* INTRODUCTION

  Rudel is collaborative editing environment for GNU Emacs. Its
  purpose is to share buffers with other users in order to edit the
  contents of those buffers collaboratively. Rudel supports multiple
  backends to enable communication with other collaborative editors
  using different protocols, though currently Obby (for use with the
  Gobby editor) is the only fully-functional one.

  Since Rudel is not an application, but an extension to Emacs, it is
  not started and used like most applications (not even Emacs
  applications like Gnus). Rudel mostly works in the background to
  change the behavior of the set of Emacs buffers for which it has
  been activated.

  The user interface consists of a set of key bindings, a menu entry
  and some visual status indicators, which are added to the text and
  mode line of buffers for which Rudel has been activated.

* GETTING STARTED

  Assuming Rudel has already been installed and auto loading has been
  set up, a global Rudel mode can be enabled as follows:

  : M-x global-rudel-minor-mode

  This will enabled Rudel's key bindings and menu entry.

** JOINING A SESSION

   : M-x rudel-join-session [ C-c c j ]

   Depending on the installed Rudel backends, system environment and
   configuration, a number of questions will be asked, followed by an
   attempt to join session described by your answers.

   A typical example of the questions asked when joining a session may
   look like this:

   Server: localhost RET
   Port (default 6522): RET
   Username: jan RET
   Color: light sky blue RET
   Use Encryption (y or n): n RET
   Global Password: RET
   User Password: RET

   IMPORTANT: For sessions using the obby backend (like in the example
   above), the following restriction has to be taken into account:
   + When the server is Rudel inside an Emacs process:
     Encryption cannot be used currently in this case. Consequently
     the answer to the `Use Encryption (y or n):' prompt above has to
     be `n RET'.
   + When the server is a Gobby process:
     Gobby only supports encrypted connections. So the answer has to
     be `y RET' is this case.

   It is possible to configure frequently used sessions using the
   customization options `rudel-configured-sessions'. When one or more
   sessions are configured, `rudel-join-session' will provide choices
   like "my-configured-session", ... and "ask-protocol". Selecting
   "ask-protocol" invokes the behavior described above. Selecting one
   of the configured sessions connects to that session without asking
   for all the data.

** HOSTING A SESSION

   : M-x rudel-host-session [ C-c c h ]

   Note that the session starts out without any participating users
   (This is sometimes referred to as being a dedicated server). If you
   want to participate in the session you host, you have to join it as
   described above.

* KNOWN ISSUES

   + Publishing eshell buffers will cause your session to be
     disconnected since eshell disables the hooks that Rudel uses to
     catch changes to the buffer. As a workaround, you can use M-x
     ansi-term or another terminal emulator.

* LICENSE

  Rudel is licensed under the same terms as GNU Emacs.

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