Really Useful CD 1

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Text File | 1991-06-10 | 16.4 KB | 372 lines

!Reader ------- Here we go again! This is the basic version of my reader/replier application for downloaded mail from ArcBBS bulletin boards. It has been used on most of the UK BBSs successfully, but my phone bill is bad enough without trying the overseas boards. It should be OK though, and on any other ArcBBS boards present or future. Any problems or comments you have about the application can be sent to me on TWoC (#332), Arcade (#75) or Prestel (919999203). Please let me know if there are problems, and describe them in as much detail as possible. I can't fix what I don't know about! Starting. To use the reader, either double click on the icon to install it on the icon bar, then drag a downloaded mail file over the icon, or call it from the command line as *!Reader filename, where filename is an optional downloaded mail file. This has been added at Hugos request to allow ArcTerm 7 scripts to download mail and call Reader, it also works with ArcComm 2. If you have !Spark 2.00 or later loaded, then Reader will take care of extracting the text file from the Archive, otherwise you will have to drag the text file out yourself. The program will sort the text file to find the start of each message, and its subject, then two windows will appear, one showing the first message in the file and one containing nine icons above and to the right of the message window. Movement. In the top window, clicking on the "Prev" and "Next" icons with the "Select" mouse button will take you forwards and backwards through the messages (not necessarily in that order!), looping round at either end. Using the "Adjust" button will reverse the direction, as on window scroll symbols. "Jump" allows you to go directly to an area (click on its name/number) and then to a particular message in the area (again click on it). If you select an area with "Adjust" then the first message in that area will be displayed. I've used windows rather than menus for this, so use the scroll bars to shuffle through long messages and lists. NB the areas window shows ALL the areas you have joined. Empty areas are shown in a lighter grey and will not highlight on the list as the mouse moves over them. A third way of moving through the file is to click on the slider bar in the command window, the message closest to that point will be displayed. Replying. Clicking on "Send Reply" will open another window, titled to suit the particular method you are using to reply. Having clicked "Send Reply" the title will be along the lines of "Reply to message nnnnn in Area nn". You can then type your message text in the window, editing as needed. The usual edit keys apply, eg Ctrl-X deletes a marked section, marking is done by clicking in the window with Adjust, Ctrl-V moves a marked section, etc. Additionally, Ctrl-Y deletes the current line. Marked text is shown in Green at the moment. Marked spaces become little Green triangles. (How do you reverse the background when you are using OS_WriteN?). Clicking on "New Msg" produces a dialogue box, select "message" or "mail". For a message, clicking on the arrows beside the "area" field will cycle through the available areas. The area box will be shaded if you have selected "Mail". "Recipient" is who to send the message or mail to, "Subject" is hopefully obvious! The reply window will appear when you click on the "OK" box, again keep typing to enter the message. The defaults for the various fields are taken from the currently displayed message. You may quote from several originals in a single reply, although it will be flagged as a reply to the first message if the reply was started as a Reply. (?! :->) If you start another reply or message, or sign the reply you are working on, or save the reply from the reply window menu, (still with me?) the reply box will dissappear or clear to allow a fresh start. To re-edit a saved reply, click on "Replies" in the message window menu. The reply file will be searched for headers, and any found will be displayed in a list. Click on the one you want to work on but note that it is DELETED from the reply file when it is reloaded into the editor. You MUST resave it if you want to keep it, even if no changes are made. Voting Clicking on this button pops up a dialogue box with yes and no options. Select which one, and click on OK to generate a vote. Signatures "Sign" will put a tagline on the end of a message and save the reply. The text for this tag is taken from the system variable "Reader$Signature" (alter it in the !Run file) which is read when the application is first run. Multiple line signatures can be made by inserting a "|J" to force a new line, but note there is a limit of 255 characters in total at present in the program, and Fido recommends a limit of 40 so please be kind to your readers phone bills and keep it short, or you will get Denis screaming at you in the Archimedes echo! Quoting. To quote a previous message in a reply, click on the line or lines you want to quote from in the message window which will turn the background darker grey, then on the "Quote" button in the command window. If one of the first three non-space character in a marked line is a '>' the line is assumed to be already quoted, otherwise the first character of the "From" line and either the next Upper case letter or the last letter are used to form the marker. (eg my quotes will be AF>, anything from Hugo would be marked HF>, Borris is Bs> etc). You can't quote the message information lines, except the origin line in echo messages but please don't or Denis will etc... (see earlier!), only the body of the text. Clicking on the "Quote" button in the command window will transfer the marked lines from the message window to the reply window, reformatting them and adding the markers. If the quoted lines are already quoted, another '>' will be stuck on the end (ie HF> becomes HF>> etc) and reformatted as necessary. You can mix quoted and original lines in one go, the formatting will start a new line at each change of marker and at every really blank line. Saving Replies Replies can be saved by replying to another message, or signing the current reply, or clicking on the "Save Reply" option in the reply window. In the current "One step forwards, three steps back" methodology I'm stuck with, the replies can ONLY be saved to <Reader$Replies>.MailToAbbr, where Abbr is the abbreviation used to recognise the board. Reader$Replies can be set in the !Run file but if no pathname is supplied by you, the replies will go to the file "<Reader$Dir>.^.MailToAbbr", ie the same directory as !Reader itself is in. If !Spark 2.00+ is present then an attempt to Archive the files will be made, which can occasionally lead to problems if a previously existing non-archive file of the same name already exists. The un-arced replies are in the file <Reader$Dir>.Replies in case of problems, although this will be over written if you load in a new file of messages or change the board name. Extracting messages If you want to save a message for future use, click menu over the message window. A menu will appear leading to a standard Save box. Drag the file icon as usual to a filer window, printer driver, etc., to save the message. Multiple reply files. An option on the Icon bar menu leads to a sub-menu listing the bulletin boards you use. These board names are held in the file "<Reader$Dir>.ReplyList" and take the form "Board Abbr" where board is the name of the BBS and Abbr is the short form of the name of the board which will be used to create names for reply files for the outgoing messages and also to identify incoming mail by board. The name and filename are separated by a single space, and the entry for each board must be on a new line. The board name should be 10 characters or less, and the abbreviation 4 characters or less. "ReplyList" is only read when !Reader starts up, so for any alterations to be included in the menu you will have to quit and reload. If you rename a downloaded message file from the default "Scratchpad" or whatever to something including the abbreviation (eg my files from TWoC get called TWoCNov19 etc...) then the program will pick this up and preselect the relevant board. If a reply file already exists for that board then it will be loaded so you can halt a session part way through and resume later, or reply to messages from more than one file at once. If the board name isn't in the file name then the previously selected board (or the first one on the list) will be used after a warning. !Spark version 2.00+ compatability. If !Spark version 2.00 (or greater?) is loaded, !Reader will take care of un-Arcing the text file from a downloaded archive file. In addition, the replies will be Arc'd to the selected reply file if the selected board is changed or when the save option in the reply window is selected or when the program is quit. !Reader will always try to Arc the replies to save line time, so problems may arise from !Spark if an un-Arced reply file exists. Development History Highlights. Changes to make version 0.51. Fixed a bug with messages over 100 lines crashing the application. Long messages are now truncated after a warning. Changes to make version 0.62 More error trapping is included, long files (1000+ messages), non-message text files, and Archives with the wrong file-type are all now catered for. !Spark 2.00+ compatability since v0.60. A second messages file may be loaded without having to quit the application first to prevent a crash. NB the replies file is still continued, and the new messages file overwrites the old one. A merge capability may be added at a later date. Changes to make version 0.63 Sorted the slider bar overwriting the area and message list windows. Call Wimp_GetRectangle AFTER the redraw routine, not before. HoHum... Added a Messages file to lose the default "Edit" title on some windows. After comments, I've made a new Icon. It still isn't wonderful, if anyone has any better ideas.... The old one is still there BTW. It's called !readerold. (No it isn't v0.90) Changes to make Version 0.73 Added a new option to the icon bar menu to allow multiple reply files to be held. (Versions 0.70 to 0.72 were intermediate and very bugged attempts) Changes to make Version 0.80 Rearranged the button window, and added "Vote" and "Sign" buttons. Also tidied up a couple of things and removed one potential source of fatal error type 5s I hope! Changes to make Version 0.82 Found another possible source of fatal errors (When mallocing etc, make sure you free it somehow before reusing the pointer!) Also removed (I hope!) the restrictions on message size and file size, but note there must be enough space on your disc for the un-arced message file and the index file created by the program. Changes to make Version 0.83 Fixed the spurious end of message bug caused by blank lines PROVIDED you let the replies be saved when you quit the program or change the board setting. Changes to make version 0.90 Replaced the standard save mechanism so reply files always have spaces added to blank lines, and are always Arced if !Spark 2.00+ is present. Added reverse motion to the Prev/Next buttons. Default destination directory for reply files has been re-instated. The files will go to <Reader$Replies> if it is set, <Reader$Dir>.^ if not set. The third icon to date has been added, thanks to Eddie (Arcade 1146) Changes to make version 0.91 Tidied things up a bit, fixed various bugs reported in both this and ReaderS. Added the extract message facility, and the capability of reading spooled private messages, provided they have their ANSI codes stripped. Changes to make version 0.A0 Threw away all the Acorn txt routines which saved 40-50K of unsqueezed progam space and included a dedicated reply editor instead. Fixed bugs with Jump. I haven't made it crash since, but no doubt someone will! Changes to make version 0.A1 Finished (I hope) the editor after not too many complaints, added file import to the reply window, and message review. I think that Reader is finished as far as I am concerned. Any thoughts? To whet your appetites. Something I've wanted to do since I started this is to follow message threads forwards and backwards. There is a greyed out item on the icon bar menu to set this up, but it isn't activated on uploaded versions of Reader. There is however a version available from me at the address below for the extortionate sum of Ten pounds sterling with this and more, known as ReaderS. It is so much better, and improving all the time. ReaderS also works with Cix conferences, and Unix style messages are the next on the list. Anything more you want to see or any problems you get, or any orders for ReaderS, please let me know on TWoC (#332) or Arcade (#75), or...... Anthony Frost 10, Whiterocks Park St Anns Chapel Gunnislake Cornwall PL18 9EF The money raised from the sale of ReaderS will be split equally between the RNLI and Cornwall Air Ambulance, as I thought these are charities many users could be in need of at some time but hopefully never will! So far UKP 70 has been raised. Appendix A - Guide lines from Arcade BBS Message: #2832 Date : Wed Jun 20 21:18:15 1990 From : David Dade (#2) To : David Coleman (#1) Subject: Uploading messages with !Reader (reply to #2798) I have just tested this out remotely from Hildenborough (Where's that?) and offer the following observations: !Reader displays messages and generates automatically the header required by the message uploader in ARCbbs. Having done this, it is UP TO YOU to type your message in the required form - it's only an !Edit window after all! Firstly, if you are replying to a message you have just read, or are now reading, you MUST click on [Send reply] *before* you type any reply text, otherwise the header will be placed *after* whatever you have just typed. If that was, in fact, the end of a previous reply then all well and good, - otherwise the text between the blank line at the end of one message and the header of the next will confuse the uploader and be lost! The term "blank line", by the way, means a line with only a newline character in it (which in !Edit is an &0A - linefeed.) If you want to include a line in a message that is "blank": ^like this, you MUST put at least ONE space in it. An easy way to check the contents of an !Edit line spacewise (ugh!) is to click the caret on the very start of the text file, place the pointer somewhere near the bottom of the screen and click the right-hand mouse button. All the text and spaces will be highlighted (or rather lowlighted!) so you can see if you have any blank lines where there shouldn't be any. If you have more than one screenful of text, scroll to the bottom and click on the right button again, which will highlight all the text. (There is probably an easier way of doing this.) An unwanted blank line will terminate your reply early, and the rest of the text will be lost. Secondly - when doing new message [New Msg] don't forget to set the button for Mail if it's private, and message and area number if it isn't. The text format still applies here too of course. If you do make a mistake and get a header generated in the wrong place, it's an easy matter to edit it back into its proper place. I hope these comments are useful and not too much like a lecture! If Anthony (Frost) has any comments or corrections to what I've written, do please put them up here. DaviD Appendix B Upload format from The World of Cryton Upload format Upload message format + Uploading of messages now possible. BBS works out wether uploaded file is ARCed or not (if it IS arced it will dearc the FIRST file in the archive and take this as input to the handler). Uploaded files consist of records looking like this (terminated by EOF): <type> data For example to vote 'yes' on message 621, you would use: <vote> #621 Y To send private mail to Hugo Fiennes: <mail> ->Hugo Fiennes subject text (terminated with a blank line) To send public mail in area 5, as a reply to message 630 (ARCbbs will pick up who the message is to from the original message): <msg> @5 #630 subject text (terminated with blank line) Public mail in area 5 to All (not a reply to anything): <msg> @5 ->All subject text (terminated with blank line) Please mail me (Hugo) if you have any problems with this feature.