Beneath the various windows and menus, MacFIBS uses an "old fashioned" command line interface to communicate with the FIBS server.

The most common commands, such as rolling dice, moving checkers, chatting with other players, etc. are implemented by MacFIBS, so that you don't have to learn and type these commands directly.

Other less common commands, such as changing your password or retrieving server statistics, do not have menus or windows in MacFIBS, and you must type these into the Terminal window to execute them (if MacFIBS implemented every FIBS command through menus and windows, it would increase the program's complexity, making it more difficult for new users.)

This section discusses this command line interface, and documents the commands that FIBS understands. For each command, there is also specific information for MacFIBS users describing how (and whether) to use it.

All commands are listed in the FIBS Command Reference. The subset of commands that you may need to know about are described in the Useful FIBS Commands page. General information about the FIBS command line interface is discussed in the command shortcuts section.

The information in this section is derived from the builtin help in FIBS. To read this original help while connected to FIBS, just type 'help' in the Terminal window. You should remember that the FIBS online help is written for readers using a command line interface (that is, users still living in the stone age...)