)'
' ?~(foz ~ (weld i.foz $(foz t.foz)))'
'^= foz'
'=| foz=(list (list ,@t))'
'|- ^+ foz'
'?~ ape ~'
'[(lore ((hard ,@) .^(%cx i.ape))) $(ape t.ape)]'
"Yikes" is an appropriate response at this point.
BTW in case you were wondering: yes, right now Urbit is hosted on top of Unix (Arvo is written in Hoon, which is written in Nock, which is written in C), so you should see the exact same contents if you run
$ cat wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/main/bin/cat.hoon
So I asked the nice folks at urbit nicely and they sent me a (nice?) pair of destroyers (which if nothing else, should shorten the prompt by 75% or so).
You'll receive a ship and its ticket, and then run
~wicmet-balful-tipdet-tardul--nisred-divpen-panref-sicbet/try=> :begin ~todbyt-nathes
Launching ~todbyt-nathes, one of 4.278.124.800 Urbit destroyers...
If I did not build for myself
for whom should I build?
-- Bunting, _Chomei at Toyama_
Let's configure your identity. Warning - it's nontrivial to
change this data once you've sent it to the server. If you enter
something wrong, hit ^D to cancel, then run the program again.
Your ticket: <Enter your ticket here>
Enter a passphrase or other unusual text. You (or your enemies)
can regenerate your ship from this entropy.
Entropy: **********
Entropy check: ~nildyl-hocmun
Customization follows. This would normally be boring boilerplate, but I've chosen to reproduce it here since some if it is entertaining.
What language would your ship rather speak? Enter it as a
two-letter (ISO 639-1) code, like "en" for English. Whatever
language you pick, it'll all be English now, but in future
we'll be more sensitive to your needs.
Language: en
Okay, we'll be speaking English.
Please select one of the pre-chosen forms:
%lady female-identified individual
%lord male-identified individual
%punk opaque handle
%anon totally anonymous
Form: %lord
You've selected a personal identity. For a %lord or a %lady,
please use your real name only. If you'd prefer a fictitious
handle, you can hit ^D and start over as a %punk. Or you can
use %anon and go by your ship name alone.
As a real person, we're going to ask you for a little bit of
personal information - not enough to compromise your privacy,
just enough to make everyone on Urbit feel like a neighbor.
What we're going to ask you for is information that's (a)
public (would be obvious, or at least easy to guess, for
someone who met you in person); (b) durable (doesn't change
often); and (c) relevant (helps you connect with friends).
For example, we'll ask for the year (not day) you were born,
because your age is easy to guess in person, doesn't change,
and has a big effect on how people perceive you.
Year you were born: <Enter your year of birth here>
Where are you? This is totally optional, but we'd like to
know your vague general location. You can enter nothing at
all, just a country code, or country and postal code.
Location: us/<Enter your zipcode here>
Please tell us your name - and please make it a real name.
Pseudonyms are totally cool, but please use %punk. Middle
name and nickname are optional. Ünicode is encouraged.
First name: <Enter your name here>
Middle name (or blank):
Nickname/handle (or blank): agam
Last name: <Enter your name here>
One basic human instinct is the urge to form political tribes.
In a network that fights this need, these tribes form anyway and
they form badly. Urbit designs them into the infrastructure.
Inspired by the Qing Dynasty, you'll align yourself with one of
five colored "banners" - %red, %blue, %orange, %black or %white.
Political discourse across tribal boundaries is almost always an
antisocial act - less communication, than symbolic violence. In
Urbit, messages marked political stay within your own banner;
your friends in other banners simply won't see them. Between
banners, politics doesn't erode apolitical relationships; inside
each banner, political discourse is harmonious and productive.
Pick a banner by the adjective you feel best describes you:
%red far left: radical, anarchist
%blue center-left: moderate, liberal
%orange center-right: conservative, libertarian
%black far right: traditionalist, reactionary
Or if digital agitation isn't your cup of tea, choose %white, and
your Urbit experience will remain politics-free.
Banner: %white
At this point, it got stuck ...
generating 2048-bit RSA key...
ames: czar zod.urbit.org: ip .198.199.112.32
; ~doznec ~doznec not responding still trying
waiting on ~doznec/ta
... so I hit Ctrl-D and ran it again.
Still nothing. I guess I'll continue the next post once I get this working (!)