OS/2 Shareware BBS: 2 BBS/02-BBS.zip/PTKTDOC3.ZIP/README.PRT

Text File | 1990-07-24 | 17KB | 497 lines

                               msged 2.00 readme

    The following list the changes to msged from 1.99 to 2.00.  It's a
    fairly significant list.  Most, if not all, of this stuff is mentioned
    in msged.doc, this is mostly here as a quick reference.  It's basically
    in reverse order of appearance.

    find now quits if you enter a zero length search string

    you can no longer scan all areas from the area menu.  you can
    still do it via the '*' command in the reader though.  the
    areas menu is cleaned up and laid out a bit better (at least in
    my opinion). the biggest implication is that autostart macros
    that go to the areas menu and scan for new messages should be
    changed to scan for new messages and THEN go to the areas menu..

    msged attempts to avoid writing a new message over old ones.  i
    don't multitask so i have no idea if this will work or not. the
    biggest problem i can foresee is that it may be susceptible to
    'race' conditions where msged and the tosser fight over the
    highest message....

    msged now remembers the last file name you wrote a message to...

    msged no longer clears the cost field or the times read field.  and now
    increments the times read field when you read a message to you the
    first
    time.

    changed the clear line key in the field editor from <ESC> to <ctrl><X>.
    you can abort a message whilst entering the message header by pressing
    <ESC>.
    additionally you can abort from fields in the settings screen.

    if you don't have a config file msged will go directly to the settings
    screen.
    additionally, you'll have to play with the settings functions to
    determine exactly how it works.

    settings screen is back.  now better than ever before.  you can
    change just about everything (except the video addressing
    segment).  this includes colors, area information, switches,
    attributes, everything that can be changed in the config file.
    and msged will write out a new config file for you as well...

    <alt><r> rotates text when entering a message, same as the < or > key
    when reading messages.  first press is rot13, second is rot10, third
    returns text to normal.  be warned!  the text is echoed rotated, so
    it's
    tough to read what you type...

    msged now compares area paths instead of area tags. this allows you to
    assign
    multiple attributes (like uucp and netmail) to the same area.  the
    first
    description given for an area is the one that is used.

                                       1




                               msged 2.00 readme


    changed the way exporting to a textfile is handled.  if in the editor,
    things work essentially as they did before.  however, msged no longer
    asks
    if you want to rplace or append to the destination file.  you specify
    this
    the same way you specify you want to append to the tosslog... if you
    want
    to append to the file, put a plus sign (+) in front of the file name.
    this
    applies to the <alt><w> command in the reader as well... however, there
    are some additional changes to this command, you can specify how you
    want
    the text export.  if you append the string ",q" to the filename, msged
    formats the exported text the same way it does quoted text in a
    message.
    this lets you quote from a number of messages by quote exporting
    several
    messages into the same file (with append), then importing the file into
    a new message. the other option is ",t" or text.  this tells msged to
    append a newline to the end of each line and puts a text header at the
    top of the message.     this makes the file useful for exporting to
    other
    software. finally, if you specify no options at the end, the message is
    written out to the file with newlines only at the ends of paragraphs
    and
    no text header... this makes it useful for re-importing into a msged
    message.

    underscores (_) in the quote string are now converted to spaces

    hidden lines are not quoted unless you turn them on before quoting
    the message. unfortunately, this also turns on seen-by lines.

    full usenet/internet addressing is now supported in areas tagged as
    uucp
    or news. one caveat... msged looks for an @ sign to determine that what
    is being entered on the to line is an address instead of a name. if you
    are entering a bang path with no @, prefix it with a @, msged will
    strip
    the leading @ before writing the address to disk.

    since to, from and date are shown properly in the message header above
    the
    text, msged doesn't display them a second time in the actual message
    text

    quoting and replying to usenet/internet messages uses the correct
    addresses.

    usenet/internet address display is now done correctly. additionally,
    the true
    date a usenet/internet message was entered is now parsed from usenet
    header.

                                       2




                               msged 2.00 readme


    message numbers are done slightly differently for consistency between
    quick and msg message bases. the number displayed on the top corner is
    which message out of how many, the real message number, i.e. the
    filename
    of a .msg file is displayed in parens after the area description

    removed all the secondary ways of  doing things in the config file.
    if
    the sample config warned that a keyword was obsolete, it's probably
    gone
    in this version.

    removed support for the binkley colors statement (needed the space)

    the boss keyword is no longer supported in the config file.  use a
    fully
    qualified address and the privatenet keyword.

    one more command has been added to the reader, scan.  scan is initially
    bound to the * key (either will do).  this command scans all areas for
    new
    messages.  used in conjunction with next and prev area, you can check
    for mail
    without ever hitting the areas menu.

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

    config files are broken again.  i've changed the way areas are declared
    in the msged.cfg file.  the syntax is shown below:

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

    each line indicates an alternative value for a field.
    ATTRIB is zero or more of p,c,k,d and h indicating the default
    attributes
    for the message area, p being privileged, c crash, k kill/sent, d
    direct
    and h hold. the description must be enclosed in double quotes, unlike
    previous versions, single quotes no longer work here. path applies only
    to fido style message bases, if the area is a quick message base, this
    field is interpreted as a board number. areatag only applies to
    echomail
    areas.

                                       3




                               msged 2.00 readme


    not only am i breaking config files, i'm breaking batch files too...
    msged
    now returns MUCH more information in the errorlevel.  the following are
    additive...

        type of message entered            errorlevel
             netmail                         1
             echomail                        2
             uucp mail                       4
             uucp news                       8
             local messages                 16

    so, if you enter a netmail message, a uucp news message AND an echomail
    message, msged will exit with errorlevel 11.  as you can see, this
    gives
    you great flexibility in what you run when exiting, but it is going to
    require a significant batch file change.  i'm including my readmail.bat
    in the distribution..

    writing a message to disk now puts the area description in as well

    msged now lets you design the usenet style attribution line. it is done
    with the new command "attribution" in the config file.  essentially,
    you
    put the attribution keyword followed by the string you want used into
    your
    config file.  the default is:

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

    the percent (%) signs indicate a special format character follows.  the
    format characters have the following meanings:

        %t      name of person original message was two
        %f      name of person original was from
        %a      address of sender of original message
        %w      day of week original was sent (3 letters)
        %d      day of month original was sent (1-31)
        %m      month original was sent (3 letters)
        %y      year original was sent (00-99)
        %h      time original was sent (hh:mm)
        %%      a percent sign

    if you want a blank line separating the attribution line from the text,
    make sure you add the \n at the end...

    if you seem to be having trouble with your userlists, make sure that
    you
    don't have tabs in them, that will confuse things..  a common way of
    screwing
    up a userlist is to use an editor that converts multiple spaces to tabs

    added the area a message was forwarded from into the origination line

                                       4




                               msged 2.00 readme

    on
    a forwarded message.  this doesn't mean that you can automatically
    forward
    across areas (although you could easily write a macro to so) but it
    makes
    it easier to forward a message then move it somewhere else.

    delete word right is bound to <ctrl><t>, if you're on a word, deletes
    the
    word and trailing whitespace to the next word.  if you aren't on a
    word,
    deletes whitespace to the next word.  a word is anything surrounded by
    whitespace

    an intl line is put in the message whenever the destination zone is not
    the
    same as that in your primary address (the first one listed in your
    config
    files).  if this is a problem i'll make it optional

    put in the infrastructure for fidozone support, will complete
    it as soon as i find out the proper formats

    opusdate format is now included. to turn it off use NO OPUSDATE, it
    will
    be mutually exclusive with FIDOZONE

    msgid's are now placed in echomail as well as netmail

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

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

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

    backspace and delete now automagically reformat as you use them.

    a feature that deserves a bit more documentation is the paste buffer.
    when you use <alt><a>...<alt><c> to cut out a block of text, that block
    remains in the paste buffer until you cut another block out.  this
    includes
    across editing different messages.  this is useful when quoting from
    multiple messages, quote the first message and cut out the text you
    want,
    then abort the edit with <esc>.  next quote the second message, you can
    now paste the quote from the first message into the quote of the second
    message using <alt><p>

    BROKEN CONFIG FILE ALERT!!!   some of the configuration options have
    been

                                       5




                               msged 2.00 readme

    changed.  the following keywords have been eliminated:

        softcr, seen-bys, tearline, shownotes, confirm

    they have been replaced with a new keyword called "No".  all of the
    above
    options now default to ON.  to turn them off, use "No " followed by one
    of:

        softcr, seen-bys, tearline, shownotes, confirm, msgids, eids, strip

    msgids will turn off the automatic generation of a msgid and eids will
    turn off automatic generation of eids.  strip will prevent msged from
    stripping pre-existing <ctrl><a> kludge lines from the message when it
    is written to disk.

    added support for secondary lastread pointers using the "lastread"
    config
    keyword, syntax is:

        lastread <filename>

    where <filename> can be any filename.  it'll be the same in every
    message
    area though...

    video fossil support has been added to all versions of the program. one
    problem
    is that it means msged no longer compiles with production ZTC.  #ifdefs
    will
    be added before release to compensate

    the "username" config keyword has been removed. use "name" or "sysop"
    instead

    this has been in a while, but i forgot to document it.  if you list
    multiple addresses in multiple zones in your config file, when entering
    a message, msged will look for the first address with a zone matching
    the
    destination of the message and will use that as the originating
    address.

    added the "dos" command and bound it to ! when in the reader (sorry,
    not
    available from the editor).  basically, this command executes a single
    dos
    command and returns to msged. it requires a keypress to return.  this
    could
    be used to implement an external editor interface when combined with a
    macro.

    to have msged append to confmail.out instead of rewriting it, prepend
    a '+' to the filename in your configuration.


                                       6




                               msged 2.00 readme

    added a nifty little feature to the areas menu... you'll notice that
    the
    vertical separator bar has been removed.  but that's not the nifty
    part,
    when you scan areas using <alt><s>, msged will now display your current
    position in the area and how many messages are in the area.

    color settings are changed slightly.  compatible for the most part,
    except that
    gray and brown are no longer recognized (use white and yellow). only
    three
    characters of the color are needed, i.e. magenta is mag, blue is blu
    and
    black is bla.  if you append a + sign to the foreground color, you get
    high
    intensity, appended to the background gives blinking.

    the kludgeline config keyword is no longer necessary.  all kludgelines
    are
    shown when you use the <alt><v> (view) command.

    to use quickbbs areas you need to add two new lines to your config
    file, the
    first is:

        quickbbs PATH

    where PATH is the directory containing the quickbbs msg*.bbs files.
    the
    other line associates board numbers with a descriptive area name. (this
    will
    be extended in the future).  currently it is in the format:

        quick DESCRIPTION BOARD

    where DESCRIPTION is the area description (in double quotes) and BOARD
    is the
    integer board number (>0).  the quickbbs message base takes
    significantly
    less disk space and is also faster.  there are currently some things
    missing
    from the quickbbs support, namely, it can't be used for netmail, no
    reply
    threading and a few other miscellany.

    msged now saves and restores the current directory when shelling to dos

    home and end go to the first and last areas in the areas menu

    new quote string macro!  the & (ampersand) expands to all initials,
    i.e.
    for the name "Randy Van de Loo", the string ">&:" would expand to
    ">RVdL:"


                                       7




                               msged 2.00 readme

    NO linefeeds are put into messages, lines are terminated only by
    a carriage return

    soft carriage returns automatically added to usenet messages

    search now starts from the CURRENT message

    msged now uses the comspec to find the proper comspec

    message flags supported on a per area basis, use PDKCH before the area
    description, the old settings still apply to the first area.

    direct flag disables all gating for a message, sets xx2 attribute

    quoteright sets the right margin for quoted text.

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






































                                       8