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=========================================== timEd/beta A message editor for Squish (C) 1992,93 Gerard van Essen (2:281/527) =========================================== ! timEd uses the Squish MSGAPI by Scott Dudley. ! Squish is a trademark of Scott J. Dudley ! timEd uses Thomas Wagner's EXEC library to swap timEd out of memory. ! timEd's screen writing routines are partly based on code from jim nutt and Erik Vanriper (DOS version). ! timEd uses Mark Potter's DVAWARE routines (DOS version). ┌─────────┐ │ History │ └─────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── (Warning: this part doesn't contain any useful info, 'quick starters' should skip this.. :-) TimEd is one of those programs that 'were never meant to be'. When Scott Dudley released Maximus 2.00 and Squish 1.00, I immediately switched (from Qmail, *.MSG) to the much more advanced Squish message base format. However, initially there were no message editors available, so I had to use Maximus itself to read the mail. Although this went reasonably well, it wasn't really fast and I missed some features ('netmail reply' being the most important one). When Scott released the MSGAPI (and I had just bought my Turbo C compiler :-) I played with it a bit, and decided to make a message viewer (yes, viewer only!). I got carried away. Later several message editors for Squish were released, but I always found reasons not to switch (too large, too slow, too buggy, ugly, whatever :-). I continued working on timEd, other people showed interest, got their copies and some of them even liked timEd! So.... I decided I would try to make a stable version, that could be released 'to the public' to check out the reactions (if any). Of course, a program is never ready (or without bugs), so I delayed it several times. But this is it! This version has all the features I wanted my editor to have, in order to work comfortably. I am not very fond of programs that are full of 'bells and whistles', and you won't find many gee- whiz-bang features in timEd (although it does have some special things, like a built-in personal mail scanner and a nice 'Find' feature). ┌───────┐ │ Beta! │ └───────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Right! This is beta software (and apart from that: *I* wrote it! :-), so be careful! Before you run it, back up anything that is worth saving, make your will and warn your family and relatives. There are no guarentees that timEd doesn't do anything terrible to your setup. Don't say I didn't warn you! This documentation is also beta :-) I'm sure it lacks lots of info you are looking for, but will never find. ┌───────────┐ │ Copyright │ └───────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────── * It's free for non-commercial use, you don't have to pay me anything if you're not using timEd to make money (or to support your activities that make your money). * Nobody should pay for timEd to anyone (but me :-)) * Nobody should make money out of it (if you know a nice way to make a fortune out of it, tell me, 'cause I want my share!) * People are encouraged to reverse-engineer this program. Send me the source you come up with :-) * For commercial use of the program, please contact the author. ┌───────────────┐ │ Setting it up │ └───────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────── Installing timEd is easy. A working setup consists of three files: timEd.exe (yes!) timEd.hlp (the helpfile) timEd.cfg (the configuration file) A sample timEd.cfg is included, edit it to suit your needs. The keywords that can be used in the configuration file are explained below. Apart from that, the sample .cfg file is heavily commented. In timEd, you can press F1 in most places to get help ('context sensitive', as we like to call it :-) TimEd looks for the configuration and help files in the current directory (can be changed with the -C command line parameter). ┌───────────┐ │ timEd.cfg │ └───────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────── The configuration file for timEd should be called timEd.cfg and must reside in the current directory, so timEd can find it (use the -C command line paramater otherwise). It is a plain ASCII file and may contain comments. A comment is a line that starts with a semi-column, like this: ; this is a comment. Blank lines are ignored, all others should contain a keyword. Usually, in this form: <keyword> <value> [value value] So first the keyword, followed by the value of that keyword, optionally followed by more values.. The following keywords can be used in timEd.cfg: ADDRESS ======= Use this keyword to let timEd know what your address is. You can enter up to 10 of them, for your main address and AKA's. The first one given will be the default address. If you want to use an AKA for a certain area, you must use the -P switch (see EchoArea keyword). -P switches found in a Squish configuration file will be recognized and used. Example: address 2:281/527 address 2:500/133.999 NAME ==== Type your name (and optionally aliases, just put in more NAME keywords) here. The NAME will be used in the FROM: field of every message you write. The aliases will be used as extra names to look for in the personal mail scan (ALT-P from the area selection menu). While in a message area, you can also pick one of your names to write messages with. Press CTRL-N to change the username from within timEd. The default is to use the first NAME found in timEd.cfg. *Always* put the name between double quotes. Example: name "Gerard van.Essen" name "Gerard van Essen" NODELIST ======== This tells timEd where it can find a Version 7 nodelist (used by BinkleyTerm and Portal of Power, for example). The nodelist is very useful when entering netmail: timEd can look for addresses and SysOp names in the nodelist, to find the corresponding data of that node. (So, when entering a name, timEd will try to find the address, when entering an address, timEd will try to find the SysOp's name..). The Version 7 nodelist can be produced by several programs, like Xlaxnode, Qnode and Fastlist. TimEd needs the files called SYSOP.NDX, NODEX.NDX and NODEX.DAT. When looking up a SysOp-name, timEd will try to locate *all* matches for the (part of the) name entered. So, if you enter 'Essen', it might find both 'Gerard van Essen' and 'Martin Essenburg'. If you use Qnode, and put 'Keep Allusers' in qnode.cfg, you can even get the same SysOp more than once, and pick one of their addresses (HUBs etc. often have more than one address). I do not know if any other nodelist compilers can do the same thing. Example: nodelist C:\Binkley\Nodelist FDNODELIST ========== This tells timEd where it can find a FrontDoor nodelist (used by.... FrontDoor! Yes!) TimEd can use the files called USERNAME.FDX, NODELIST.FDX, NODELIST.xxx, FDNET.PVT and FDPOINT.PVT (the last two only if applicable, not required). When looking up a SysOp-name, timEd will try to locate *all* matches for the (part of the) name entered. So, if you enter 'Essen', it might find both 'Gerard van Essen' and 'Martin Essenburg'. With the frontdoor nodelist, you can always get the same SysOp name more than once, and pick one of their addresses (HUBs etc. often have more than one address). Unlike the Version 7 nodelist, duplicate SysOp names are always preserved in the index. Example: FDnodelist C:\Binkley\Nodelist ZoneGate ======== Format: ZoneGate <Yes | No | Ask> It works as one would expect: when this is set to 'No' timEd won't do any zonegating, if it is set to 'Yes' it will zonegate all inter-zone messages, and if it is set to 'Ask', timEd will ask whether it should zonegate or not.. If you use Binkley with Squish, you can also let Squish handle it (that's what I do). Whether or not you need zone-gating depends on the software used by the node that actually sends the messages from one zone to another. Check with your Boss, HUB, Host or who-ever knows. Kill_Original. ============== Format: Kill_Original < Yes | No | Ask > This controls whether you want timEd to delete a message, after you wrote a reply to it. (This is only functional in the netmail area). You can use this to keep your netmail area clean. AKAmatching. ============ Format: AKAmatching < Yes | No > This option is interesting if you have more than 1 address. If you set this to 'Yes', timEd will try to find the most appropriate address to use when writing a message. Say, for example, that you have two addresses: 2:281/527 and 60:100/112. If you write a message to 2:500/133, you probably want to use your 2:281/527 address. If you write a message to 60:100/1, you probably want to use your 60:100/112 address. In this case, timEd would try to find the address (AKA) that 'matches' the destination address best. It first looks for a matching zone, and if more than one match is found, it'll try to find an address where both 'zone' and 'net' match. If there is still more than one match after that, it will just take the first match. See the section about writing netmail for more info. ArcMailAttach. ============== Format: ArcMailAttach < Yes | No > This keyword is needed to support the 'Direct' message attribute for people that are running FrontDoor (and maybe D'Bridge too..). For Binkley-users (where Squish packs the netmail) one must set both 'Crash' and 'Hold' to get the desired effect (that is: a message with the 'direct' flavour). But when I tested that with FrontDoor, it didn't seem to like that at all (put it on hold, I think). So... for FD users timEd will add a 'FLAGS DIR' kludge, that should work (with FD, that is, Squish/Bink won't work well if you do it like that). How does timEd know what system you run? It looks in your Squish.cfg, if it finds 'Arcmailattach', you are running FD, otherwise Binkley. If, for some reason, timEd doesn't read a Squish.cfg, you can force 'Arcmailattach' by specifying: ArcMailAttach Yes Default is *not* ArcMailAttach. So, in most situations, you do *not* need this. And if this is set wrong, it will only affect messages that have the 'direct' attribute set. FrontDoor will probably not send it.. ORIGIN ====== This tells timEd what the default origin is. This line will appear at the bottom of every echomail message you write. You can override this default on a per area basis (by pressing ALT-H in timEd, while you are in a message area). *Always* put the origin between double quotes. origin " Contrast BBS, 070-3234903 [V22..32bis] " EDITOR ====== This tells timEd what editor you want to use to edit your messages. Whenever it is time to edit a message, timEd will execute this program. Entering a full path is not required (because timEd will look for the editor in your PATH), but speeds up things. You can also use a batchfile here. You could use this to start up your editor with extra options, or to call other programs before or after the editor (a spell-checker maybe?). Example: Editor c:\misc\q.exe HELLO, REPHELLO =============== HELLO : This defines the string to start a new message with. You usually say 'hello' before you start a message, so this is called 'hello' and will be referred to as 'hellostring' throughout the documentation. REPHELLO : This defines the string to start a reply with. This is usually something like: 'In a message xxx wrote to yyy'. This will be referred to as the 'rephello string'. *Always* put the 'hello' and 'rephello' strings between double quotes. There are four 'variables' that can be used in this string (and in the 'rephello' string as well): %to : The full name of the person that the message IS addressed to (for a new message) or that the original WAS addressed to (for a reply, the REPHELLO keyword). %fto : As %to, but only the first name of that person. %from : The full name of the person who wrote the original message (in the case of a reply, so the REPHELLO keyword). In the case of a new message this would be the name of the person who wrote (writes) this new message (but that, of course, is you yourself :-) %ffrom : As %from, but only the first name of that person. An example to clear up things: Let's say I'm writing a message to Scott Dudley, so that's a new message, and the 'HELLO' keyword would be of significance here. The header would look like this: -=- From: Gerard van.Essen To : Scott Dudley Subj: Your MSGAPI -=- In this case, %to == 'Scott Dudley' and %fto == 'Scott'. If my timEd.cfg has: hello "Hello %to!" My message would be started with: Hello Scott Dudley! Of course, because we treat everyone like our best friend in Fidonet, I have: hello "Hello %fto!" As a result, my message will start with: Hello Scott! Right, that's the 'hellostring'. Now, let's say Scott receives my message, and decides to write something back. This will be a reply, so the 'rephello string' will be used. Looking at our message again (the same one, as this is the message Scott is answering..): -=- From: Gerard van.Essen To : Scott Dudley Subj: Your MSGAPI -=- In this case, %to == 'Scott Dudley' and %fto == 'Scott' %from == 'Gerard van.Essen" and %ffrom == 'Gerard' Now if Scott uses timEd, *and* he has this in his timed.cfg: rephello "%from wrote in a message to %to:" His reply would start with: Gerard van.Essen wrote in a message to Scott Dudley: And he can start typing.. SIGNOFF ======= This tells timEd what should be placed at the end of every message. Most people always use the same 'signoff', so why not let timEd do it for you.. *Always* put the 'signoff' message between double quotes. Signoff "Groetjes, ....... === Art ===" In addition, you can also use \n in a string, to indicate a newline. So: signoff "Greetings,\n Gerard" expands to something like: -=- Greetings, Gerard -=- Note, however, that strings longer than +/- 70 characters cannot be edited from within timEd (with ALT-H). ECHOLOG ======= Where to put the echotoss.log file (name + path). If this is specified, an echotoss.log file will be written when you exit timEd. An echotoss.log file is a file containing a list with the areatags of areas that contain newly entered messages. You can pass this file to your tosser/scanner to scan out and pack these new messages. (For Squish, this is done by using the '-f' command line parameter). Example: EchoLog C:\timEd\echotoss.log WRITENAME ========= Here you can give the default filename the ALT-W (write message to file) function will write to. When actually writing to a file, you can of course edit this to be anything you want (this is just the default). You can also put PRN (or similar) in here, to write to a printer. Example: WriteName c:\timed\timout.txt PRINTER ======= Here you can tell timEd what port your printer is attached to. When using ALT-P from the message reading or list screen, timEd will send the message to what is listed here. The default (if you don't put this in timEd.cfg) is LPT1. Example: Printer LPT2 SHOWKLUDGES =========== This tells timEd if you want to see the control information in the messages by default (or not..). For this purpose, 'kludges' includes real kludges (like MSGID, REPLY, PID, PATH etc.) but also SEEN-BY lines. This is the setting at startup, you can toggle this setting from within timEd by pressing ALT-K or ALT-V when reading a message. Example: Showkludges Yes STARTUP_SCAN ============ This determines whether the message areas will be scanned for new mail at startup (value: Yes or No) or even for personal mail (value: Personal). So, use either 'Yes', 'No' or 'Personal'. Example: Startup_Scan Yes SWAP_ON_EDIT, SWAP_ON_SHELL =========================== These two statements determine timEd's behaviour when it calls other programs. There are two options: Yes : Swap timEd out of main memory when calling the other program. This will only leave about 250 bytes of timEd in main memory, thus making available a lot of memory for the other program to run in. No : Don't swap timEd out, load the other program in the memory remaining, with timEd still in memory. The second option takes up more memory, but is faster (no swapping has to take place). TimEd will be swapped to XMS, EMS or to Disk if no XMS/EMS is available. Swapping to disk is quite slow, of course.. Swap_on_Edit: Determines whether timEd is swapped out when the editor is called to edit a message. This is done often, of course (especially if you write a lot of mail :-), so if you have enough memory to hold both timEd and the editor in memory (and this is usually the case), I would set this to 'No'. Swap_on_Shell: Determines whether timEd is swapped out when shelling to DOS, and when executing an external program by using the ALT-U feature (message base maintenance). Usually speed is not really important here, while lots of available memory can be very useful, so it might be a nice idea to set this to 'Yes'. Ask_Confirmation ================ This controls whether timEd asks for confirmation before performing a certain action. This is used at two places right now: 1) when deleting a message and 2) when exiting timEd, it'll ask for a confirmation when this is set to Yes. LASTREAD ======== TimEd supports multiple lastread pointers. This is necessary if you are not the only one using timEd on 1 machine (as the lastread pointers would have to be shared by 2 (or more) users then). If you are the only one using the message base, or if you are the SysOp (and are consequently occupying the first position in the leastread file) you do not need this keyword. This is usually the case, so most people don't need this keyword at all. With this keyword, you can give the name of the lastread file for *.MSG areas. The default is "lastread". Example: LastRead lastrea1 Squish_Offset ============= This is the equivalent of 'LastRead', but for Squish style areas. You must give a number, that is the position of the lastread pointer in the *.SQL file (for Squish areas). For the first user this is 0 (which is the default). If you are the second user you should set this to 1, if you're the third user you should set it to 2, etc. Again: most people do *not* need this. Example: Squish_Offset 1 This would let timEd use the second lastread pointer in the .SQL files (Squish_Offset 0 would be the first, which is the default). MACRO ===== It works like this: in a netmail message, you enter a (short) name, that was also listed in timed.cfg using a 'macro' statement. TimEd will recognize this statement and expand it for you, saving you a lot of typing. This may include the 'to:' field, the address the message is sent to, and the subject. Examples: macro am,areamgr,2:281/520,my_pass When you enter 'am' in the 'to:' field, timEd will replace it with 'areamgr', and fill in the address (2:281/520) and subject (my_pass) lines for you. So, a total of 3 items were listed after the macro name. macro et,Erik Troost,2:281/527.2 This will expand to 'Erik Troost' with the address filled in. That's 2 items after the macro name. macro rvdn,ROn van der Nagel This will only expand the macro (rvdn) to ROn van der Nagel. Only 1 item listed behind the macro name. Note that spaces are allowed in a macro statement. They are never stripped, so don't put them were you don't want them! Also note that timEd doesn't default to anything when a macro is used, as far as addresses are concerned. So you should always give full 4D addresses in macros (so *not* "macro et,Erik Troost,281/527.2", because that will lead to the address 0:281/527.2!). COLOURS ======= Lots of colours can be specified by the user. The numbers specify the colour to be used. Note: by default, timEd uses a monochrome setup. So if you don't have a colour monitor, you can initially leave all color_... statements out (in fact, you can do that with a colour monitor as well, it just looks very boring :-). The numbers are as follows: Foreground Background BLACK 0 0 BLUE 1 16 GREEN 2 32 CYAN 3 48 RED 4 64 MAGENTA 5 80 BROWN 6 96 LIGHTGRAY 7 112 DARKGRAY 8 n.a. LIGHTBLUE 9 n.a. LIGHTGREEN 10 n.a. LIGHTCYAN 11 n.a. LIGHTRED 12 n.a. LIGHTMAGENTA 13 n.a. YELLOW 14 n.a. WHITE 15 n.a. BLINK 128 n.a. Now take the preferred colours of the foreground and the background of a certain item, and add them. So, blue (foreground) on black (background) would be 1 + 0 = 1 lightgray on black is 7 + 0 = 7 white on blue is 15 + 16 = 31 etc. Here are the colours you can define, and the keywords to use + my personal setting of these colours. There are three main categories: * color_as... For the area selection screen, where you can select a message area to read. These colours will also be used for the message header list (ALT-L) and the file selection box that will appear when you use a 'wildcard' in the subject when doing a file attach. * color_msg... For the part where you will spend most time: the message reading screen. * color_pop... For popup-screens, like help screens and errors. Area selection screen settings ------------------------------ Area selection 'Title' Bar, at the top of the screen: color_asbar 112 Area Selection Frame, the single line around the total screen: color_asframe 4 Area Selection Normal Text, like the names of the areas: color_astext 7 Area Selection Highlighted bar, the message area that is currently selected: color_ashigh 31 Special colour, currently only used in a msg header list for personal messages: color_asspecial 14 Message reading screen settings ------------------------------- Message reader Header, like the From: and To: fields: color_msgheader 7 Message reader horiz. line, between header and text: color_msgline 9 Message reader quotes, quoted text (starting like GvE> ): color_msgquote 14 Message reader normal text, the body of the message: color_msgtext 7 Message reader 'Status' bar at bottom, with current msg area etc: color_msgbar 31 Message reader origin, the origin of a message: color_msgorigin 15 Message reader kludges (controlinfo like MSGID and SEEN-BY): color_msgkludge 3 Message reader, the TO: field in the header for personal messages. Also used for 'highlights' in the message body when using the F)ind feature. color_msgspecial 12 Popup boxes settings -------------------- Popup boxes frame, the box around a popup text: color_popframe 121 Popup boxes text, the text inside the box: color_poptext 112 SQUISHCFG ========= TimEd can read the Squish.cfg for you, and get all EchoArea lines from that configuration. Note that Netmail, bad_msgs and dupes are not read; you will have to define those manually, because you might not want them (dupes, bad_msgs) or usually want to specify special attributes for that area (netmail). -P switches found in Squish.cfg will be recognized and used when creating a message. Give full path and name of the file. If it contains an AreasBBS statement, the areas.bbs file will be read as well. Squishcfg c:\squish\squish.cfg ECHOAREA, NETAREA ================= Area definition, Squish alike. You can specify areas in timEd.cfg as well, in addition to the areas found in Squish.cfg. The squish.cfg file is read *after* these are read, however, so you can 'overrule' areas here (areas already defined in timEd.cfg will be skipped in squish.cfg and/or areas.bbs). This is the only place where you can give a 'long' description of an area (can't do that in squish.cfg, of course) and where you can specify 'default message attributes' for newly created messages in that area. It looks quite a bit like definitions in squish.cfg. There are 3 keywords: ■ EchoArea - for echomail areas ■ NetArea - for netmail areas (define as many as you want) ■ LocalArea - for local areas The format for all of these: <keyword> <description> <areatag> <location> [-Pxxx -Axx -$] <keyword> is NetArea, EchoArea or LocalArea. <description> is a description of the area, between double quotes <areatag> is the offical areatag of the area (like: TUB) <location> is the directory/basename where the area resides. And where: -$ is for squish areas -A gives default attributes. (p = private, c = crash, k = killsent). -Pz:nnn/nnn.p is the AKA to use for this area (also active for NetArea). Examples: NetArea "Netmail Area" netmail c:\fd\netmail -Apk My primary netmail area, with a nonsense areatag, is in *.MSG format and all messages get the 'private' and 'kill/sent' bits by default. The 'local' bit is always added to all messages as well. NetArea "Wlink netmail" wlnk_net c:\fd\wlink -Ap -$ -P60:100/112 A second netmail area, in Squish format. Messages get the 'private' bit by default and I use my AKA 60:100/112 in this netmail area. LocalArea "Bad_Msgs" BAD_MSGS C:\Squish\Msgs\Bad -$ LocalArea "Dupes" DUPES C:\Squish\Msgs\Dupes -$ Here I add my bad_msgs and dupe areas. I like to see what's happening. LocalArea "SysOp" Sysop d:\local\sysop -$ -Ap I define my SysOp area, default private messages. EchoArea "Contrast" CONTRAST d:\echo\CONTRAST -$ An echomail area (my local points area, defined here as well as in squish.cfg, but I define it here, because I want it at the top of my area selection screen..) EchoArea "Points Delmare" POINTS.133 c:\squish\delmare -P2:500/133.999 Another echomail area, where I use my AKA 2:500/133.999, *.MSG format. ┌────────────────────┐ │ Working with timEd │ └────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────── Well, if you changed timed.cfg to suit your needs, you can fire timEd up to see if it'll work. At startup, timEd shows an intro-screen where you can see what config files it is currently reading (timed.cfg, squish.cfg and areas.bbs). When the configuration files are parsed, timEd will take you to the area selection screen. You should see a list of all areas you defined. The first area will be 'highlighted'. If you want to check the intro-screen, you can specify the -p command line parameter. TimEd will then wait for you to press a key, before going to the Area Selection Screen (like: "timed.exe -p".) The Area Selection Screen. ========================== Use the cursor keys (up and down), <page up>, <page down>, <home> and <end> to move around. A quick way to find an area is 'speedsearch'. If you know the official areatag of the area you want to read, start typing that tag. TimEd will try to find the first areatag matching the characters you typed. The characters will also appear at the top of the screen. The 'speedsearch string' will disappear (and be cleared) when you press a 'movement key' (like 'cursor up'). If you press CTRL-L, timEd will try to find a next match for the speedsearch string (this may come in handy if you have an area called OS2, but also one called OS2.028, and they are not close to each other in the arealist). To start reading messages in an area, press <ENTER> or the right arrow key. TimEd will then enter that area and display the last read message. On the area selection screen, the following keys are also active: ALT-S : scan areas for new mail. This will determine the number of messages present in every area, and the number of new (unread) messages. ALT-P : personal mail scan. This will scan all areas for mail addressed TO: you or your alias (as defined in timed.cfg). While viewing a found message, nearly all 'normal' functions are available to you (like R)eply, T)urbo reply, P)rint, W)rite to file etc). Some keys (like cursor right and left) continue the search. You can interrupt the search at any time by pressing <ESC>. ALT-X : Exit timEd. If specified in timed.cfg, an 'echotoss.log' file will be written at this point. ALT-L : Enter the area, and go directly into the 'List mode', showing a list of message headers. ALT-J : Jump to DOS. F1 : Show a helpscreen with available functions. The Message Reading Screen. =========================== When you enter an area, the lastread message will be shown. You can scroll the message body (if it doesn't fit on one screen entirely) using cursor keys (up and down) and <page up>, <page down>, <home> and <end>. <ESC> or ALT-A will take you back to the area selection screen. Moving around in a message area. -------------------------------- Press the right arrow key to go to the next message, the left arrow key to go to the previous message. Ctrl-<END> will take you to the last message in the area. Ctrl-<HOME> will take you to the first message in the area. Type a number to go to a specific message. A small box will pop up, where you can edit the number of the message to jump to. Ctrl <left> will go to the 'original' message, i.e. the message that the current message is a reply to. If you are reading a reply and don't know anymore what the original message was about, use this. Ctrl <right> will go to the reply to this message (if there are any replies already). If there is more than one reply, a list will be shown (with the name of the sender of the reply) so you can choose one. The availability of replies and 'the original' is shown at the top of the message screen. An example: -=- Date : 20-10-'92, 21:38 1744 From : Jan Terpstra 2:280/216.0 To : Hans Boelens Subj : Negeer dit! ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─────── -=- Here you can see, that this message is a reply to message 17, and that there is a reply to this message, number 44. If there would have been more replies (and you used a reply linker that is capable of specifying 'multiple uplinks', a feature that is only available for Squish style message bases) there would have been more numbers after the '44'. Entering Messages. ------------------ In order to generate a message, you must use an external editor. TimEd will use the text generated by this editor to create a message. Using an external editor has one big problem: most editors put a 'hard return' at the end of *every* line, not just on the lines where the user actually pressed <ENTER>. In Fidonet, 'hard returns' should only be present at the end of a *paragraph*. The actual formatting (word wrapping) of the paragraph should be done by the message reader, according to the current screen size (usually, the screen has lines of 80 characters, but that is certainly not always the case!). Placing a 'hard return' at the end of every line (at postion 80), would only use the first 80 characters of a line, even on a 132 character display! Unfortunately, there are quite a lot of programs that leave a hard return at the end of every line anyway. Especially QWK readers are notorious for that. It's quite a lot easier for the programmer though. So, timEd has to strip 'hard returns'. It tries it's very best, but sometimes fails miserably. One of the 'rules' is, that timEd will strip the 'hard return', if it is found at a postion *after* <length of line> - 20 (so on a 80 character display, it would be 60). 'Hard returns' found after that position are supposed to be the result of the 'word wrapping' feature of an editor and are stripped. There is an exception to this: if the *next* line is starting with a <space> or one of the following characters: *-,. the 'hard return' will not be stripped. Usually there is some formatted text (in the case of '*' and '-' probably a list, in the case of a space it could also be a 'listing' of some code for a programming language), so that will be left untouched. There is a way to prevent timEd from 'intelligently' stripping 'hard returns'. Usually it does what you want, but formatted text can be awfully screwed up, when the individual lines exceed 60 characters in length (for example Binkley logfiles :-). TimEd will then strip 'hard returns' making a mess of your nicely formatted logfile or C-listing. There are 2 methods to prevent timEd from stripping 'hard returns': - Forcing a 'hard return' for one line: Put a ~ at the end of a line. The ~ will be replaced with a 'hard return'. - Forcing 'hard returns' for a sequence of lines: Put ~~ at the beginning of a line (rest of line should be empty!) to start, and another one at the end. All of the text between those two lines will get a 'hard return' at the end of the line. The lines with the ~~ at the beginning will be stripped from the text. Examples: This line will certainly have a 'hard return' added to it.~ Now look at my nicely formatted logfile: -=- ~~ + 23 Sep 03:23:35 MAX CPS: 231 (52751 bytes) Efficiency: 96% = 23 Sep 03:23:35 MAX DL-Z C:\Files\Tekst\Contrast.Lzh = 23 Sep 03:23:35 MAX Free DL: reimbursed 227 seconds = 23 Sep 03:23:35 MAX Free DL: reimbursed 51 Kb + 23 Sep 03:23:59 MAX Jack Brons off-line. Calls=16, Len=6, Today=6 : 23 Sep 03:24:00 MAX End, v2.01 (5) ~~ -=- Keep this in mind, and experiment a bit. Just type some messages and check the results after timEd read it back in. With this knowledge, we can look at the commands that will let you enter a message, but before that we'll look at the string editing functions. String editing in timEd ======================= In timEd, there are a few functions that let you edit strings. Some examples inlcude generating a message header (TO: field, address, subject) and the 'write message to file', where you have to enter a filename. All string editing functions use the same routine, where the following keys are active: Right arrow, lef arrow : move left and right in string. <end>, <home> : go to the beginning or the end of the string. <ctrl-left>, <ctrl-right> : jump to previous or next word. <ctrl-end> : delete string from cursor position to end. Delete and backspace work as expected. Press <INS> to toggle 'insert mode'. And, very useful: CTRL-Y : Delete entire string. Selecting user name and address. ================================ While you are in an area, there are two functions that you might want to use: CTRL-N : Pick one of the usernames defined (by the NAME keywords) in timEd.cfg. The name you pick will be used to enter new messages. It will be the default to use until you leave the message area. CTRL-A : A fuction similar to CTRL-N, but to pick one of the defined ADRESSes. You can also change name and or address while editing a header. By default, timEd will put you in the TO: field when entering a message. When you press 'cursor up', you will go to the TO: fields (the TO: name and (if applicable) the TO: address). You can now freely edit these fields, or press TAB to get a list of the names/addresses (defined in timEd.cfg) to select from. Now the other functions to use while you are reading a message: ALT-E, E, <ins> : Enter message This will let you create a new message in the current area. TimEd will first let you edit the header, and will then spawn the editor, where you can type in the message text. Save the text and exit the editor. You will then come back in timEd, that will read your message and save it. See also the section 'Creating netmail and file attaches'. ALT-R, R, ALT-Q, Q : Reply to message This will let you write a reply to the message that is currently shown on the screen. TimEd will let you edit the header (press <ENTER> to accept the defaults) and quote the entire message. Then the editor will be spawned.. ALT-N, N : Reply other area Create a reply, but select another area to put the reply in. This will first take you to the Area Selection Screen, where you can choose the area. ALT-O, O : Reply 'followup' This will let you quote the message text and add your comments, but will not address the message to the writer of that message, but to the person to whom the current message is addressed to. So, when someone writes a message to John, and you use ALT-O on that message, it will be quoted and also addressed to John. You can then add "I want that too!", or something similar :-) ALT-T, T : Reply, accept defaults This is the equivalent of ALT-R, but you will go directly to the editor, accepting the defaults for the TO: and Subj: fields. This is a fast way to reply, for lazy people with little time :-) ALT-C, C : Change message This will let you change the message (header + body). CTRL-H : Change header This will you change the header of a message only. CTRL-U : Unreceive message. This turns *off* the 'received' bit. Be sure *not* to fool around with message anymore, but move to the next message (or out of the area, or whatever) immediately, or the 'received' bit will be set again before you know it :) ALT-D, D, <del> : Delete message Delete the current message. TimEd will first ask a confirmation. ALT-W, W : Write to file Write the current message to a file. TimEd will ask for a filename to write to. You can also put (for example) LPT1, PRN as the 'filename' to send output to the printer. ALT-P, P : Print message (hardcopy). This will send the current message to your printer, as defined by the 'Printer' keyword in timEd.cfg. If no 'Printer' statement was found in timEd.cfg, it will default to LPT1. ALT-M, M : Move, copy, forward This will let you move, copy or forward the current message to another area. It will first show you the Area Selection Screen, where you can pick the destination area of your choice. The 'forward' option will let you edit the header (TO: and Subj: fields) before saving the message. ALT-V, V, ALT-K, K : Toggle kludges This will let you toggle the display of kludges (for this purpose, that also includes SEEN-BY lines). The default (at startup) can be set in timEd.cfg, using the 'showkludges' keyword. ALT-J, J : Jump to DOS. This will let you 'shell' to DOS. Type 'exit' to return to timEd. ALT-I, I : Message & Area info This will show a pop-up box with some info about the current message and the current area. This will also show the 'setting' for a Squish style area: the maximum number of messages to keep in this area, the number of messages to skip when purging and the number of days to keep messages. From within timEd, you can set these parameters by pressing 'C' and editing the values to whatever you like. '+' : Go to next area with new mail. Pressing '+' will move you to the next area that has new mail. Using this you can quickly go from area to area, without going through the 'Area selection screen'. If timEd cannot find a 'next area with new mail', it will drop you on the 'Area selection screen'. '-' : Go to previous area with new mail. This function is similar to '+', but moves to the previous area with new mail. F1 : Help This shows a short help-screen. ALT-X : Exit timEd This will return you to the DOS prompt. If defined in timEd.cfg, an echotoss.log file will be generated at this time. ALT-H, H : Edit 'Hello' strings This will show a pop-up box, where you can edit the 'hellostring', the 'rephello' string, your 'signoff' and 'origin line' FOR THE CURRENT AREA ONLY. With this you can customize your setup on a per-area basis! The edited strings will be saved in the message area, so timEd can continue using them at a later time as well. Whenever timEd detects a 'custom setup' file *in a message area*, it will use the strings contained in that file (*only* in *that* message area), instead of the defaults defined in timEd.cfg. TimEd saves the info in: <areaname>.SQT for Squish areas, and timed.dat for *.MSG areas. The origin in saved in: <areaname>.SQO for Squish areas, and origin for *.MSG areas. ALT-U, U: Utils (Message base maintenance). ------------------------------------------- For *.MSG areas, the only option is to renumber. TimEd will start a batchfile called renum.bat, with one parameter: the message dir for this area (like: renum.bat c:\binkley\netmail). In this batchfile you can call your favorite renumber program (maybe Bob Hartman's renum, I think the batch should then be "renum -R %1"), and maybe run other programs (like scanbld.exe for Max sysops) or touch semaphores or whatever. For Squish areas, there are four choices: Pack, Re-Index, Fix and Inspect. This will call SQpack, SQreidx, SQfix and SQinfo respectively (with the message area as parameter). See to it that these programs are in your path. The programs are *not* called with the extension .EXE, so you *could* place a file called (for example) sqpack.bat in your path instead, and call SQpack/386/DPMI instead :) Some considerations: If you have an area stuffed away in a directory that has a dot in it (like c:\msgs\sysop.028\sqdfile), SQpack will get confused (only SQpack, not the other utils) and think you specified an area.dat file on the commandline. This will happen if you would do this: SQpack c:\msgs\sysop.028\sqdfile .. which is exactly what timEd does :) So it won't work for such areas. Apart from that, if you run OS/2 and the OS/2 version of SQpack etc, you can't use this, as it is/seems to be impossible to execute OS/2 programs from a DOS box. CTRL-F : File request generation. --------------------------------- When you press CTRL-F, timEd will try to find filenames in a message (usually seen in 'file announcement' messages for SDS etc). Unlike other message editors, timEd does not (even try to) support specific 'announcement programs' by recognizing their 'formats'. There are many programs out there, and modern ones even allow you to design your own format. I think it's a waste of (programming) effort and code (size/speed) to try and support them. It just looks for strings that look like filenames. This search is 'extension driven': timEd simply looks for file extensions :) Currently recognized: "arj", "zip", "arc", "pak", "lzh", "sqz", "com", "exe", "lha", "zoo", "txt", "sdn", "sda", "ans", "jpg", "gif", "tar" When you press ctrl-f, timEd will try to find those extensions in the message, and a list with all filenames will pop up on the right hand side of your screen. You can scroll through the list, select files with <enter> or <space>, select all with '+', unselect all with '-', accept the current selection with <ctrl-enter>. Just as with a file attach. Limited message scrolling is still available: press <ctrl-pgup> and <ctrl-pgdn> to move the message (in case you don't even recognize the filenames, and the descriptions are somewhere else in the message). In case timEd missed a filename, or if you simply want to add one not listed in the message (like FILES), press <INS> and type the name of the file. It will be added to the list, already selected. If timEd can't find any files, it'll show a list with only "FILES" on it. You can also abuse this to just request FILES from someone that seems to have an interesting BBS (but is not announcing files in that message). When you press <ctrl-enter> to accept, timEd will take you to the area selection screen, where you can pick an appropriate (netmail) area. It'll then let you edit the message attributes (maybe add crash or something), and after you press <enter> it'll write the file request message(s) for you (empty, we don't want to write senseless "automatic file request" messages). Watch your phone bill! :-) The List Mode. -------------- ALT-L, L : List headers, normal format. ALT-B, B : List headers, no TO: field, broad subject field. This will show you a list of message headers in the current area. Use <cursor up>, <cursor down>, <page up>, <page down>, <home> and <end> to move around through the list. Press <ENTER> or <cursor right> to read the highlighted message. <ESC> will take you back to the current message before you pressed ALT-L. Other keys that are active in 'list mode': <Space> : mark highlighted message + : mark range of msgs - : unmark range of msgs This will show a pop-up box, where you can enter the range of messages to be marked. ALT-D, D, <del> : kill all marked msgs. ALT-M, M : move all marked msgs to another area. ALT-C, C : copy marked msgs to another area. ALT-W, W : write marked msgs to file. ALT-P, P : print marked messages. F1 : Show a short help screen. ALT-J, J : Jump to DOS. ALT-S, S : Switch between 'broad' and normal subject width (for Usenet messages). TimEd's Find feature. ===================== ALT-F, F : Find message This will show a small pop-up screen, where you can set the criteria for the search. It looks like this: ╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ ║ ┌─ Areas: ───────────────┐┌─ Search for: ──────── in: ─┐ ║ ║ │ ( ) Current Area only ││ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ │ ║ ║ │ ( ) All Areas ││ │ ║ ║ └────────────────────────┘│ │ ║ ║ ┌─ Messages: ────────────┐│ │ ║ ║ │ ( ) From Lastread ││ │ ║ ║ │ ( ) All Messages ││ │ ║ ║ └────────────────────────┘│ │ ║ ║ │ │ ║ ║ │ │ ║ ║ │ │ ║ ║ └────────────────────────────┘ ║ ║ ║ ║ Press F1 for help ║ ║ ║ ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ Give up to 10 strings to search for. This will be an 'OR' search, so if *any* of the strings is found in the indicated location(s) [ F)rom field, T)o field, S)ubject, B)ody ] the message will be shown. You can give more than one location, so for example.. intel SB .. is legal (search for 'intel' in Subject and Body). The search is _not_ case-sensitive. Searching will start when CTRL-ENTER is pressed. ALT-R clears all strings entered. Use the <ENTER> and TAB keys to move around. When a match is found, the message will be shown, and if any matches are found in the message body, the lines with the match will be 'highlighted', using the colour specified by 'color_msgspecial' in timEd.cfg. While viewing a found message, nearly all 'normal' functions are available to you (like R)eply, T)urbo reply, P)rint, W)rite to file etc). Some keys (like cursor right and left) continue the search. You can interrupt the search at any time by pressing <ESC>. Creating netmail and file attaches. =================================== This is a special section on the netmail area. Netmail is different from echomail in many ways, and timEd behaves differently when you enter netmail. While in the netmail area, you will also have to enter a fidonet address, in addition to the name of the recipient. Timed can help you in several ways, especially if a Version 7 nodelist, a FrontDoor style nodelist or a fidouser.lst format list is present. Changing your name and address. ------------------------------- First of all, when timEd lets you edit a header, it will put you in the To: name field. The From: name (your name) and address (your address) will already be entered, using the defaults that are active for that area. If you used CTRL-A (change address) or CTRL-N (change name) just before entering a message, timEd will use that name/address. While editing a header, however, you can still edit that info. Just press <cursor up> and you will go to the origination address and name fields. There you can edit them to be whatever you want, or press TAB to pick one of the names/addresses you entered in timEd.cfg. Entering a (TO:) name: ---------------------- When you enter a name (or part of the last name) in the TO: field and press <ENTER>, timEd will try to find that name in the nodelist and when found it will show a pop-up box with name(s) and address(es) it found. TimEd will try to find all matches to the string you typed. So typing 'essen' might give you both 'Gerard van Essen' and 'Martin Essenburg'. If more than one match is found, timEd will show a list with matches and let you scroll through the list. TimEd will stop searching when more than 50 matches are found. If you then press <ENTER>, timEd will fill in the selected address for you. This function works for all supported formats: Version 7, FrontDoor nodelist and fidouser.lst. TimEd will first look for a fidouser.lst style list. If such a list is not present, or if no match is found in this list, it will try the FD nodelist. If still no match is found, or if there is no FD nodelist at all, it will try the Version 7 nodelist. The fidouser.lst is searched first. Since you can have more than one nodelist format present, you could use this to make a short list of people you regularly send mail to. Looking through this short list can be done very fast, of course. If nothing is found, timEd will go to one of the other nodelists (if present). This is only interesting if your system is very slow, of course. Even on a 10 Mhz 286 (28ms HD) both V7 and FD nodelists are *very* fast. But your mileage might differ. The above is valid when entering *new* netmail. When replying to a message, or when changing a message, timEd will see that an address is already present, and it will normally only check if that node (the ADDRESS) exists. If it doesn't, timEd will display "Unknown Address". Additionally, a 'fresh' name lookup will be done if you change the TO: name field, or if you press F2 when you're in the TO: name field. Entering an address: -------------------- In the TO: field, you can also enter an address (!). Again, timEd will try to locate that address in the nodelist and try to fill the name in for you. There are several shortcuts when entering an address. When you don't type in a 3D/4D address, timEd will try to fill in the missing parts with the default from *your* address. An example: My address is 2:281/527. If I now enter: 281/1, so with a missing ZONE number, timEd will fill in *my* zone number (that's 2, so the address becomes 2:281/1). In this case, I could even have entered: 1, because then timEd would have filled in net 281 (my NET) and zone 2 (my ZONE), producing the wanted address (2:281/1). I can also enter .1, (so missing zone, net and node info) and timEd will fill in my zone (2), my net (281) and my node (527), producing 2:281/527.1. After 'expanding' the address, timEd will try to find it in the nodelist. This function only supports the Version 7 and FrontDoor nodelists. For the fidouser.lst lists, this is not possible. AKA matching. ============= This option is interesting if you have more than 1 address. If you set the 'AKAmatching' keyword in timEd.cfg to 'Yes', timEd will try to find the most appropriate address to use when writing a message. Say, for example, that you have two addresses: 2:281/527 and 60:100/112. If you write a messages to 2:500/133, you probably want to use your 2:281/527 address. If you write a message to 60:100/1, you probably want to use your 60:100/112 address. In this case, timEd would try to find the address (AKA) that 'matches' the destination address best. It first looks for a matching zone, and if more than one match is found, it'll try to find an address where both 'zone' and 'net' match. If there is still more than one match after that, it will just take the first match. This is always active (in the netmail area): when writing a new message, a reply, or changing a message. If timEd selects an address different from the address that was currently used (so if anything changed), it will say so ("AKA matched") just below the addresses on the screen. If you want to force it at a certain moment, press F2 when on the TO: address field. TimEd will stop matching the AKA's, as soon as you changed your address manually. So if you don't agree with timEd's AKA matching in a certain situation, just manually change it (while editing the header, you can 'cursor up' to the from: address field) to what you want it to be, and timEd will leave it at that. It will not match AKA's anymore after you did that. (Of course, when you enter another new message after that, the game will start again :) Generating a file-request message. ---------------------------------- When you enter a message with the 'file request' attribute, timEd will ask if you want to include any text in the message. If you send a file request message with a body that is empty, it will usually be automatically killed on the destination system. This way the SysOp of the destination system won't have to wade through all these useless messages that consists of one line only ('This is an automatic file request'). Generating a file-attach message. --------------------------------- TimEd will try to detect whether you entered a path specification in the 'subject' field, and set the file-attach bit automatically if you did. Of course you can also set the file attach bit manually. TimEd will then check whether the filename(s) entered on the subject line exist, and if you entered a wildcard and more than one match is found, timEd will show a list with matching files. You can then 'tag' the files you want to attach. If you tag more files than fit on the subject line, timEd will generate extra messages. A file-attach list may look like this: -=- Date : 25-┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ From : Ger│ Current filespec: c:\files\c\t*.* │ To : ROn└──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Subj : c:\files\c\t*.* ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ TABX.C 3 K │ │ TADV2DEM.ARJ 53 K │ │ TC1TUTOR.ARJ 105 K │ │ TC2TUTOR.ARJ 83 K │ │ TDT-2.ZIP 268 K │ │ TDT-3.ZIP 249 K │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ -=- You can now 'tag' files with <ENTER> or <SPACE>, move around with <cursor up> and <cursor down> etc, and accept the currently tagged files with <CTRL-ENTER>. You can select all files in one action by pressing '+', and un-select them all by pressing '-'. This process will be repeated for all entered file specifications. TimEd's CC: feature. ==================== TimEd can also make 'carbon copies' of netmail messages you write. It can happen that you want to send an exact copy of a message to someone other than the original recipient of the message. For example, when I release a new beta version, I should have to write the same netmail message for every beta tester. Now say I want to write the same message to Kasper Kwant, ROn van der Nagel and Frank Troost. I would enter the message, addressing it to Kasper Kwant, and on the first line of the message I would write: cc: ROn van.der.Nagel, Frank Troost When the message is saved, a copy would be generated for both ROn and Frank. Rules for the cc: line(s): * It must start on the first line of the message. * If all names do not fit on one line, proceed on the next line, and put cc: in front of it again. * You can use a full name (it will be looked up in the nodelist), a 'macro' (it will be expanded) or an address (it will be looked up in the nodelist). This is exactly the same as you can enter at the TO: prompt of a 'normal' netmail message. Nodelist lookup is a bit different, though: timEd will only look for the first match to a certain name, and use that to generate the message. In addition, if you type a full name which is *not* present in the nodelist (or if you don't want timEd to look in the nodelist, for whatever reason, like speed), you can also specify *both* name and address, separated by a '#', like this: Gerard van Essen#2:281/527 And finally, if you regularly send CC:'s to the same bunch of people, you can put their names, macro's or addresses in a file, one per line, and specify that filename in the cc: line, like this: <c:\timed\names.cc The '<' is chosen as it looks like 'redirection' in DOS :-) The contents of such a file could be: -=- Kasper Kwant ROn van.der.Nagel Frank Troost pietje#2:281/527.29 -=- Of course, you can combine all this. A full example (let's say that I have a macro for my HUB, called 'hub'): cc: 1, hub, Kasper Kwant, <names.cc cc: ROn van.der.Nagel, .23 ■ '1' will be expanded to myzone:mynet/1 (in this case 2:281/1) ■ 'Kasper Kwant' will be looked up in the nodelist. ■ The file 'names.cc' will be read and all persons listed in that file will get a copy. ■ ROn van.der.Nagel will be looked up in the nodelist. ■ 2:281/527.23 will get a copy too. All CC: messages that are generated by timEd will be marked "kill/sent", so you won't have lots of copies of the same message in your netmail area. The attributes of the original message will be left untouched, of course. Please don't abuse this feature by sending junk mail to everyone.. ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Reading messages 'gated' from Usenet/Internet │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────── ──── Some consideration was also given to people reading messages that originally came from Usenet/Internet 'newsgroups'. FSC-0035 ======== TimEd supports the 'Replyto' and 'ReplyAddr' kludges as outlined in FSC-0035 (Fidonet Technical Specification - a proposal, actually). This is used for netmail replies. If you read gated Use/Internet messages that have this kludge (Fredgate can generate them), this will automatically address the netmail reply to your UUCP gate and put a TO: line at the top of your message. 'Broad' message L)ist display. ============================== For Use/Internet newsgroups the standard L)ist display is far from optimal: there, every message has 'All' in the TO: field (put there by the UUCP <-> Fido gate). TimEd has two L)ist modes, a 'normal' one, and a 'broad subject line' one (you get it with Alt-B when reading a message). The latter has (as one would expect) a much broader Subject displayed, the TO: field is entirely zapped in that mode. While in the L)ist mode, one can switch between the two styles with ALT-S (from S)witch..) ┌───────────────────────────┐ │ Multitasking/File locking │ └───────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────── Screen handling. ---------------- DOS version: TimEd uses direct screen writes (either to the physical screen, or to the DESQview virtual screen). There is no special code to prevent 'snow' on older CGA displays. OS/2 version: timEd uses the VIO subsystem for screen writes. Performance. ------------ DOS: When timEd is idle, it is (only) waiting for a keypress, it does nothing else (like maintaining a clock) in the meantime. Since it gets this keypress through a very standard DOS call, DESQview will give timEd no processor time at all while timEd is waiting. OS/2 (DOS box) didn't really like it, strangely enough, so whenever OS/2 is detected (DOS version > 9), timEd will give up timeslices to OS/2. OS/2: What? This is an OS/2 app! Of course it doesn't suck time from other tasks!! File locking/sharing. --------------------- DOS: File locking is only active if 1) share is detected (int 2F, sub 1000h), *and* 2) timEd successfully locked a file in the timEd directory (either the current dir or the one specified by the -c command-line switch). Windows seems to always return 'True' for a share installation check (even without share loaded), but without share.exe, locking fails anyway. This made timEd quite confused. (Me too, btw). I do not know how networks behave, but if share detection or the locking test fails on your workstation, there will be *no locking* done by timEd (or the MSGAPI, actually). So, if you want locking, keep the above in mind. Anyone who knows more about this stuff is encouraged to share his wisdom with me :) OS/2: File locking/sharing is always active. ┌─────────────────────────┐ │ Command line parameters │ └─────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────── TimEd knows 2 command line parameters: -c Specify the directory where the config file (and helpfile) can be found, like: timed.exe -cC:\Bbs\timed\ And -p, to let timEd pause at the intro screen (so you can check what config files were parsed by timEd). Like: timed.exe -p Of course, you can combine both switches: timed.exe -p -cC:\Bbs\timed ┌────────────────────────┐ │ TimEd exit errorlevels │ └────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────── TimEd can exit with several useful errorlevels: No mail entered : 0 Netmail entered : 1 Echomail entered : 2 Local mail entered : 4 If more than one type is entered the numbers are added: Net + Echo : 3 Net + Local : 5 Echo + Local : 6 Net + Echo + Local : 7 Error: 254 You can trap these errorlevels in a batchfile, and scan echomail or pack netmail (or both) based on the errorlevel. ┌──────────┐ │ Warnings │ └──────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Some things you should know about timEd: ■ TimEd doesn't really like large messages. Messages larger than 60 Kb may cause very strange behaviour (anything is possible). ■ When moving/copying messages from the L)ist mode, sometimes memory seems to get lost. I found that after locking an area, the memory taken by the (Squish style area) index is not always returned when the Unlock operation is done. I have yet to find the cause of this. ■ With the OS/2 version, spawning E.EXE or EPM.EXE directly from timEd/2 didn't work. Using a batchfile (with "E.EXE %1" as the only contents) worked OK... ┌───────────┐ │ Technical │ └───────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────── TimEd is written using Borland C++ 3.1 (DOS version) and Borland C++ for OS/2 1.00 (the OS/2 version), and makes extensive use of Scott Dudley's MSGAPI (thanks Scott!). It was developed on a 10 Mhz 286 (most of the time), and for a while on a 386-40 running OS/2 (also running my BBS) but even OS/2 couldn't protect the BBS from my programming skills (...), causing lockups and even reboots, so I went back to the 286.. Recently, development has taken place on a 386-40 again (running OS/2). Not the PC that is also running the BBS (I still prefer DOS to run my BBS), but another one (talking about investments!). If someone is really enthusiastic about this program: I would very much like to use a Watcom compiler, please buy me one! :-) ┌───────────────────┐ │ TimEd source code │ └───────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────── Not available. ┌───────────────────────┐ │ Contacting the author │ └───────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────── You can reach me in several ways: FidoNet: 2:281/527 My BBS: Contrast BBS 31-70-3234903 V32bis/V42bis Or just send me a letter, or postcard: Gerard van Essen Leharstraat 67 2551 LB Den Haag The Netherlands, Europe <End of beta documentation>