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MsgVu for OS/2 and DOS Operating Systems User's Guide Version 2.0 November 21, 1988 (c) Copyright Dave Briccetti & Associates, 1985-1988. All rights reserved. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Examples of Calculating Memory Requirements . 2 Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Disclaimer of Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Obtaining a License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Product Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Distribution Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Problem Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Installing MsgVu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Location of Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Executable File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Initialization File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Environment Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Location of Initialization Directory . . . . . . . 5 Monochrome Monitor with Color Adapter . . . . . . . 5 Quick Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Starting MsgVu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Loading a File of Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Understanding the Screen Formats . . . . . . . . . 8 The Index Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 The Message Reading Screen . . . . . . . . . . 8 Understanding Navigation Functions . . . . . . . . 9 The Index Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Message Reading Screen . . . . . . . . . . 10 Exiting MsgVu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Saving, Deleting, Marking, and Sorting . . . . . . . . . 11 Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Saving Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Deleting Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Marking Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Sorting Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Choose From Directory List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 The Find Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 MsgVu Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Command Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Command Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Operating Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 CHANGE SUBJECT (F5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 DELETE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Deleting Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Delete One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Delete Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Delete Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Delete Marked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Delete Found . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Delete Duplicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 DOWN GROUP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 EXIT ('x' OR Esc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 FILTER (F6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Message Flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Filtering Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 To . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 From . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 FIND (F6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 HELP (F1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 LOAD FILE (Shift-F10) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Filename . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Building the Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 The Fast Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 The Regular Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Saving the Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 LOCATE ('l' OR Shift-F6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 MARK ('m') . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Mark One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Mark Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Mark Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Mark Found . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 PRINT ('p') . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 READ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 RESET FLAGS (Alt-F1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 SAVE FILE (F10) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Deleted, Marked, and Filtered Messages . . . . . . 27 SAVE INDEX (Ctrl-F10) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 SHELL (Ctrl-F1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 SORT (F2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Thread Order Sort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 SPLIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 STATS (Shift-F1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 UNDELETE ('D') . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 UNMARK ('M') . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 UP GROUP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 OS/2 Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Large Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Multitasking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Family Application Programming Interface . . . . . 29 Association of Shareware Professionals . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Programming Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Documentation Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Support Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 1 Introduction 1. Function MsgVu is a tool for managing files of electronic messages from information services such as CompuServe, GEnie, and BIX, and bulletin board systems such as RBBS, PC-Board, and Fido. With MsgVu you can: Read messages sequentially or by selecting them from an index which shows the number, subject, sender, and recipient Sort message files by "thread," number, subject, sender, or recipient Delete selected messages Print selected messages Search for messages containing certain text Extract selected messages and write them to new files 2. System Requirements a. Operating System MsgVu runs under DOS Version 3 or later, and all OS/2 versions. b. Memory MsgVu's memory requirements can be calculated using the following formula: Memory = Base Memory + Input Buffers + Header Size * Number of Messages Table I - Memory Requirements Information Base Input Header Version Memory Buffers Size Regular 280,000 16,384 36 Fast 232,000 16,384 136 1 Table I shows the values of the formula variables for the differ- ent versions of MsgVu. i. Examples of Calculating Memory Requirements The memory required for the regular version to process 2,000 mes- sages is calculated as follows: Memory = 280,000 + 16,384 + 36 * 2000 = 368,384 bytes For the fast version to process 2,000 messages requires quite a bit more memory: Memory = 232,000 + 16,384 + 136 * 2000 = 520,384 bytes c. Display MsgVu supports monochrome or color display adapters, as well as the Enhanced Graphic Adapter (EGA) 43 line mode, and the Video Graphics Array (VGA) 50 line mode. 3. Disclaimer of Warranty This software and manual are sold "as is" and without warranties as to performance of merchantability or any other warranties whether expressed or implied. Because of the various hardware and software environments into which this program may be put, no warranty of fitness for a particular purpose is offered. The user must assume the entire risk of using the program. Any liability of the seller will be limited exclusively to product replacement or refund of purchase price. 4. Obtaining a License This shareware product costs $30 for the DOS users and $35 for OS/2 users. Shareware is a method software developers use to distribute their products which allows users to evaluate the products in their own environments before buying. If after your evaluation you decide to use MsgVu, please send your license fee to: Dave Briccetti & Associates P.O. Box 1713 Lafayette, CA 94549-7013 A printed manual will be mailed free of charge to all registered users who request it. 2 Dave Briccetti is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals. 5. Product Support MsgVu is supported on the IBM Communications forum and the TAPCIS forum on CompuServe, and on Dave Briccetti & Associates RBBS at 415 945-1105. Dave Briccetti's CompuServe id is 74475,1072. Telephone support for MsgVu is not available. 6. Distribution Restrictions This full-featured, evaluation version of MsgVu may be copied and distributed to others in its original, unmodified form. Organizations wishing to distribute MsgVu are encouraged to do so, provided that if a fee is charged it does not exceed $5, and that persons to whom the product is distributed are clearly aware that MsgVu is shareware. 7. Problem Reporting Please report problems with MsgVu to Dave Briccetti on the Dave Briccetti & Associates RBBS, CompuServe, Fax number 415 945-7436, or at the postal mailing address given in the section Obtaining a License on page 2. 8. About the Author Dave Briccetti has been programming since 1975 and an independent software developer and consultant since 1983. He worked on large IBM mainframe computers from 1975 to 1985, and has been program- ming on IBM microcomputers since 1983. He works now especially with the C programming language and the DOS and OS/2 operating systems. Dave would be interted in hearing about contract programming opportunities for OS/2. 3 4 2 Installing MsgVu 1. Location of Files a. Executable File The executable file for MsgVu is one of the following: MSGVU.EXE, MSGVUF.EXE, MSGVUB.EXE or MSGVUBF.EXE. It should be placed some- where in the PATH, or in a directory from which it will be ex- plicitly invoked. b. Initialization File MsgVu uses an initialization file called MSGVU.INI. It may be placed in the same directory as the executable file, in a direc- tory called INIT, or in the directory from which MsgVu will be invoked. 2. Environment Settings a. Location of Initialization Directory If you place the initialization file in the INIT directory, then you should execute the following command before running MsgVu: SET INIT=\INIT You may put this command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file (OS2INIT.CMD for OS/2 users). b. Monochrome Monitor with Color Adapter If you are using a color display adapter with a monochrome moni- tor, MsgVu's screens may be easier to read if you issue the fol- lowing DOS command before running MsgVu: SET PNLMONO=Y 5 6 3 Quick Tutorial This tutorial, which is meant for the first-time user of MsgVu, will introduce you to a few of the most common and basic MsgVu functions. 1. Getting Started a. Objectives Starting MsgVu Loading a File of Messages Understanding the Screen Formats Understanding the Navigation Functions Exiting MsgVu b. Starting MsgVu Change to the drive and directory containing the MsgVu file MSGVU.EXE At the DOS prompt, type: msgvu [Enter] A title screen appears. Press [Enter] to continue. The title screen disappears. MsgVu is now ready to work with a file of messages. c. Loading a File of Messages Appearing now is the Index Screen. Since there are no messages currently in MsgVu, the index is empty. There is a menu at the bottom of the screen. There are three ways to provide a message file name to MsgVu, and MsgVu is asking which of the three ways 7 you want to use. In this lesson we will use the simplest way: "Filename - Type the name of the file to read." Press Enter to select the "Filename" option. Now MsgVu asks you for the filename of the message file that you'd like to work with. We will use a sample file called sample1.msg. Type: sample1.msg [Enter] MsgVu now builds an index of the messages in the file. d. Understanding the Screen Formats i. The Index Screen The full Index Screen appears again. Each row represents a single message. Notice that the first row is highlighted. Using this "highlight bar" you tell MsgVu where to do certain func- tions. ii. The Message Reading Screen Press [Enter] to read message 1. Message 1 appears. The header of the message is at the top left corner of the screen. At the top right of the screen is the "Index Window." This win- dow shows the index information of the current, preceding, and following messages, in order to help you keep track of where you are in the file. Since you are now reading the first message in the file and there are no preceding messages, the area above the highlighted bar is blank. 8 Press Esc to return to the index. e. Understanding Navigation Functions i. The Index Screen Press Cursor Down The highlight bar moves down to message #2. Press Cursor Up The highlight bar returns to message #1. Press PgDn The second page of the index appears. Message #22 is now the top message on the screen. Press PgUp The beginning of the index appears again. Press End The highlight bar moves to the last message on the screen, mes- sage #21. Press Home The highlight bar moves to the first message on the screen, mes- sage #1. Press 9 Ctrl-PgDn The highlight bar moves to the last message, #60. Press Ctrl-PgUp The highlight bar returns to the first message, #1. ii. The Message Reading Screen Within the message reading screen, the up and down arrows have the same function, that is, to move to the next or previous mes- sage. Press [Enter] to read message #1 again. Press CsrDn to read message #2. Press Esc to return to the index display. f. Exiting MsgVu Press Esc to exit MsgVu. 10 2. Saving, Deleting, Marking, and Sorting a. Objectives Saving Messages Deleting Messages Marking Messages Sorting Messages b. Saving Messages Let's practice saving to a file. Start MsgVu. Load the file SAMPLE1.MSG as you did before. Press F10 On your screen now is a menu asking you which method you want to use to save the messages. Press Enter temp1.msg [Enter] The messages in SAMPLE1.MSG have now been written to file TEMP1.MSG. c. Deleting Messages From the index display, cursor down to message #4. Press F3 to tell MsgVu that you would like to delete that message. Now save this file to TEMP2.MSG. Press F10 11 Enter temp2.msg [Enter] The messages are saved to file temp2.msg. Now load the file back to verify that the messages were deleted. Press shift F10 Enter temp2.msg [Enter] Notice that message #4, the message you deleted, was not saved. d. Marking Messages From the index display, move the cursor to message #2. Press F4 to mark the message. Save to file temp3.msg. Using Shift-F10, load file temp3.msg. Notice that only message #2, the message you marked, was saved. e. Sorting Messages Load file sample2.msg. From the index display, Press sn to sort the messages in numerical order. Let's try another sort order. Press ss To sort the messages in alphabetical order by subject. 12 3. Choose From Directory List This option lets you select the name of the file from a directory list. Press shift-F10 d *.* [ENTER] You now see all of the files in the current directory. Move the cursor to sample1.msg and press Enter. The sample1.msg file is loaded. 4. The Find Command Load sample3.msg. MsgVu's find command will help you find text within messages. Press F6 to select the Find option. You see at the top of the screen "Search for messages with ALL of the following strings:", and the word "all" will be highlighted. Press space and you will see that it changes to "Any". When "All" is selected, MsgVu will mark find all messages containing every text string you enter. When "Any" is selected, MsgVu will find all messages containing any of the text strings you enter. Press Crsr-down The cursor moves into the next field. This is where you type a text string to search for. Press apple [Enter] orange [Enter] [Enter] 13 [Enter] Now you are on the "Ignore case ?" option. Answering yes to this means that MsgVu will find the text strings regardless of upper or lower case. For example, let's say you were to search for the word "To", and you answered yes to the "Ignore case ?" option. MsgVu would mark the messages that contained "To", "TO", "to", and "tO". Answering "no" to the "Ignore case ?" question would result in only messages containing "To" to be marked. Press y and the search begins. You are now in the index. Press PgUp to move to the top of the index. Notice that there are 2 messages flagged with an "F". One of these messages contains the text "apple", and the other contains "orange". Press F6 to invoke Find again. Change Any to All and press Enter once for each field. The search begins. You are now back at the index. Notice that now there are no messages flagged with an "F". This is because no single message contains both "apple" and "orange". 14 4 MsgVu Command 1. Command Syntax Here is the syntax of the MSGVU command: msgvu [infilename] [outfilename/prn] [/43] [/50] [/a] [/b:n] [/c] [/e] [/fdate:date- range] [/fto:tostring] [/ffrom:fromstring] [/fsection:sections] [/h:host] [/i] [/ki:n] [/ko:n] [/kt:n] [/l] [/n:idxconv] [/p] [/r] [/s:sorttype] [/t:tostring] [/x] [/y] 2. Command Parameters All command parameters are optional. If you specify more than one parameter, separate the parameters by a space. The command parameters are described as follows: infilename specifies the name of the file containing the messages to be indexed. MsgVu will prompt for the name of an input file if you don't specify one here. outfilename/prn specifies the name of the file into which the processed messages are to be written, or prn if the messages are to be directed to the printer. Use outfilename/prn only if you also provide infilename. /43 requests MsgVu to run in 43 line mode. An Enhanced Graphics Adapter or compatible adapter is required to use this option. /50 requests MsgVu to run in 50 line mode. A Video Graphics Array is required to use this option. 15 /a requests MsgVu to run in automatic, non-interactive mode. In automatic mode, MsgVu performs all processing without any interaction with you. MsgVu reads the input file, sorts it if you have specified /s, deletes duplicate messages if you have specified /c, and writes the processed messages to the output file if you have specified outfilename/prn. /b:n specifies the maximum number of consecutive blank mes- sage lines MsgVu is to display. Any consecutive blank lines over the maximum are suppressed. Examples: /b:0 suppresses the display of all blank lines in messages, and /b:2 allows the display of up to 2 consecutive blank lines. /c specifies that MsgVu is to delete duplicate messages (see the section entitled "Deleting Messages" on page 21). /fdate:daterange specifies a date range filter (see "Message Filtering" on page 22). daterange has the syntax YYMMDD:YYMMDD. Example: /fdate:870101:870131 sets a filter so that only messages for January 1987 are processed. /fto:tostring specifies a message recipient filter (see "Message Filtering" on page 22). tostring is a string of charac- ters which may appear in the "To" field of the message header. If tostring contains spaces, enclose tostring in quotation marks. Example: /fto:"John Doe" sets a filter so that only messages containing "John Doe" in the "To" field are processed. 16 /ffrom:fromstring specifies a message sender filter (see "Message Filter- ing" on page 22). fromstring is a string of characters which may appear in the "From" field of the message header. If fromstring contains spaces, enclose fromstring in quotation marks. Example: /ffrom:Sysop sets a filter so that only mes- sages containing "Sysop" in the "From" field are pro- cessed. /fsection:sections specifies a section numbers filter (see "Message Filtering" on page 22). sections has the syntax n[,n[...,n]]. Example: /fsection:1,4,6 sets a filter so that only messages in sections 1, 4, and 6 are processed. /h:host MsgVu adapts itself to the electronic communications system you are using by way of a parameter file called MSGVU.INI. As distributed, this file contains informa- tion which describes several information and bulletin board systems. The default host is initially set to CIS (CompuServe). You may use /h to override the de- fault host name. Example: /h:RBBS specifies that the messages to be processed come from host RBBS. /i specifies that when you sort messages by subject, MsgVu is to ignore the case of the subject. By default, MsgVu recognizes the case of the subject. If you use this option, sorting by subject takes longer. /n:idxconv specifies the two templates by which MsgVu will derive the filename extensions for the primary and secondary index files. The first 3 characters are the template for the primary index, and the last 3 characters are the template for the secondary index. The default 17 value for this parameter is ??X??Y. To generate the primary index file name using the default convention, MsgVu takes the name of the message file and changes the last character to "X". To generate the secondary index file name, it changes the last character to a "Y". For example, the index file names generated for use with message file SOFTWARE.MSG are SOFTWARE.MSX and SOFTWARE.MSY. Example: /n:??1??2 causes the templates ??1 and ??2 to be used to generate the index file names. The indexes for message file SOFTWARE.MSG are SOFTWARE.MS1 and SOFTWARE.MS2. /ki:n specifies the size, in kilobytes, of the input file buffer. This buffer is used to reduce the number of disk accesses when messages are being read from the input message file. Example: /ki:16 specifies that 16 kilobytes are to be allocated for the input file buffer. /ko:n specifies the size, in kilobytes, of the output file buffer. This buffer is used to reduce the number of disk accesses when messages are being written to the output message file. Example: /ko:16 specifies that 16 kilobytes are to be allocated for the output file buffer. /kt:n specifies the size, in kilobytes, of the buffer for the text component of the message index (the *.??Y file). This buffer is used to reduce the number of disk acces- ses when the text from message headers is being ac- cessed. Example: /kt:16 specifies that 16 kilobytes are to be allocated for the index text component buffer. 18 /l in automatic mode, /l tells MsgVu to split the messages into one output file for each message section. See the description of the Split command on page 28. /p in automatic mode (/a), controls how messages are writ- ten when the output file already exists. By default, MsgVu appends (adds to the end of) output files. If you specify /p, MsgVu overwrites output files. When you write over the input file, an overwrite always occurs. In interactive mode (when you do not specify /a), MsgVu always prompts you to select overwrite or append when the output file exists. /r specifies that non-alphabetic characters are not to be stripped from the TO and FROM fields of the message header when they are displayed on the index display screen or used for generating user statistics. /s:sorttype If you specify both infilename and outfilename, you may use the automatic sort feature. sorttype is a number which specifies the type of sort to be performed. It may be one of the following: 1 - Thread order 2 - Subject order 3 - Subject and number 4 - Section and subject 5 - Section, subject and number 6 - Number 7 - "To" order (the message recipient) 8 - "From" order (the message sender) 9 - Section number order Example: MSGVU IN OUT /s:1 /a reads messages from file IN, sorts them into thread sequence, then writes them to file OUT. 19 /x disables MsgVu's automatic index saving feature. See "Saving the Index" on page 25. /y causes MsgVu to run without sound. 20 5 Operating Reference CHANGE SUBJECT (F5) Sometimes the subject of a message does not accurately reflect its contents. You can change a subject to a more meaningful one with Change Subject. Position the cursor and invoke Change Subject. Supply the new subject. Specify whether you want to change a single message or a group of messages. MsgVu changes the subject in the index right away. When you save the message file, MsgVu changes the subject permanently. DELETE The delete commands allow you to delete messages from a message file. The deleted messages are removed from the message file when it is saved. Deleting Messages The Delete menu allows you to select the Delete One, Delete Group, Delete Section, Delete Marked, Delete Found, and Delete Duplicates commands. Delete One The Delete One command deletes the message where the cursor is located. This command may also be invoked directly via F3. Delete Group The Delete Group command deletes the group of messages beginning where the cursor is located. Delete Section 21 The Delete Section command deletes all messages in the same sec- tion as the message at the cursor location. Delete Marked The Delete Marked command deletes all marked messages. Delete Found The Delete Found command deletes all messages found by the last Find command. Delete Duplicates The Delete Duplicates command deletes all messages with duplicate message numbers. DOWN GROUP The Down Group command moves the cursor down by one group. See also the description of the Up Group command on page 28. EXIT ('x' OR Esc) The Exit command, when used from Exiting MsgVu the index display, terminates MsgVu. FILTER (F6) MsgVu allows you to process a subset of the messages currently indexed, with a feature called Filtering. You specify criteria which are used to select a subset of messages to process. All messages not matching the criteria are filtered out, and do not appear in the index. You can specify filtering criteria using the Filter command or the /f command line parameters (see page 16). When you invoke the Filter command, the filter screen appears. 22 Message Flags You may specify filters to select messages based on their flag settings. For example, you may want to see only the marked mes- sages. Or you might want to exclude the deleted messages. On the Set Filters screen, initially the flag options are set to include all messages ("Y"). To cause a filter to exclude a cer- tain group of messages, change the "Y"to a "N". Filtering Range You may specify filters to select messages based on a range of dates. In the Date Range Start field, enter the starting date in the format YYMMDD. In the End field, enter the ending date in the same format. Sections You may specify filters to select messages in one section or a list of sections. In the Section(s) field, enter a section num- ber, or a list of section numbers separated by commas. To You may specify filters to select only messages containing a certain string of characters in the "Message To" field of the message header. In the To field, enter a string of characters. Messages whose "Message To" fields do not contain the string will be filtered out. If you want to use To or From strings containing numbers, you must specify /r on the command line (see page 19) so that MsgVu will not ignore numbers in the To and From fields of the message headers. From You may specify filters to select only messages containing a certain string of characters in the "Message From" field of the message header. In the From field, enter a string of characters. Messages whose "Message From" fields do not contain the string will be filtered out. FIND (F6) 23 The Find command searches for text within messages. When you invoke the command Find Option you are presented with the find screen. The cursor is positioned initially at the word All in the line, "Search for Messages with All of the Following Strings." Press- ing the space bar toggles this word between the values "All" and "Any." When the word is "All", then messages must contain all of the strings you specify in order to be found. When the word is "Any", then messages containing any of the specified strings will be found. Next enter from one to three strings to search for. Specify whether MsgVu is to ignore the case of letters while searching. When the search is finished, messages in which the search string was found are flagged with an "F." HELP (F1) The help command displays a screen which provides a quick refer- ence to the commands and keystrokes. LOAD FILE (Shift-F10) The Load File command lets you load a file of messages into MsgVu. When you use the Load File command a menu appears from which you can select one of the three ways to load a file: Filename, Table, or Directory. Filename The Filename option lets you type in the name of the file. Table The Table option selects the next file name from the Filename Pairs Table. The Filename Pairs Table is a list of input and output file names which is contained in the MSGVU.INI file. Directory 24 The Directory option lets you select the input file from a direc- tory. You may specify a file mask. Building the Index After you provide the name of the input file of messages, MsgVu builds the primary message index. It does this by reading the messages, and extracting important fields from the headers. These fields include the message number, the subject, the message sender, and usually the message recipient. The Fast Version The fast version of MsgVu keeps all of the index fields in mem- ory. This improves performance, but requires more memory. The Regular Version The regular version keeps the subject, sender, and recipient in a disk file. This disk file is known as the secondary index. Saving the Index After MsgVu builds the primary index, it saves it to a file on disk1. MsgVu saves the index so that should you want to work with the same message file again, MsgVu will not have to build the index again. LOCATE ('l' OR Shift-F6) The Locate menu lets you position the index to the next Marked, Deleted, Found, or Private message. MARK ('m') The Mark commands let you select individual messages or groups of messages for processing by subsequent options. Mark is currently used only with Save. If you have marked any messages, then MsgVu writes only those messages to the output file. The Mark menu allows you to select the Mark One, Mark Group, Mark Section, and Mark Found commands. 1Unless you specified the /x command line parameter. 25 Mark One The Mark One command marks the message where the cursor is lo- cated. This command may also be invoked directly via F4. Mark Group The Mark Group command marks the group of messages beginning where the cursor is located. Mark Section The Mark Section command marks all messages in the same section as the message at the cursor location. Mark Found The Mark Found command marks all messages found by the last Find command. PRINT ('p') You may use Print to print one or more messages on the printer. READ The Read function (F9, 'r', or Enter) is used to read a message. With the cursor on the message you want to read, press one of these keys. The message is displayed. To exit Read mode, press Esc, Enter, or 'x'. This returns you to the index. RESET FLAGS (Alt-F1) The Reset Flags command allows you to reset any or all of the message flags. You can turn off all Marked flags or all Deleted flags, for example. 26 SAVE FILE (F10) After you process messages, you may want to save them. Use the Save command to do this. Enter the name of the output file, including drive identifier and path specification if desired. MsgVu writes out the messages in the order in which they current- ly appear in the index. Deleted, Marked, and Filtered Messages MsgVu follows these rules when saving: Deleted messages are not saved. If you have marked any messages, MsgVu saves only those messages. If you have set filters, then only those messages which appear in the index are saved. SAVE INDEX (Ctrl-F10) The Save Index command allows you to explicitly save the message index at any time. If you are heavily editing the message file (Marking, Deleting, Changing Subjects, etc.) you may want to save the index from time to time to save your changes. SHELL (Ctrl-F1) The Shell command allows you to invoke the DOS or OS/2 command interpreter from within MsgVu. Type EXIT to leave the command interpreter. SORT (F2) The Sort commands sort the messages in a variety of sequences. Thread Order Sort The thread order sort is different from the other sorts in that it does not merely arrange the messages in the order of one or more of the fields in the message header. Rather, every message is moved so that it follows the message to which it is a reply (its "parent"). 27 SPLIT The Split command is used to split a message file into several file, one for each message section. The split files are of the form splitnnn, where nnn is the section number. STATS (Shift-F1) MsgVu has the ability to generate statistics on the number of messages per section from and to each user. Use the Stats com- mand to generate these statistics. The figure below shows a sample statistics file. The message file contains messages from and to John Smith and Pete Jones. The first column of the statistics file contains the heading for each line, enclosed in quotation marks. The second column contains the total number of messages in all sections. Subsequent columns contain the number of messages in each of the individual sections. UNDELETE ('D') The Undelete commands let you undelete messages in several ways. The Undelete One command may be invoked directly via Shift-F3. UNMARK ('M') The Unmark commands let you unmark messages in several ways. The Unmark One command may be invoked directly via ShiftF4. UP GROUP The Up Group command moves the cursor up by one group. See also the description of the Down Group command on page 22. 28 6 OS/2 Version 1. Features The OS/2 version of MsgVu offers the following additional fea- tures: a. Large Memory MsgVu takes advantage of memory beyond the 640 kilobytes that DOS allows. OS/2's virtual storage allows MsgVu to process a large number of messages. On a machine with 2 megabytes of random access memory, MsgVu should be able to index over 35,000 messages at once. b. Multitasking MsgVu uses OS/2 multitasking features in order to perform over- lapped input/output operations which result in faster reading and writing of message files. c. Family Application Programming Interface MsgVu uses a feature of OS/2 known as the Family Application Programming Interface (FAPI). This feature allows OS/2 programs to also run under DOS. The MsgVu OS/2 version also runs under DOS, but can't use Large Memory or Multitasking in that environ- ment. 29 30 7 Association of Shareware Professionals Dave Briccetti is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP), an organization formed in April 1987 to strengthen the future of shareware (user-supported software) as an alternative to commercial software. Its members, all of whom are programmers who subscribe to a code of ethics, are committed to the concept of shareware as a method of marketing. 1. Goals The primary goals of the ASP are: To inform users about shareware programs and about shareware as a method of distributing and marketing software; To encourage broader distribution of shareware through user groups and disk dealers who agree to identify and explain the nature of shareware; To assist members in marketing their software; To provide a forum through which ASP members may communi- cate, share ideas, and learn from each other; and To foster a high degree of professionalism among shareware authors by setting programming, marketing and support standards for ASP members to follow. 2. Standards a. Programming Standards The program meets the ASP's definition of "shareware" (i.e., it is not a commercial demo with major features disabled, nor a time-limited program). The program has been thoroughly tested by the author and should not be harmful to other files or hardware if used properly. b. Documentation Standards Sufficient documentation is provided to allow the average user to try all the major functions of the program. 31 Any discussion of the shareware concept and of registration requirements is done in a professional and positive manner. c. Support Standards The member will respond to people who send registration payments, as promised in the program's documentation. At a minimum, the member will acknowledge receipt of all payments. The member will establish a procedure for users to report, and have acknowledged, matters such as bug reports, and will describe such means in the documentation accompanying all versions of the programs. The author will respond to written bug reports from registered users when the user provides a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Known incompatibilities with other software or hardware and major or unusual program limitations are noted in the documentation that comes with the shareware (evaluation) program. 3. General Members will keep the ASP apprised of changes in mailing address; which shareware programs they have published and are currently supporting; the current version numbers; and any changes in the status of their programs. If a user has a dispute with an ASP member-author, the user may appeal to the ASP to mediate for arbitration of the dispute. For more information about the Association of Shareware Profes- sionals, contact Jim Button, chairman of the board of directors, at CompuServe 71435,2012. 32 INDEX Append 19 LOAD FILE command 24 Association of Shareware Loading a message file 7 Professionals LOCATE command 25 31 MARK command 25 Automatic mode 16, 19 Marking Messages 12 Blank line suppression Memory 29 16 Memory, OS/2 29 Buffer Message flags 23 Input file 18 Message Reading Screen Output file 18 8, 10 Text component 18 Monochrome 5 Bulletin board systems MSGVU.INI 5, 17 17 Multitasking 29 CHANGE SUBJECT command Navigation Functions 9 21 Non-interactive mode 16 Command Line Options 15 OS/2 1, 2, 5, 29 CompuServe 1, 3, 17 Output file 15 DELETE command 21 Overwrite 19 Deleting Messages 11 Paying for MsgVu 2 Directory of files 13 Performance Distribution 3 Buffering to improve DOS 1, 2, 29 18 DOWN GROUP command 22 PRINT command 26 Duplicate messages, de- Printing 15, 26 leting 16 Problem Reporting 3 EGA 2, 15 RBBS 1, 17 Environment 5 READ command 26 EXIT command 22 Registration 2 Exiting MsgVu 10 RESET FLAGS command 26 Fax 3 SAVE FILE command 26 FILTER command 22 SAVE INDEX command 27 Filtering range 23 Saving Messages 11 FIND command 13, 23 Sections 23 From 23 Set command 5 HELP command 24 Shareware 2 Host 17 SHELL command 27 Index SORT command 27 Automatic 20 Sorting 15-17, 19, 27 Building 25 Thread order 27 Display 7 Sorting Messages 12 Saving 25 Sound 20 Screen 8, 9 Split command line param- Secondary 25 eter 19 Window 8 Starting MsgVu 7 Information systems 17 Statistics 28 Initialization file 5, STATS command 28 17 Subject case 17 Input file 15 Thread 19 Installation 5 To 23 License 2 UNDELETE command 28 33 UNMARK command 28 UP GROUP command 28 VGA 2, 15 Warranty, Disclaimer of 2 34