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MAILREAD.ME
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1993-11-21
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Upgrade notes to MAIL v4.11
---------------------------
The program was recompiled under TURBO Pascal 6.0 in July 1992. At the
same time, a number of refinements were made. The most notable was the
addition of the facility to "transfer" a file to an addressee with a
message attached. There is no limit on the type or size of file which is
transferred.
To prevent mischief (and also to simplify the code), transferring of files
is only permitted when a message is addressed to EXACTLY one addressee. The
file to be transferred is, in fact, copied to a temporary file in the mailbox
directory, and the file is flagged SYSTEM and HIDDEN. The name of the
temporary file is passed with the message so that the recipient can pick it up.
The help screens are enhanced in v4.xx, and support for MDA mode as well as
CGA/VGA is included (this is by way of TURBO's screen handling). (Let me know
if I'm wrong).
The /D switch was added. This is to allow network users to have transferred
files delivered into a subdirectory of their choice by default. The syntax
for the use of this feature is (for example): MAIL /DU:\USR\FRED.
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Features new to version 4.11
----------------------------
1. A "Subject" line is available on every message. If it is not blank, it
is displayed in inverse video at the bottom of the screen.
2. Undelete last deleted line in the screen editor (CTRL-U).
3. Cursor keys may be used to select next/previous message.
4. ESCAPE key may be used to quit the program.
5. The Supervisor (mailbox name SUPERVIS) has a KILL option on his menu
which allows him to kill the mailbox of any user. This is to ease
system maintenance.
6. The interface is tarted up a bit. All inputs can be edited; some
defaults are changed. e.g. When you have been using List to find out
what addressees you get by using certain wildcard combinations, you are
always presented with your previous choice so you can edit it. The same
choice is also presented when you select Send.
7. Transferring of files was added. This is done by sending a copy of the
file, not a pointer, so I have restricted it to transferring to one
addressee at a time. Imagine what would happen if someone sent a 3Mb
graphics file to *.
8. The /D switch was added. This is to complement the file transfer
function. It sets the default directory for delivery of transferred
files.
9. There are now seven help screens. F1 may be used to call up help.
10. The program picks up the user's name using a Netware call. This makes
the current version Netware specific, which is why I have not released it
as shareware yet.
11. A flash message is sent to the recipient when a file is transferred.
This was done in a very naff way, by invoking F:\PUBLIC\UTILITY\SEND.EXE,
but from version 4.11 it is achieved by calling the Netware API. My
reference book tells me that this part of the Messaging API may not be
supported by Novell after 1990, so I am still waiting to find out whether
it is compatible with the lastest versions.
Errorlevels 6 and 7 were added in v4.0
--------------------------------------
Errorlevel 6 is returned when an invalid directory name is given with the
/D switch.
Errorlevel 7 is returned when an invalid switch character is used.
Errorlevels 8 and 9 were added in v4.11
---------------------------------------
Errorlevel 8 is returned if, when quitting the program, it cannot write changes
back to the mailbox because it is locked.
Errorlevel 9 is returned when unable to close a mailbox file after attempting
to write a message to it. This would normally happen when the
operating system does not allow the file to be extended. On any
system this could be the result of a "Disk full" error; on a
Novell system, it might be that the owner of the file has used up
all of his allotted storage space.
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In version 4.11, the program pauses to allow the error message to be read, and
the error number in the message is the same as the errorlevel returned.
Upgrade notes to MAIL v4.2
--------------------------
4.2 is a bug fix upgrade with no new features. I released it when I realised
the horrible truth that the program did not work properly when SHARE.EXE was
loaded. Because it had been used previously on stand-alones, and networks
such as Netware which do not require SHARE.EXE, I had never realised the
problem, which was caused by a file being opened twice.
Perhaps you could say the new feature is that it works with more networks.
Ahem . . .
A second bug fixed was one which sometimes caused file transfer to fail
although it should have succeeded.
4.2 was released first to Phil Dring at Wefco Group on 19 November 1993, and
immediately afterwards to shareware libraries that had earlier versions.
A Zipped version of the six files was also included on the disk.
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