Black Box 4/BlackBox.cdr/os2/ptktdoc.arj/MSGED200.DOC

Text File | 1990-07-24 | 30.2 KB | 751 lines

Introduction and Disclaimer

    Licensing

    msged, its source code (with the exception of that copyrighted by other
entities) and documentation are hereby released into the PUBLIC DOMAIN.

    Trademarks

    I will undoubtedly mention trademarks belonging to any number of companies
in this document.  Where applicable, all trademarks referred to here are the
property of their owners. I will attempt as much as possible to avoid using
these names generically.

    Disclaimer

    I cannot and will not be held liable for any damage allegedly caused by the
use or abuse of this program.  msged is guaranteed to work only on my system,
and none other, although I make an ernest effort to ensure it will run on any
reasonably IBM PC compatible computer running DOS 2.0 or later.

    Memory Considerations

    This version of msged needs approximately 130k or more available memory to
work properly and will use whatever it can get. It will, in fact, run with less
than 100k(!) but it'll do so VERY slowly and restrict message size somewhat. I
hope to reduce these requirements in the near future. msged's code is overlaid
now, so DON'T compress it with either EXEPACK or LZEXE.

    Credits

    Bill Andrus for OS/2 support. Thanks for consent to use the Clarkson
Speller. I also want to thank the Binkley Trio (Bob Hartman, Vince Perriello
and Alan Applegate) for permission to use the lookup code that probes
fidouser.lst to match nodelist names with addresses. Particular thanks to Vince
for writing the Video Fossil routines and integrating them for me!
Additionally, I'd like to credit James A. Woods, Jeff Mogul and Frank Whaley
with the module BMG.C, which performs the Boyer-Gosper-Moore search and makes
the Find command useful.  Finally, thanks to all the sysops and point operators
who have encouraged me to keep improving msged... there are too many to list!

Contacting the author

    I can be contacted in the following ways:

         Fidonet
         jim nutt
         1:114/30@fidonet

         UUCP
         ...!asuvax!stjhmc!hndymn!jnutt

         InterNet
         [e-mail]

         USnail
         'the computer handyman'
         12839 N. 8th Ave.
         Phoenix, AZ USA 85029

    With that out of the way, a little about the program itself.

Introduction

msged was first conceived in 1987 to fill a specific need in the Fidonet
community, an answer to the demand for a small, fast and functional message
editor that was easy to install, easy to learn and easy to use. Except for its
size, which I plan to reduce in the near future, Version 2.00 retains all these
virtues. Addressing the needs of a more varied networking community has,
however, pushed msged out of the realm of a small utility and into that of a
full-fledged message management application. Multiple message database types
are now supported, automatically providing sophisticated handling of Fidonet
Extended, Internet Domain and UUCP bangpath addressing. All configuration
options are user accessible from the Settings Menu, allowing you to modify and
save them for later reuse.

Getting Started

    Some Conventions

    I've tried throughout this manual to use standard conventions to indicate
function keys. A keypress notation such as <Alt><S>, for instance, instructs
you to press and hold the key labeled Alt, and then press the letter S. <Enter>
and <Return> are synonomous. [Commands enclosed in quotes indicate typed text,
or some such. Setup menu selections are capitalized. Configuration options
preceded with an astrick are required]

    Installing msged

    Installing msged is easy, especially if you run BinkleyTerm. In fact, if
you have an Areas.Bbs file in Confmail acceptable format, msged can glean most
of its configuration instructions from this and BinkleyTerm's .Cfg file. If
msged can't find everything it needs to run, it jumps automatically into the
setup function.  All you need do is run msged.

    Setting your preferences

    Press <ALT><S> from the message reader or message list to reach the setup
menu. msged's 12 major configuration groups will appear on the left side of the
screen. Scroll through the looping selection list using either the up and down
arrow keys, the <PgUp> and <PgDn> keys, or by typing enough characters to
uniquely identify an option. Press <Enter> with the cursor over your choice and
move to the various submenus that will display to the right. Make any desired
changes and use the up down arrow keys or press <Enter> again to incorporate
those changes. The <ESC> key allows you to back out of any msged menu

[the following should be under entering a message]

<Alt><R> rotates text when entering a message, same as the < or > key when
reading messages.  first press is rot13, second is rot10, third returns text to
normal.  be warned!  the text is echoed rotated, so it's tough to read what you
type. This is most useful when reading usenet newsgroup like rec.humor or
rec.movies where it used to hide the punch line of jokes and the endings of
movies.

Alias address lookups... huh? Whatzat?

If you have addresses in multiple networks, such as Fidonet,
Alternet, Eggnet, etc, msged will attempt to puzzle out the
proper origination address for your message.  i.e., if you have
addresses in zone 7 (Alternet) and a Fidonet zone and then
write  message to an Alternet address, msged will automatically
use your zone 7 address as the proper address for the message.

         Saving and modifying your configuration

         In order to recall any setup changes the next time you use msged,
you'll have to select SAVE from the main menu and press <Enter>. Doing so will
save the current configuration to the drive and directory where msged was
loaded, using the default file name msged.cfg or the name you specified for
CONFIG FILE NAME. (See: Config file name, listed under Default Filenames)
Otherwise, any and all configuration changes remain in effect only until you
exit the program. You can edit this configuration file with any standard ASCII
flat text file editor.

         Using the msged field editor

         msged's field editor makes navigating the setup screens and message
address fields simple. <Ctrl><X> clears all text from a field. <PgUp> and
<PgDn> keys move from field to field. Left and right arrow keys move the cursor
back and forth within any field. The <Del> key deletes characters to the right
and <BackSpace> deletes to the left. The <Home> and <End> keys move to the
beginning and end of a field. The <Ins> key toggles "insert new text" and
"overwrite old text" modes. The <Esc> key aborts entry of a field without
making changes. Finally, you can incorporate your changes by pressing either
the <Enter> key, or by using the up and down arrow keys.

C O N F I G U R A T I O N

    Who are you? Where are you?

    msged needs to know the default names and addresses you want on messages
sent from your system.  You can enter this information yourself from the Setup
screen or, if it's available, allow msged to scan the Binkley.Cfg file for it.

         Entering your Name

         You can change the default name used on the From: line of messages by
selecting "Misc" choice on setup menu.  A secondary menu gives you the option
of changing either your name or your origin line.

         Setting up your address(es)

msged allows you to set more than one address for your location,
these are called aliases. The first address is the default
origination address of your messages, the others are used for
ALIAS ADDRESS LOOKUP (see above).

         msged and Your Screen

         msged can, in most cases, determine the proper way to access your
video screen directly. This includes accessing large screens like 100x60 or
132x25, etc, automatically.  If for some reason, however, msged can't
understand your computer, you can change most items via the configuration file.

              Direct Video

              This is the fastest and preferred way for msged to access your
video screen.  msged is DesqView aware and will use a shadow buffer. Support
for DoubleDos is haphazard [spotty] at best.

              Using the BIOS

              BIOS video, while a great deal slower than Direct, may prove the
only option for some computers or when running under some multitaskers.

              Video FOSSIL

              FOSSIL video access is the most portable of the options, even
enabling msged to run on the DEC Rainbow and other non-IBM compatible MS-DOS
computers.  To work properly, you must first load a FOSSIL driver, as well as a
Video FOSSIL appendage -before- running msged.

                   What is a video FOSSIL?

                   A video FOSSIL is an appendage to the Fido Opus Seadog
Standard Interface Layer (FOSSIL).  Normally loaded as a TSR application after
the FOSSIL driver, it provides a standard set of functions for screen access
over a wide variety of computers, insulating msged (and other applications)
from the slings and arrows of video i/o on those systems.

                   Why would I need a video FOSSIL?

                   You need a video FOSSIL if you are running an MS-DOS
compatible computer that is not [entirely] IBM compatible.  Good examples of
such computers are the DEC Rainbow, Tandy 2000 and various Japanese computers.

                   Where can I get one?

                   Video FOSSILs are available from a number of sources. Many
of them are distributed through FidoNet's Software Distribution System (SDS).
Or it may prove easiest to simply find someone with the same type of computer
and ask them where they got theirs.

              OS/2

              msged fully exploits the OS/2 VIO video interface and should be
compatible with the Presentation Manager.

         Screen Colors

         I've tried to permit full color and attribute control from the setup
screen without making the choices overwhelming. After selecting the VIDEO setup
option, press <Enter>, position your cursor over COLOR and press <Enter> again.
The six available color groups (described below) will appear in their current
settings in upper right of the screen. Scroll through the menu directly below
it for the color group you want to change and press <Enter> to bring up the
FOREGROUND, BACKGROUND menu. Selecting either of these two options displays one
last menu, a list of colors.  Choose the color you want, press <Enter> and
you'll land back at the FORE/BACKGROUND menu.

              Normal

              This color represents text you or others have typed, the color
that will account for most of your message text.

              Information

              This color displays text generated by msged, usually denoting
information of some sort.

              Warnings

              This color alerts you to potentially destructive commands (i.e.
Do you really want to delete this message?). You'll also see it when msged
needs to catch your eye for some reason.

              Quotes

              This color offsets quoted text. Or at least it tries to. With the
unruly proliferation of quote prefixes, it's a tough nutt determining exactly
what is and what isn't quoted text.  msged simply looks for a > character in
the first six characters of each line.  If it finds one, that line is
considered a quote.  This is an admittedly simplistic approach but you'll find
it covers the vast majority of cases.

              Blocks

              This color designates the anchor line of a block when editing a
message.

              Highlighted Text

              This color highlights things like the menu bar, the active field,
etc.

                   Changing colors by editing the configuration file

                   Note that foreground colors displayed in high intensity
appear in the configuration file preceded with "+". The "+" sign appended to
the Background color renders blinking text. Gray, bright colors and yellow
cannot be used for the background. However, you can often set
your monitor / display adapter combination to display bright
backgrounds instead of blinking characters, the method used to do
this varies though/

                   Monochrome Monitors

                   On IBM-compatible mono systems, bear in mind there are two
WHITE choices. The WHITE following Brown is normal and the WHITE at the bottom
of the list, following YELLOW is bright. Unless preceded by the letters LT,
menu selections for colors BLUE, GREEN, CYAN, RED, MAGENTA, and YELLOW are
bright. Select "reverse video" by choosing BLACK for foreground and either
WHITE for background. Specify normal "blinking" text by choosing the same WHITE
option (bright or normal) for both foreground and background. Get bright
"blinking" text (eeeek!) with bright WHITE in the foreground and YELLOW in the
background. LT BLUE, LT GREEN, LT CYAN, LT RED, LT MAGENTA, BROWN, WHITE, GRAY,
or BLUE in the foreground with a BLACK background yields underscored text.
The best way to do this is to play with the settings until you
get something you like...

         Switch Settings

         Select SWITCHES from the main setup menu and press <Enter> for a
submenu display of the available options toggled On/Off the with the <Enter>
key. All these switches default to ON.

              Soft carriage returns

              Add soft carriage returns (ASCII 0x8d) when msged's editor saves
messages?  Soft carriage returns are optional in Fidonet Technology networks,
but are expected in messages destined for Usenet or InterNet.
When in an area marked as UUCP or NEWS soft carriage returns are
added regardless of the setting of this switch.

              Seen-By lines

              Display the normally hidden SEEN-BY lines in echomail messages?
For the most part you want this turned off, but on occasion you may want to see
where a message has been.  SEEN-BYs and kludge lines also toggle manually in
the message reader with the <ALT><V> View command.

              Tearlines

              Insert tear and origin lines? If you'd rather your echomail
packer do the job, toggle this option OFF.

              Kludge lines

              Display the normally hidden control information in messages?
This defaults to OFF.  Kludge lines and SEEN-BYs also toggle manually in the
message reader with the <ALT><V> View command.

              Confirm Deletes

              Double check before deleting messages?  Normally you want this
ON, but when deleting a large number of messages it's often convenient to
temporarily turn it OFF.

              MSGIDs

              Generate MSGID lines in messages?  You should leave this option
turned ON.

              Strip Kludges

              Remove old kludge lines and rewrite them when changing, copying,
forwarding or moving a message?  You should leave this option turned ON.

              OPUS format dates

              Generate message dates in the Opus format? Most sysops should
leave this option ON.  If turned off, however, msged generates messages that
conform to Fido/Dutchie standards and include zone and point addressing
information in the message.

[this option will probably be eliminated]

              Spell Check [???]

              Load, toggle with <><>, unload. if i get the interface debugged
it will be the clarkson speller.  it will be available as msgedspl or somesuch.
it ain't great but it does it's job.  problem is it seems to be corrupting
memory that don't belong to it.

         Margins

         msged lets you decide column number where you want the text of your
messages to wrap and additionally how you want tabs expanded.  These items are
found under Margins in the setup menu.

              Right margin [work on it]

              The screen column where normal text should wrap.  Generally the
same as the screen width.  If you reduce the screen size (using the DOS shell
or Run Command) and the right margin value is larger than the new screen size
it will be reset to the new screen size minus one.

              Quote margin

              This is the column at which quoted text is to be wrapped.
Generally set to column 65.  If the right margin is changed to be less than the
quote margin, the quote margin is changed to be less than the right margin by
the length of the quote prefix plus about ten characters.

              Tab spacing

              Generally left at 8, essentially sets tab stops at every eighth
column.  Can be changed to anything up to the right margin.

      Quotes

         msged allows you a great deal of flexibility over how quoted text
appears in your messages.



hidden and SEEN-BY lines are only quoted when they are toggled ON

              items
The following text strings, found in the setup menu under Quoting, control the
attribution line and quote prefix.

         Quote prefix string

         This is the string used to precede every quoted line of text.  Four
special characters are available.  The ampersand (&) is expanded to all the
initials of the quoted source. A caret (^) is changed to the first initial and
an asterisk is changed to the last initial.  Also, the underscore character (_)
is changed into a space.

         Attribution line

         msged now lets you design a usenet style attribution line to
introduce quoted text. The default attribution line is:

              attribution In a message of <%m %d %h> %f (%a) writes:\n

         The percent (%) signs indicate a special format character follows. A
backslash (\) followed by an n (\n) generates a line break.  The format
characters have the following meanings:

              %t   Name of person original message was to
              %f   Name of person original was from
              %a   Address of sender of original message
              %w   Day of week original was sent (3 letters)
              %d   Day of month original was sent (1-31)
              %m   Month original was sent (3 letters)
              %y   Year original was sent (00-99)
              %h   Time original was sent (hh:mm)
              %%   Percent sign
              \n   Added at end to generate a blank line


      Default Filenames

      This selection on the setup menu lets you set the default name for a
number of the files msged is able to create and use.

         Outfile

         msged now handles message exports in a variety of ways when you press
<Alt><W>. Overwrite file is the default.

You can copy to file with or without added carriage returns (newlines,
wordwrap), quoted or unquoted text, with headed or headless unformatted text.
And you can accomplish all this directly from editor, the reader or an area
file list. The three file export option switches described below are "+"
(append to file), ",t" (add message header with wordwrap) and ",q" (quote text
using the default attribution header and quote string).

Bear in mind that any file <Alt><I> imported from your own text editor may or
may not contain carriage returns. The ",t" and ",q" switches do not work
simultaneously.

              <Alt><W> Outfile Option Switches, where OUTFILE is any name of
the file you export.

              To overwrite to a file with message text header omitted and no
added carriage returns: OUTFILE

              To append to a file, without message headers and carriage returns
(newlines) appearing only at the ends of paragraphs, place a plus sign (+) in
front of the file name: +OUTFILE

              To preface an exported message with a text header and append
carriage returns to the end of each line:  +OUTFILE,t

              To append to a file with quoted and attribution format:
+OUTFILE,q

         Lastread

         msged creates a file to track the last message read in each directory
containing a .msg style message base. The lastread variable lets you set the
name of that file.

         Echomail tosslog

         msged generates a listing of each file area you've accessed, enabling
your message packing software to toss and scan new echomail more efficiently.
This option lets you specify the file name for that listing. To have msged
append area names to your echomail tosslog, rather than overwrite it, precede
your tosslog's filename with a "+" sign.

         Quickbbs directory

         This is the subdirectory containing the quickbbs message base.

         Primary userlist

         This is the name of the first userlist used for looking up addresses.

         Secondary userlist

         This is the name of the userlist that is searched if a name isn't
found in the first userlist.

         Config file name

         This is the name you want msged to use when saving its configuration
file.

    Adding and Editing message areas

    msged lets you add, delete and change message areas and their attributes on
the fly.  This menu selection is where it is done.

fido    mail ATTRIB "description"   path    areatag
quick   uucp                        board #
        news
        local
        echo

each line indicates an alternative value for a field.

ATTRIB is none or one or more of the following letters


indicate the default
attributes for a message area: p = privileged, c = crash, k = kill/sent, d =
direct and h = hold. Enclose the description in double quotes. Path applies
only to fido style message bases and is interpreted as a board number in quick
message bases. Areatag applies only to echomail areas.


      Adding an Area

      Setting the default message attributes

         Privileged
         Hold
         Direct
         Crash
         Kill / Sent

      Deleting Areas

   Redefining the Keyboard

      Command Key bindings
      Function Key Macros

      msged's macros allow you to record and assign any sequence of keystrokes
to unshifted <Shift> <Ctrl> and <Alt> function keys, (and is limited only by
your available memory? [yes]).

These the configuration file with the keyword "function"

name
you've used to identify them, numbered from 1 to 40, where 1-10 represent the
unshifted <F1-F10> function keys, 11-20 represent <Shift><F1-F10>, 21-30
represent <Ctrl><F1-F10> function keys and 31-40 represent <Alt><F1-F10> ALT
function keys.  As an example, I've have my signature defined as a macro
assigned to function key F10., the command is:

     function 10 jim nutt^m'the computer handyman'\0x1f

The trailing \0x1f sends an <alt><s> and causes msged to save the
message.  This macro would be assigned to function key F10.

function 0 is an autostart macro, executes when msged is started.

BE ADVISED: MACROS INTENDED FOR THE READER WILL ALSO WORK IN THE EDITOR

You can abort any macro by pressing <Esc>.


   Gateways to the World

      What are gates?


      Defining a gateway

      If the message is not crash (continuous? yech!) mail, it is redirected to
the proper zone gateway, otherwise it remains addressed to the destination
node.  In either case, an INTL line of the form:

         UUCP / InterNet gates

         Gates to FidoNet technology networks (Alternet, et al)

Starting Msged

     Command Line Options

     You can start msged either from the DOS command line or from a batch file
(see Appendix A).  In either case, msged recognizes two command line
parameters; the first identifies msged's configuration file name (defaulting to
msged.cfg or Binkley.Cfg) and the second specifies an areas file name
(defaulting to Areas.Bbs). You can designate a different areas file without
supplying a configuration file name.

Reading Messages

reader, next_area (+) and prev_area (-). if areas have been scanned (via alt-s
on the areas menu), the commands go to the next and previous areas with unread
messages in them, if no areas have new messages or if areas have not been
scanned, then they move to the next and previous areas.


    Moving between messages in an area

    Scanning for new messages

    Scan is initially bound to the * key (either will do).  This command scans
all areas for new messages.  Used in conjunction with next and prev area, you
can check for mail without ever hitting the areas menu.

Moved the word scanning up a couple of lines on the areas screen [huh?]

    Changing to another message area

    Searching for text strings in a message

    Exporting Messages

Entering Messages

    Replies

    Quotes

    New Messages

    Addressing: Fidonet, The InterNet and UUCP
    (What the devil is a 'bang path'?)

    In today's world of electronic mail, addressing a message can get
messy.  Particularly if the message is destined for a system in another
computer network, such as UUCP or the Internet.  Fortunately, msged understands
most of the vagarities of the various types of addresses and can do most of the
tricky stuff by itself.  All you need to do is enter the address.

         Fidonet

         Fidonet addressing is msged's native tongue.  It is fully aware of
domains, zones, nets, nodes and points and can generate the necessary
addressing in the message.  The general form of a Fidonet address is as
follows: (items in {} are optional)

              {zone:}{net/}node{.point}{@domain}

         Zone, net, node and point are integers.  Domain represents the name of
the Fidonet technology network of the message you're addressing. Everything but
the node number is optional. If omitted, the zone, net and domain default to
your current zone, while net, domain and the point number default to zero.  In
fact, anything, except the point number, that is omitted, defaults to the
corresponding value in your address.

         Extended Addressing

              Current Fidonet technology requires special information in the
message text to indicate domain, zone and point addressing.  For the most part
you will never have to worry about or even see this information as it is
normally hidden and generated automatically by msged.  For the curious,
however, descriptions of the various extended addressing lines appear below.
You can make these lines visible in a message (if they exist) using the View
(default <ALT><V>) command.

                   Domains

                   Domain addressing represents a more recent fidonet wrinkle
designed to more reliably identify and avoid conflicts with identically
numbered zones and nets in other networks.

                   Domain addressing is accomplished with the DOMAIN line,
which is formatted as follows:

                        ^ADOMAIN srcdmn srcz:srcnet/srcnod.srcp \
                                  dstdmn dstz:dstnet/dstnod.dstp

                   (the backward slash indicates that this should all appear on
one line).

                   Zones

                   Points

         The InterNet

         UUCP

Editing Messages

    Moving the Cursor

    <ctrl><pgup> and <ctrl><pgdn> go to the top and bottom of the screen

    <ctrl><home> and <ctrl><end> go to start and end of message respectively
when in the editor.

    Entering Text

    Deleting Text

    Delete word right is bound to <ctrl><t>, deletes the word under the cursor
and any trailing whitespace to the next word.  if you aren't on a word, deletes
whitespace to the next word.  A word is anything surrounded by whitespace.

    Manipulating Text Blocks

    Paste buffer. Using <alt><a>...<alt><c> to cut out a block of text retains
block in the paste buffer until you cut another block out, even when across
editing different messages.  Particulary useful when quoting from multiple
messages. Quote the first message and cut out the text you want, then abort the
edit with <esc>.  next quote the second message, you can now paste the quote
from the first message into the quote of the second message using <alt><p>

    Creating Carbon Copies

    Want to automatically send copies of the same message to any number of
people? Simply enter the message as you normally would with <Alt><E>, <Alt><R>,
<Alt><C> or <Alt><I>. Then, before saving, move to the first column in the
first line of the message and type the letters "cc:" (UPPER or lower case).
Follow that with a space and name of the first person you want to receive a
copy. msged will automatically address the carbon if that name appears in your
userlist file. Otherwise, type a space and add the appropriate node number next
to the name. You can continue adding names, one per line but remember the "cc:"
should appear only once. Make sure to insert a blank line between the last
carbon copy address and the first line of the actual message. All copies are
marked with the "kill/sent" attribute and with the name the original was sent
to appearing on the first line. If you change the original message latter, it
WILL NOT recarbon.

explicit address overrides implicit address

when the address search routine fails, it will return YOUR address.

Errorlevels
        Type of message entered            ErrorLevel
                NetMail                         1
                EchoMail                        2
                UUCP Mail                       4
                UUCP News                       8
                Local Messages                 16

batch file packer options...


Forward Copy Move

the area a message was forwarded from is added into the origination line of a
forwarded message.  this doesn't mean that you can automatically forward across
areas (although you could easily write a macro to so). But it does make it
easier to forward a message then move it somewhere else.


Sending files

when you start a subject line with D:\ where D is a drive letter, msged will
assume a file attach and set the attach bit accordingly.

Shelling to DOS

msged returns you to the drive and directory it was called from when shelling
to dos