OS/2 Shareware BBS: 3 Comm/03-Comm.zip/mrp_099p.zip/READ.ME

Text File | 1995-01-03 | 110KB | 2,272 lines

MR/2 PM - A QWK Compatible Mail Reader for OS/2 PM.  01/02/94

Copyright (c) 1992, Knight Writer Software Company.
All rights reserved.

===================================================================
                          N O T I C E
===================================================================
This IS a shareware package, and does require a registration fee if
you choose to continue using it after 30 days.   The registration
fee is currently $25 US.  Register MR/2 PM also registers you for
MR/2 character mode, and visa versa.

Existing MR/2 registered users are automatically registered users
of MR/2 PM.  The same MR2.ID file can be used by both versions.
------------------------------------------------------------------

CONTACTING THE AUTHOR - see the end of this file.

MR2.INI - your MR/2 PM parameter file
-------------------------------------

This is where you tell MR/2 PM all it needs to know about your system
and the way you'd like it to work.  If you don't have an MR2.INI file
from MR/2 classic (character mode), or you've never modified one for
MR/2 PM before,  MR/2 will attempt to place you into the E editor
with a starter INI loaded.  Make any necessary changes and save the file.

NOTE:  Problems ... you'll have to edit MR2.INI, then exit out of MR/2 PM
and reenter for any changes to take effect.  My "reload INI" code needs
some looking at.

** If it can't or doesn't load the editor to create the initial MR2.INI
file, it's best that you do this by hand, from the command line:

    copy mr2ini.org mr2.ini
    e mr2.ini

***************************************************************************
NOTE:  You may use an existing MR2.INI file, if you have one.  The only
change that's really required is that your editor and zipper/unzipper
file names be fully qualified.  Use a complete path and add the appropriate
file extension (e,g, "d:\os2util\pkunzip.exe").  These changes *will* work
with MR/2 classic, also.
****************************************************************************


KNOWN BUGS AND STUFF
====================

THIS IS BETA, PRE-RELEASE SOFTWARE.  THE BUG LIST IS QUITE EXTENSIVE
AND ALL KNOWN PROBLEMS ARE BEING ADDRESSED.  USE THIS PRODUCT AT YOUR
OWN RISK - THE AUTHOR ASSUMES NO LIABILITY FOR LOST OR DAMAGED DATA.

I've got a big hit-list, and I'm anxious to start hitting.  I'd like to
get as much feedback as possible while I'm in this process, though.

Feel free to report bugs or offer suggestions.  MR/2 PM is based on my
seemingly solid QWK routines from MR/2 "classic", but the user
interface is all new.


Changes included in v0.99p
--------------------------

o   Bug: Click on NOQWK, then select a BBS configuration.  Clicking on
    OK crashed, double clicking on the BBS file worked ok.  Both work now.

o   Reworked, again, all the dialog box sizing and coordinate saving-to-INI
    code.  You wouldn't believe the amount of old code that I yanked.
    What I have now is a much simpler setup:  No "presizing" of dialog
    resources, saving of window size ONLY when size is changes AFTER
    it is visible ... etc.,.  This seems to have solved the growing and
    shrinking window problems (which I finally saw happen for myself with
    my NEW video card :).  Address book lookup dialog background fixed.
    Index dialog box headings given more space.

    From the ongoing development of the QWK core (and extremelly
    experimental code):

o   Searching once again enhanced!  Marc Bourassa came up with a great
    idea that I had overlooked ... being able to actually include
    conference selection criteria in a search string.  This allows for a
    VC that "includes all message from conferences that contain OS2 in
    their name, and add all mention of OS/2 in conferences that don't."
    Basically, conference specifications can be used just like any other
    keyword in a criteria string and can be AND'd or OR'd as desired.
    For example (these need better examples ... next release :):

    String = {C}"*OS2*"

    String = {C}"*OS2*" | (!{C}"*OS2*" && OS/2)

    String = !{C}"*OS2*" && OS/2

    String = !{C}"*OS2*" && !{C}"OS-*" && OS/2

    String = {C}"17,254,890-898"


Changes included in v0.99o
--------------------------

o   Fixed a twice-reported crash when a packet is first opened.
    Actually, it could have occurred anytime VC creation was in
    progress.  Had to do with CHECK=BODY and MR/2 somehow calculating
    the origin to be PAST the end of message.  I didn't find exactly WHY
    this was happening, but I saw it happen and fixed it.  I always hate
    when I can't find the root of the problem, tho :)

o   A report of the message index dialog going spastic caused me to take
    a hard look at it.  While mine didn't flash as horribly as reported,
    I did see way too much activity.  I calmed the resizing logic
    down somewhat and I think it looks much nicer.

o   Finally found the right color combo for listbox background ...
    something else that Warp somehow changed.  Fixed a couple, will
    look harder for other off-colored boxes.


Changes included in v0.99n
--------------------------
Quick fix AND I added an interesting new feature to the core.  Turns
out the search engine changes added here took a total of 45 minutes
to code (into both readers) and give it a decent testing!  Pretty
neat stuff, tho!

o   BUG: found that with the new display logic, when a VC keyword
    actually STARTED a line of the message, that line would disappear.
    It would never be written to the screen.  Fixed.

o   Internal:  Repackaged the INI data and file loading routines into a
    C++ class.  Previously these were just a growing collection of
    public/global variables and some odd-ball routines.  I need the
    ability to save a single packet's working "environment" as a unit
    for MR/2 PM (to allow multiple working environments :), so this is
    the ticket.  No functionality added, but due to the large amounts of
    code and macro-ugliness I created, bug-potential is above average.

o   Further enhancements to the text-string search function.  Support
    for selecting message-specific areas to check within a search
    specification.  For example, you can now ask for all message that
    have "OS/2" in the SUBJECT field, but not in the message itself.
    You may tag any word, or set of words within matched parenthesis,
    with a set of areas to test.  The default is to test all parts of
    the message.  For example:

    {S}OS/2                 Matches "OS/2", only checking SUBJECT

    {F}"Jim Gilliland"      Finds ONLY message FROM Jim Gilliland

    {M}"Tim McClanahan" & !{FT}"Tim McClanahan"

                            Finds references to Tim McClanahan
                            inside any message text, but excludes
                            messages FROM or TO him.

    {S}(MR/2 | MR2 | MR-2)  Matches any of these three strings when
                            they exist in the SUBJECT field.

    {Conclusion}            Probably won't find what you want :)

    "{Conclusion}"          Probably is what you want.  Finds any
                            occurence of the word "Conclusion" that
                            is enclosed between curly-brackets.

    Valid areas are From, To, Subject, Message, Body and Origin,
    represented by the letters F, T, S, M, B and O, respectively.  The
    Message section consists of the Body AND the Origin, which are
    separated by the tearline (if MR/2 can find it :).  When in doubt,
    MR/2 calls all of the message "Body".

    I think I'm done with the searching enhancements.  The only thing I
    can think to add is selection of conferences to search for the
    ALL-CONFERENCES real-time searching.  I rarely use this anymore, and
    I think that this process belongs elsewhere.  Maybe later, but I'm
    putting this on the super-duper low priority list.  I joked about
    supporting proximity searches in the Fidonet OS/2 echo.  Really, I
    *was* just joking! :)


Changes included in v0.99m
--------------------------
This is mostly a bug fix for Warp-related problems.  Since it's been a
while since my last update, many key features are automatically added
just by linking with MR/2 classic's QWK engine.  Testing was minimal,
save your old EXE if you are concerned.

I know that the listbox colors are off.  I know that the some screens
flash twice, quickly.  Hey, the buttons are there.  Actually, I think
I improved the performance even more than planned by streamlining
several areas!

I am working on a massive rewrite of this, using Borland C++ and ObjectPM,
an OS/2-specific toolkit.  I paused development of the "new" MR/2 PM to
fix up the existing version a bit.  At least it's usable under Warp now.
Let me know if you find otherwise :)  See "Update.ltr" for info ...

o   Update the distribution packet a tad.  MR2read.me (MR/2 Classic's
    read.me file) has been made current.  MR2INI.ORG has been copied
    from MR/2 classic, meaning it's complete and well organized as of
    the v2.0 QWK engine release.

o   Modified much of the message display subsystem to support the new
    Boolean search logic inherited from MR/2 classic.  See MR/2 CLASSIC
    readme insert that follows this section.

o   Also added support for saving Virtual Conferences and MR/2-created
    NDX files.  See MR/2 classic section below.

o   Fixed the obvious problems that became apparent with Warp.  Turns
    out I was actually sometimes positioning things WAY out of bounds,
    and older version of OS/2 must have zeroed these invalid values,
    whereas Warp takes this more seriously.  I don't know.  I found the
    positioning problem on my end, and it seems to have remedied the
    whole thing.  I also cleaned up this code a tad and made it more
    logical and streamline.

o   Again, relinked with the MR/2 QWK core and support modules, so bug
    fixes and speed improvements *should* abound :)

o   Added support for the "*" key in the message viewer.  Starts the
    editor with a *copy* of the message (unquoted) inserted.  This is to
    allow cut/paste of specific message sections.

Some inportant notes from MR/2 classic that pertain here:
---------------------------------------------------------------------

o   When building of virtual conferences is complete, MR/2 now invoked
    the command file "SaveVCs.CMD", if it exists in the MR/2 home
    directory. The current version of this cmd file pkzip's ALL modified
    NDX files back into the original packet.  This happens as a
    BACKGROUND process, invoked using the "start /b /c" command.  This
    has two benefits:

    Virtual conference NDX files are saved with the packet, so that VC's
    are built only once per the life of the packet.  Any subsequent
    opening of this packet will already have the VC structure intact and
    available for instant reading.

    Packets without NDX file altogether will now have ALL MR/2-created
    NDX files saved for subsequent opens.  For example, the QWK packets
    produced by MR/2's MQWK packet merging utility do not include NDX
    files.  Each time you would open a packet created with this utility,
    MR/2 would build the NDX files from scratch.  This is now required
    ONLY the very first time the packet is opened.

    NOTES:  If the command file processing fails, the only harm should be
    that the NDX files are missing from the QWK packet.  That's no
    different than what happened previously; MR/2 will just try again the
    next time the packet is opened.

    If this new system is undesirable for any reason, simply remove (delete)
    "SaveVCs.cmd" from the MR/2 directory.

o   I *think* I have a personal internet FTP site set up on my machine! :)
    See "Contacting the author", above.

o   Previously, the bbsname.cfg file for a specific BBS was overwritten
    with a packets control.dat file, regardless of the age of the
    packet being opened.  If the packet was a year old, that BBS would
    then have a year old CFG file saved for it.  MR/2 now copies only if
    the "new" file has a newer date than the existing file.

o   Modified the Virtual Confenence builder's "Conferences" command to
    accept both ranges and text wild card strings.  For example,
    the following Conferences commands will now work:

        (NULL) or *             All conferences
        1,2,3,4                 1 2 3 or 4
        1-4                     1 through 4
        1-4,100,200,1000-       1->4, 100, 200 or 1000 and greater
        -1000                   through 1000
        alt*,comp*              all named starting with alt or comp
        !200,alt*,comp*         all named starting with alt or comp
                                EXCEPT 200

        !200-300,!17,alt*,comp* starting with alt or comp EXCEPT 200-300
                                and 17 EXCEPTIONS SHOULD COME FIRST as
                                first "match" terminates the check

        *.*                     any confernce with a dot in its name
        17,254,alt.*,comp.*     all alt/comps and conferences 17 and 254
        *-R, *-F                All conferences ending in -R or -F.  For
                                PC-Ohio, this would be all RIME or FIDONET
                                conferences, respectively.

    "Negatives" are available to exclude certain conferences by number or
    name.  As the above states, negatives or excluded conferences should
    be listed first, as the first criteria the conference fits in causes
    the routine to cease checking.  For example:

        !100-150,1-1000

    will include conferences 1 through 99 and 151 through 1000.  Any
    conference from 100 through 150 will fit the first catagory, which is
    negated/excluded, so messages in these conferences will NOT be included.
    However:

        1-1000,!100-150

    This will include all conferences 1 through 1000.  Since any message
    in the range 100-150 will first qualify as a match for the first range,
    the second range will never cause a message to be excluded.  The first
    example is the correct way to exclude conferences.

    NOTE:  The support of ranges and wildcards has caused a slowdown in the
    creation of VC's.  While "minimal", I plan to add some code to support
    original-style Conferences commands using the old method.  The most
    efficient commands will consist of singular numbers.  Next in up in
    efficiency would be numeric ranges.  NOTE that, where large ranges are
    concerned (more than 50 conferences?), this is more efficient than
    individual listings.  Finally, wildcard and/or text-strings matches
    are CPU-intensive, and will cause slower VC building.  Still, the
    flexibility offered by wildcards and numeric ranges far outweigh
    the "small" cost in performance.  The decision is left to you.


o   Boolean match logic is now available for both virtual conferences
    and real-time (F, ALT-F) searching.  The "old" method of or'ing
    strings together is still supported, although I'm having some
    problems with this.  Perhaps an INI variable later ...

    Keywords can be OR'd together, AND'd together and/or NOT'd.  In
    addition, parenthesis can be used to control the evaluations of
    the test.  There is also an operator that will match a word,
    remaining sensitive to case.  I've also added support for quoted
    strings so that spaces and the special boolean operator symbols
    can still be searched for.  Some simple examples:

        (OS/2 | OS2) & !WARP    (OS/2 or OS2) and not warp
        Windows & OS/2          Windows and OS/2
        Windows | OS/2          Windows or OS/2
        ^warp                   warp, but ONLY if all lower case letters

    The "operator" symbols follow the conventions used by C and C++ for
    boolean operations:

        &   is the AND operator
        |   is the OR operator
        !   is the NOT operator
        ()  cause the expression inside to be
            evaluated as a single expression.

    and one other that I added:

        ^   causes a case-sensitive match to be performed.
            The word that follows must be found with
            matching capitalization to be concidered a
            "match".

    The following will find all messages that contain one of two
    different words referencing OS/2 that also mentions "bugs".
    if the message doesn't match under this criteria, then it is
    tested for the words "Windows" and "slow" in the same messages:

        ((OS/2 | OS2) & bugs) | (Windows & slow)

    The following is somewhat similar.  It will also find all messages
    that contain one of two different words referencing OS/2 that also
    mentions "bugs".  If the message is found to match, then it is
    tested for the words "Windows" and "slow" in the same messages.
    If these words are both found, however, the message is eliminated
    (compliments of the "!" NOT operator):

        ((OS/2 | OS2) & bugs) & !(Windows & slow)

    When MR/2 displays a message that has bee "found", all words
    contained in the match string will be highlighted.

    A few more examples:

        ObjectPM | "Object PM"      spaces are ignored unless witin quotes

        "R&D"                       operator characters must be in quotes
                                    if part of a search string.

        R&D                         finds the single letters R and D,
                                    anywhere in the message.  This *isn't*
                                    what you want!

        "(ch | 0xFF)"               more special characters within quotes.
                                    The operator characters will be treated
                                    as any other characters.

        """Windows"""               Looks funny?  It will find the Windows
                                    in message but only if between quote
                                    marks.  Two quotes together are treated
                                    as a single " mark, but they must still
                                    be part of an entire quoted string.
                                    Tricky?  Maybe.  Just know that ...

        ""Windows""                 WILL NOTE WORK, and that ...

        "can you say ""neighbor""?" will find the prase 'can you say
                                    "neighbor"?'  The word neighbor mus be
                                    within quotes to be concidered a match.

        "&Windoze"                  Soundex search for anything sounding
                                    similar to "Windows".

        ^warp | phasers             Looks for the word "warp" in all lower
                                    case ONLY, or the word "phasers"

        ^NT | ^Nick                 Looks for the capital letters "NT" or
                                    the string "Nick" where only the N is
                                    capitalized.

    MAXIMUM seach criteria length for VC's is 256 bytes (after the "="
    marker).  All must be on a single line.  Nesting is supported
    further than anyone will need it (limitted only by stack space).
    Other ideas are in head ... let me know if you come up with any
    handy and/or clever ideas :)

o   The old stuff.  I've got all of my old w1\w2\w3 strings working
    as-is, but there were problems with embedded spaces that used to
    be seen as significant parts of the string.  They aren't any more.
    To get search strings that include spaces to work, simply wrap the
    ENTIRE string inside quotes.  For example:

        String = "TekRam\DC-6\DC6\Promise\Caching IDE"

    These will probably be "unsupported" quickly, as they're part of the
    reason that performance is down (checking for or's in two places now).

o   Add in a new INI parameter for myself - FolderOrder.  This has the
    same parameters as MessageOrder, but allows a different sort to be
    applied to the ReplyLog and Inbasket.  I found myself constantly
    converting these folders to date/time sort, so I decided to add
    an option to default the sort for just these folders.

    NOTE:  By default, FolderOrder = -1, which means that the
    MessageOrder is used.  Sort orders will work the same for everyone
    unless they specify this option specifically.

There is undoubtably more ... if you're *really* interested, read through
MR2READ.ME, included here, which is the read me from MR/2 classic's
QWK engine used in this release.


Changes included in v0.99l
--------------------------

o   ALIAS parameter keyword added to INI file processing.
    New INI variable "ALIAS" allows you to set a user name for yourself
    other than the one found in the BBS Control.dat file.  This alias
    name will be placed in the FROM field of all your replies.  Best used
    in a "local", BBS-specific INI file when accessing multiple BBS's.
    For Example:  Alias=Billy-Bob will override the settings in Control.dat
    (say for this example the BBS name was "William B Gooden").  Replies
    would come from Billy-Bob.

o   Turns out that the @variable logic was not as recursive as I had
    advertised.  For example, inserting a "phrase file" line that
    contained yet another variable to replace did not work.  It does now :)

o   Fixed a crash when modifying replies (changing, killing ...).  If the
    subject happenned to end in column 25 with a number BUT not be a
    "split reply", MR/2 would crash looking for the "/" in "x/n".  For
    example "OS/2 <...> 2.11" would cause this crash to occur.

o   Same compiler switch setting changes and "tweaks" as found in MR/2
    classic v2.04.  Should be a little snappier.

o   Rime-routed messages that were long enough to be split missed the
    auto-routing line placement logic on secondary parts.  I was looking
    for too exact a match on "RIME".  Also, I keyed on "Postlink" within
    the original message to tell if it was routed.  Editing the header on
    pass two, the original message was no longer available.
    Anyway, fixed :)

o   Added support for ME/2, a PM-based editor I've been playing with.
    ME/2 is an MDI-based editor with toolbar, statusbar, multiple
    file windows, speller, thesaurus, simple printing ... tons of
    features.  I'm putting it out at the same time as this (ME2_099.zip).
    If you use ME/2 as your editor, it is preloaded by MR/2 on startup.
    MR/2 can control it using IPC tricks, so response is better than
    you'd get with any normal PM editor.  Session switching back and
    forth is handled automatically.  See the me2.doc file included with
    the ME/2 distribution zip.

o   INI parameter added - "SourceFile".  If specified, a source message
    that is being replied to will be quoted to this file, and the actual
    reply file will contain no quoted text, just an empty template
    read-to-complete.  This is used by ME/2 as an option, and may be
    useful for other setups.


Changes included in v0.99k
--------------------------

o   Deleting a REP packet failed to actually delete the file.  Fixed.
    Rename still doesn't work.

o   Address book logic added.

o   The ability to UNKILL a message now functions (press U).

o   The A key will steal an address from any message and allow you to add
    it into the address book.  ALT-A is the correct key (as per MR/2
    classic), but I forgot, so we'll use A until next release.  When that
    no longer works, try ALT-A :)  Stealing will post a maintenance form
    and allow you to assign a tag and tweak any data derived from the
    message.

o   Address book now appears to be fully functional ... and pretty darn
    solid to boot!  There is a "Lookup" button next to the TO field
    on the Message Header Edit dailog box.  Press this to access the
    address book (your MR/2 classic address book will work, of an example
    will be provided here ... rename it to mr2.adr).

    From the address pick-list, full maintenance can be performed.
    Address informat includes enough to route private mail via Internet,
    Netmail or Rime, as well as posting to any public conference.

    The A key will steal an address from any message and allow you to add
    it into the address book.  ALT-A is the correct key (as per MR/2
    classic), but I forgot, so we'll use A until next release.  When that
    no longer works, try ALT-A :)  Stealing will post a maintenance form
    and allow you to assign a tag and tweak any data derived from the
    message.

    I'll try to scarf in som eof MR/2 classic's doc's on this:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
o   Added a "Local/Global" flag to the address book maintenance screen.
    It's changeable ONLY when adding the entry ... I make no attempts to
    remove the address from one book and add it into another.  maybe later.
    "L" for Local puts it in your bbsname.ADR while "G" for Global puts
    it in the main, global address book, MR2.ADR.

o   Address book maintenance.  Add new or modify existing records from
    the address book selection screen.  ALT-A to add, highlight an entry
    and press ALT-C to change.  ALT-D to delete (confirms w/a prompt).
    Text file is rewritten each time, previous version is copied to
    bbsname.old or mr2.old, depending on which book is being modified.

o   NOTE:  Address book tags are resolved in a first-found order.  The
    local address book, if one exists, is checked first.  If not found
    there, the global MR2.ADR is checked.  If duplicates exist, only
    the first one found (searching the file(s) sequentially) is the one
    that's used.  Pick list selections go through the same process ... so
    picking the "other" one doesn't matter.

o   Address Book.  I've added the ability to record email addresses and
    other pertainent information in a simple text file.  See
    example.adr for a starter kit/example file.  My email addresses
    are pre-recorded here in various forms :)

    To access an address-book entry, you use the first field of the
    record as the identifier or "tag".  When filling out the message
    header information, enter a "!" followed by an existing address
    book tag, tab or enter out of this field and the address book data
    will be accessed and automatically applied.  For example, to send
    an internet message to me (assuming you have a private internet
    mail conference defined), simply type "!NK-I" as the TO user and
    press ENTER.  Oh, you must first copy the file example.adr to
    mr2.adr.  MR/2 looks for a BBSname.adr (e.g., "NERDNOOK.adr")
    first, then "MR2.Adr" second, both in the MR/2 base directory.

    The format is:

    Tag | Description | TO name | Conference | Private? | Section | Address

    where:

    Tag is a short identifier you'll use to reference the address,

    Description is a free-form field to help you remember who/what this
    address is for.

    To name is the name to plug into the TO; header field.

    Conference is the conference in which to place the message.  NOTE that
    this is usually a specific number, but "I" is allowed and will be
    replaced with the conference number set as your "Internet" conference.
    Also, "N" is allowed and represents the defined Netmail conference.

    Private is either "Y" or "N", representing the privacy flag.

    Section identifies the template section to use.  Sometime this may
    obviously be unnecessary, but it does allow for user-defined "special"
    sections to be created and used for specific address book entries.
    "Internet", "Netmail" and "Rime" will probably be used most frequently.
    NOTE that "New" is automatically prepended by MR/2 when entering "new"
    messages.

    Address is the first-line address code.  If the template section uses
    the @Internet@, @Fidonet@ or either of the @Rime*@ variables, the
    contents of these variables will be set to this string.

    NOTES:  There is no error checking or identification by BBS name, other
    than allowing for BBS-specific address books.  MR2.Adr, if it exists,
    is always references, but after any bbs-specific file has been checked.

    Use of the "N" and "I" conference identifiers helps make some addresses
    less BBS-specific.  For example, I can send Fidonet netmail from any of
    three separate BBS's.  My MR2.adr can contain netmail addresses for
    use on all BBS's, as long as my template file(s) have been set up
    correctly and private mail conferences have been identifies in the
    BBS-specific INI's.  This can get complex - but it also can be quite
    powerful and handy.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------



Changes included in v0.99j
--------------------------

o   Finally was able to get back into MR/2 PM enhancements.  Modified
    the packet selection screen to mirror MR/2 classic's new look.
    New screen opens now by default.  Click on the "mode" button (">")
    in the lower right corner to toggle between the old and new screens.
    MR/2 remembers your last "mode" and uses that.

o   New screen shows Total messages, count and percent read, total
    personal and replies originating from this packet.  Also lists
    reply packets for opening as stand-alone packets.  Even the old
    screen mode will list and process .REP packets individually.

o   Support code for recording above data in EA's.

o   More work on the new opening dialog box ... compacted top area,
    extended packet list box to hold more entires.  REP packets now
    open properly.  Current path displays with KB's free space.



Changes included in v0.99i
--------------------------
This is being released sooner than I would have liked.  The reason
being a combination of my slowness and the uncovering of a few
serious bugs in the v0.99h/hs releases.  Please, please, please
keep your existing EXE around, and DO NOT DISTRIBUTE this release.
I'll have something much better very soon.  Really.

This has tons of "half way" code.  It automatically is linked with
my latest QWK core and all of the fixes/enhancements related to that
are included.  Still, some of the "classic" versions 2.0 features
need support code in the base program to be fully functional.  Most
of this is not yet in place.

I did use this EXE for several sessions and it did seem to work just
fine.  I did not attempt to excersise all features, tho.

If there can be such a thing <g>, I'm calling this a pre-release beta
copy.

o   Relinked with all of MR/2 classic's core features (v1.96x).

o   AutoUnpackReplies INI parameter is functional.

o   Reply logging is working less "full" source capability.

o   Bug:  Selecting a conference from the Reply Header screen failed
    to work.  If you picked a conference from the master conference
    list, it would be ignored.  My logic to remove the limit on the
    max number of entries worked OK, but the selection logic failed to
    take into account the new conference name storage technique.  Fixed.

o   I resize the message viewer buttons back to their "original" size
    for now.  The smaller buttons don't do much good unless I add more
    buttons/functions.  I've got some ideas along those lines ...


Changes included in v0.99hs (Special/patch)
-------------------------------------------

o   If a QWK packet contained no .NDX files, MR/2 PM would fail to build
    them.  This has been corrected.  The check for NDX files was changed
    to the new log-overhead WCFiles_Exist() call.


Changes included in v0.99h
--------------------------

o   Ooops!  You can now access the inbasket when entering messages without
    specifying an existing packet BUT ...  when you reply, MR/2 PM would
    think you were *still* entering new messages.  Fixed.

o   Modified the message viewer so that the results of searching are
    now hilighted, as MR/2 classic does.  This was quite a learning
    experience (as far as PM coding goes :).  By default, if no hilite
    color has been specified, text is marked in "reverse video" relative
    to normal text on the same line.  If a hilite color is specified, that
    color is used.

o   I've added a forth possible PMCOLOR INI argument.  A forth number
    may now be specified to identify the search-text hilight color.  I
    like 2 (RED) myself.  See the INI file notes for other possibilities.
    Mine reads "PMColors=6,-2,-1,2" which gives me a black background,
    white normal text, yellow quoted text and red hilighted text.


Changes included in v0.99g
--------------------------

o   Found some text-mode user interface code that was being linked in
    and never used.  MR/2 classic's EVENT class was being linked in,
    as well as some VIO wrapper calls.  I discovered this while trying
    to see why two MR/2 sessions could not coexist.  Turns out the
    EVENT class closes a public semaphore that it can't if another MR/2
    is open.  MR/2 PM doesn't need or use this class.  Dummy modules
    have now been created to resolve any externals.  Code is smaller and
    alot of unnecessary semaphore calls have been removed.

o   Internal Editor:  F10 now is denoted on the File menu as being an
    accelerator key for SAVE/EXIT.  I also added Ctrl+S to force a SAVE.
    CTRL+F and CTRL+R only worked if capital F/R were pressed.  This has
    been corrected.

o   Found an example of a "huge" listbox.  Pretty simple.  I converted the
    Master conference list from the header editing dialog box to use
    this technique.  This listbox can now (theoretically) hold 32700+
    conference names.  Much better that the 1500 or so that max'd the
    thing out previously.

o   ExitAtEndOfParameters INI parameter is now functional.  It now
    works, where as before, any time a specific packet was passed on the
    command line (or opened via association) MR/2 PM would exit
    afterwards.  Now the option to bring up the packet selection menu
    exists by setting this value to NO.  MR/2 PM will still only process
    the first packet-name parameter passed to it.  All subsequent packet
    names are ignored.

o   Noticed a rather large problem.  While message reading dialog was made
    resizable, the "paging" logic used a static line count of 17 lines per
    screen.  The number of displayed lines now varies.  Since the scroll
    bar manipulation (with the mouse) seemed to know what it was doing,
    I converted all of my paging and seek-to-line functions to send
    messages to the scrollbar.  Works great now!

o   In fixing the above, I used PMSPY to view the message traffic.
    I noticed several unnecessary calls being made, and sure enough,
    they originated from my code!  Seems I was asking for two listbox
    counts for ANY message sent to the message dialog box, whether
    these values were needed or not.  This doesn't happen any more; now
    I query for these values only when they're needed.  While it's hard
    for me to see a difference, this has to have sped up the message
    viewer code.  Much less message traffic, anyway.

o   Entering messages with no packets:  If you would cancel from the
    very first message, I would assume you wanted to do nothing and
    return to the packet selection screen.  This made it impossible to
    get to your inbasket messages w/o openning up a full packet.  You
    couldn't view existing replies, either.  This behaviour has been
    modified; CANCELing the first "new write" simply places you at the
    conference select menu where you can read deferred messages or
    replies (if any) and/or press the WRITE button for new messages.


Inherited from MR/2 classic QWK core:

o   Changed the internal QWK initialization routine that matches NDX
    files to master conference names.  Previously, the master conference
    was sequentially searched until the number associated with the index
    file (e.g., 1695 for "1695.NDX") was matched.  On a 3000 conference
    BBS, this resulted in an average of 1500 checks before a match.  If
    you had mail from 100 conferences ... yikes!  It took awhile,
    although, in reality, it was only a matter of seconds.  The new
    logic searches the master list once and a compressed easy/quick to
    search array of conference numbers is searched to see if the master
    name is needed.  If found, it is processed.  This makes things just a
    tad more snappier.

o   Mods made to logic that builds "Conferences w/Mail" list caused the
    sort order to be alphabetical.  While this may be desirable to some,
    I've become acustom to and still prefer the default "numerical" order
    by conference number.  I'm the only one that saw this happen, but it
    sure confused me.  I reworked the code a little more and got the "old"
    sort order back.  I also managed to make it even more efficient in
    the process :).

o   Internet private mail (replying).  While replying to various Usenet
    messages via private Internet mail, I noticed MR/2 was leaving alot of
    To: addresses blank (@INTERNET@ values not found, replaced with blanks).
    The address was usually easy to find, on the first line identified
    by the PC-Board "@From:" command.  MR/2 now extracts valid addresses
    from these lines and can reply properly.

    NOTE:  I've heard from some users that their internet mail was
    getting bounced because, when copied from the message header FROM
    field, the address was in all upper case.  My upper-case addresses
    seem to work, but there are several different qwk->internet systems
    in use.  To be safe, I've modified the default template file to
    convert internet addressed to lower case.  If you're using a
    template file, and you'd like to do the same, simply find @INTERNET@
    variable and change it to @LOWER@@INTERNET@.

o   Conference names containing hi-end ASCII characters were getting
    truncated.  Switched to using unsigned characters and the problem is
    now gone!

o   INTERNAL:  Small patch to GetMessageLine().  If pMessage is NULL,
    this function instantly returns -1.  No packet entry into private mail
    conferences crashed inside this function when templates were being
    processed.

o   I had introduced a few bugs with no-packet entry.  There were various
    cases where internal information was not correctly set and crashes
    would occur.  Things seem to work much smoother now.

o   I received an Internet message just today about deferred messages and
    how zeros seem to be mysteriously appearing.  I checked my inbasket
    (remembering that I'd seen this happen before) and did some
    experimenting.  Sure enough, one character of every message was
    being changed; the most frequent occurence was a ' ' being changed to
    a '0'.  I was marking the 'archived' bit (my personal invention) of
    the message header, only I was changing the 127th byte of the actual
    message, instead.  The archive bit is bit 16, which will change a ' '
    to a '0', an 'a' to a 'q' and so on.  I now have moved this mark back
    into the message header, where it belongs.  The "archived" indicator
    that's supposed to be showing for folder messages will probably work
    now, too.


Changes included in v0.99f
--------------------------

o   Changed the sizing of the message index dialog box and the conference
    select box just a tad.  Reports of the box size "creeping" on
    higher resolution monitors.  Can't really test this, so please let
    me know.

o   Conversion of the master conference linked list to my new, experimental
    "quick heap" routines.  I'm maintaining a separate heap for memory
    needed for this linked list.  The list is freed in huge chunks instead
    of 2 parts per conference name (i.e., PC-Ohio's 3000 conferences caused
    the old heap to have to free 6000 linked entries, maintaining the
    "available block" information as each one is released).  This *should*
    speed up the exiting of packets.  Deleting the files is still a
    source for delay ... perhaps I can multithread this and overlap things
    a bit.

o   Modified MR2UTIL.CPP - RemoveWorkFiles() routine.  You wouldn't
    believe the amount of code I was executing to delete a packet's
    files!  I was actually building a sorted linked list of file names
    with details (sizes, dates, etc.,.), then immediately deleting each
    file found in this list.  Now, this routine merely finds the "next"
    file and removes it.  Results in a noticable speed up when exiting a
    packet.  Between the above quick-heap mod, and this one, I think I've
    licked this problem.  These changes are to the core QWK engine, so
    they'll help both MR/2 and the PM version.

o   I've made all internal linked lists use the new QHEAP.  Should result
    in improved "snappiness".  Also has big-bug potential.  I'll test
    thoroughly before releasing.

o   Made some new routines for general use.  Includes a low-overhead
    delete-by-wildcard routine and an "at least one file matching
    this wildcard exists" function.  Minor performance improvements
    should result, as the code scattered about in several places used
    previously had high overhead.

o   I made the Print Screen key function as the message-hardcopy key;
    just like pressing "P".  I got used to this using Golden Compass
    and liked the idea.  Pressing Print Screen will send a formatted
    copy of the current message to the printer.

o   Rewrote the bintree() class to use QHEAP.  Master conference
    sorting should be faster for large conferences.  At least a tad ...

o   Ooops. I broke the template logic for replies in 0.99E.  Fixed it.
    This is a good enough reason to put this version out-and-about.


Changes included in v0.99e
--------------------------

o   Added the MINIMIZE button back to the message viewing screen.
    I'm not sure why it got yanked; by accident I think.  Someone
    complained, so I'm putting it back.  Maximizing messes up message
    viewer.  Yuck!  This isn't really usable yet ... well, maybe.  If
    you resize the message box even 1 dot vertically things repaint OK.

o   Problems with No Packet Entry crashing on first message resolved.
    Part of the processing thought you were replying and attempted
    to search the original for an origin line.  FIxed.  Also, template
    always was set to the "default" template.  Now should default to
    `NewMessage` section.

o   Jumping to previous reading position is now functional.  If
    GoToLastRead is set to YES, MR/2 PM will jump to the message
    that was last on the screen the previous time the current packet was
    open (if the message can be found w/o error).  If not set to YES, you
    will be prompted for the correct action to take,

o   Tagline selection dialog: this is now sizable.  All pre-size code
    and real-time sizing code has been applied.

o   Message Index selection dialog: this is now sizable.  All pre-size
    code and real-time sizing code has been applied.

o   Quick Thread Summary dialog: code added to pre-set the size before
    display.  This removed the annoying and time-consuming "flash" when
    "Q" is pressed, or the "Subject Index" button is clicked.

o   Bug when using associations to launch MR/2 PM and open a QWK packet.
    If replies existed, the dialog to warn/prompt-to-keep existing
    replies would fail and return a default of "NO".  In other words,
    MR/2 PM would see the replies but wouldn't tell you about them, or
    ask you what to do.  It just deleted (er, renamed) them.  Fixed.


Changes included in v0.99d
--------------------------

NOTES: This is the first release in quite awhile.  Summer ended up
being busy, where I expected it to be quiet and coding-productive.
Anyway, I'm posting this with some extensive internal changes.  PLEASE,
if you're using an existing version, save your old EXE just in case you
don't like something I've done.  THEN, tell me about what you don't like.

I left some dialog box resizing logic unfinished (still).  While this
code for this is working "ok", I still just don't like it.  I *may* end
up doing something similar to BMR (the Netware utility I co-authored),
where multiple dialog boxes are available, and the whole screen repaints
when a new dialog box interface is selected.  For MR/2, I'd simply let
you resize, but remove, then repaint, the entire dialog to the new
size.  This would be one-time-ugly (the initial resize flash) but then
would work cleanly after that.  The resizing on-the-fly causes some
pretty ugly screens sometimes.  This new idea causes some interesting
coding problems - since I have to close the dialog box and reopen it,
I have to save context-sensitive things like message read/search position,
etc.,.  My problems, not yours :)

Originally, I was thinking of coding a big font/color control screen.
I think I like drag-n-drop of fonts and colors instead.  I have to
come up with a scheme for saving/restoring this information, but it
looks relatively simple (I *hate* those two words, they never seem to
be true :)

Changes:

o   Actually, these were in 0.99c:  Index Message box had trouble
    remembering its last position (and size).  Fixed.  Now to make it
    actually resizable :)  Also, from fixes made in MR/2 classic v1.53,
    some "ghost" files often remained inside tmp$$ after a packet was
    closed.  Fixed.

o   Message box display work - painting of "next" message should be
    much faster.  (NOTE: comparing it to 0.99c it *is* much faster :).
    I still want to totally do away with the use of a listbox for the
    message text.  My chance will come ...

o   Background color of the message viewing window is now set as the
    "default" when the window is painted.  All this does is prevents
    the listbox color flash between messages.  It also removes the
    yellow color band that sometimes appeared at the bottom of short
    messages.

o   Internal Editor:  F10 key now saves and exits, just as MR/2 classic's
    editor does.  I got really used to hitting F10-F10 to finish a reply
    in text mode.  Now I can do the same in PM.

o   Removed another message reading screen "flash" - the one right after
    a conference is selected.  This speeds things up another "tad", too.


Inherited from MR/2 classic:
----------------------------

o   Inbasket packing often left killed replies visable and available across
    packets.  Fixed - killed messages will once again disappear the next
    time the packet (and related inbasket) is closed.

o   I added a new function on the message reading screen triggered by
    pressing the C key.  This is the "Copy" function.  It simply places
    a copy of the current message in the reply conference, changes the
    FROM user to your name and places the EDIT HEADER screen up.  Right
    now you can copy any message to someone else and make it "from you";
    not just your own replies.  This may change.  Copy loops for multiple
    copies until your ESCAPE from the "next" message header edit.
    I also plan to add a manner to copy to predefined distribution lists.

o   Forwarding messages:  If a `Forward` template section and accessed
    message header information, this information would be copied from the
    header AFTER the header editing process.  That meant that if you
    changed the conference or subject, the changed data would be used.
    This has been corrected to show correct original data.

o   When creating some types of new message where MR/2 defaulted the TO
    user to blank, the cursor would be one character over.  This was a
    bug in the internal EditHdr trim function.  Fixed.

o   Messages.Dat and mr2bm.bin would never get deleted from the tmp$$
    directory when a packet was closed.  Just a minor flaw, but this did
    waste some disk space when MR/2 was not in use.  Fixed.

o   When MR/2 builds it's own NDX files, it now opens the target index in
    APPEND mode.  No biggy, except in playing around qith QWK merge logic,
    I found that my QWK engine assumes all conference's message are
    together.  This may or may not be true for most mail doors, but I
    should be able to handle non-contiguous conference messages with out
    breaking anything.

o   ALT-N to enter new messages w/o an existing packet failed to read and
    configure based on the selected BBS's "local" INI.  The local INI is
    now added to MR/2's configuration parameters when one for the selected
    BBS is found.

o   New INI parameter "RemoveReplyBookmarks".  This is NO by default, but
    may be set to YES if it is found that MR/2's bookmarks are interfering
    with a networks routing or origin lines.  There was a problem on
    ILink where someone's origin lines were not appended about 50% of the
    time.  It was blamed on my use of the last byte of the message header
    as a bookmark flag.  Setting this INI option to YES will cause MR/2
    to replace any bookmak character at this position with a space (0x20).
    You lose any bookmark information stored in this byte with this option,
    but the bookmark flags saved with replies is minimal anyway.

o   Reply splitting:  instead of "(Cont'd)" being attached to the subject
    of a split message, MR/2 now numbers each part and gives a total count.
    The counters are placed at the far right of the subject space, so
    subjects like "MR/2                  1/2".  This preserves as much of
    the original subject as possible.  This also will assist in MR/2's
    sorting of multiple part messages (when sorting by thread).

o   When a single piece of a split message is later modified, the last
    line of that part would often be removed before entering the editor.
    This has been corrected, although more changes to come might
    render this fix useless ...

o   Added the capability to split messages at a user defined point.
    Used SLMR's ".pg" marker technique.  Start a line with ".pg" and
    MR/2 will force a split at this position.

o   Made Fast Exit from the message viewer *really* fast!  Instead of
    filtering back through all those nasty C++ destructers, I simply call
    DOSExit after some simple cleanup.  Seems to work nicely even on
    packets with a large number of conferences (~3000).  I'll spend some
    watching for bugs ... I think I can multithread my freeing of many
    internal structures and linked lists too.  (This is what takes MR/2
    so long when closing a large packet w/lotsa conferences - all the
    freeing of memory.  ZTC doesn't handle this very quickly ... I'll
    try to help them some :).

    PM VERSION NOTE: changes were quite different, but I achieved the
    same effect by exiting MR/2 PM w/o deallocating packet memory (fast
    exit only).  Works fine on my systems and *is* much faster.

o   If you specified a static, hard-coded tagline, then hit F2 to "pick"
    a new tagline, MR/2 would crash.  Now it puts up a nicer "empty list"
    message, although it still doesn't let you pick a new one :).


Changes included in v0.99c
--------------------------

o   The Reply Header edit form, when selecting an alternate conference.
    The listbox could only hold a fixed number of conference (1500?).
    If there were more, you couldn't see them.  Instead of *really* trying
    to solve the problem :), I added a "match" field on this form.  This
    field accepts wildcard characters, like *os2* or pr*.  It does ranges
    too, I'll have to doc these ... something like [A-L]* lists A
    through L ... Unix-style wildcard matching!

    Entering just a single character, say "P", works the same as entering
    "P*".  I may make all non-wildcard specs "prefix" matches like this.

o   Half tones on completely read threads.  This should probably be optional.

o   Save to file:  All sorts of keyboard wierdness.  Keys being processed
    by the message window underneath.  Fixed.

o   Message Dialog.  There was still a screen flash - pre-sizing the
    dialog box needed some tweaking, and I had to supress the second
    painting of the screen when initializing.

o   ALT-A, ALT-D now functional when a conference name is highlighted.  This
    works from the Conferences w/Message selection screen, as well as on
    the Conference selection screen attached to the Reply Header Editing
    screen.  Easiest way to ADD conferences is to "Write new", then ALT-C
    for the conference list.  Highlight and ALT-A to your hearts content.

o   Lots of playing around with parent/owner windows to remove strange
    occurences and to aid in new CenterSubWindow() call.

o   I've got code in place to insure that certain message dialogs remain
    centered inside the "main" window.

o   INTERNAL:  Main dialog proc became too large for ZTC to handle!  I
    split out the whole WM_CHAR processing section into a separate
    routine.

o   I think I've finally trapped all the strange keystroke processing
    that resulted from having dialog boxes pop up on top of the message
    dialog box.  This should end the strangeness with Save, Find, Steal
    Tag, etc.,.

o   More mouse pointer to "wait" pointers when needed.

o   Deferring a message now updates the message status with a 'D'.
    Previously, message was deferred but the display was not updated.
    Same thing with (P)rinting a message ... dialog now updates with a
    "S" status ("Saved" - MR/2 classic has always reported printed messages
    as being saved ...).

o   ALT-F is now available from the conference selection dialog to
    search ALL conferences for text.  Just like MR/2 classic.

o   There was a problem after closing any packet where MR/2 PM would
    lose track of the correct QWK Packet Path.  This occured (I think)
    only if your Packet Path and MR/2 PM home directory where on the
    same disk drive.  When you close a packet, you are now correctly
    returned to your previous packet directory.

o   I added a tiny button on the message viewer screen.  I'm not sure
    where this will end up and/or what it will be labeled, but right now
    it's the "option" button.  The only option at this time is to
    toggle between MONO and PS fonts for message viewing.  The font
    mode switch is persistant across all future sessions until changed
    again.  This button will probable bring up a much more comprehensive
    set of options later :)

o   Open Packet reworked.  Changes to the way focus is initialized, order
    of the entry fields / listbox to be more natural.  Bug where selecting
    certain directory names switched drives.

o   Save Message:  ditto.  Also, save path changes are remembered and
    used across all packets read in that session (reset when you exit out
    and reenter).

o   Internal Editor:  The state of the font (Mono or PS) and the Word Wrap
    setting are now saved and restored between sessions.

    Fixes inherited recently from MR/2 classic:
    -------------------------------------------

o   ADD/DROP conference would not work if a DOOR.ID file was not present in
    the packet.  I now default to QMAIL format in these cases, and create
    QMAIL-style add/drop messages.

o   When you would modify a reply and change the header data, the index
    list would not reflect these changes.  The "I"/Insert index list will
    now accurately match reply header data.

o   Ooops.  "InBasket" Folder was not being packed.  In other words,
    messages that were deferred, then later killed/deleted would still
    be physically contained in the InBasket.Dat file.  They were marked
    as inactive, so they couldn't be read.  Code to pack this file
    has been reinstituted.

o   Double oops :)  FolderPath was never sufficiently documented as a
    valid MR2.INI parameter.  It was metioned in the read.me file, but
    was never entered into the MR2INI.ORG file.  It's there now, and ...

o   It never really worked, anyway.  It "kinda" worked, as it did
    everything correctly except allow you to actually read deferred message
    from anywhere except off of the MR2 home directory.

o   Modified the origin line find logic.  Original code, for some stupid
    reason, started at the beginning of a message and search forward.  I
    now start at the end and work backwards.  This will help prevent
    erroneous detection of the origin when user-entered dashed lines are
    entered as section separaters.

    In addition, I revamped the whole routine.  It seems to do a much
    better job of finding the start of the origin section.

o   There was a problem on some systems with the personal conference not
    showing in the selection list.  This was when working on an HPFS
    drive, and the personal.ndx file was unpacked with a lower case file
    name.  When MR/2 scanned conferences, it always matched on capital
    letters for the personal index.  This was never a problem BEFORE
    long name support, as the names always came back capitalized.  Now,
    they come back as they are on disk.  I've fixed this problem and
    scanned for other possibilities.  I think that was it ... time will
    tell!   NOTE: The report I received that finally solved this one
    specifically mentioned a 32-bit UNZIP.EXE.  He mentioned that all
    worked OK with the -U switch added to the command line.  Just FYI.

o   Message Header Edit screen now allows you to enter conference numbers
    that are not present within the control.dat master conference list.
    Maximus QWK doors and PC Board's built-in QWK feature do not supply
    complete conference lists.  Some QWK doors also make this optional to
    reduce packet size.  Previously, you could not post into a conference
    that was not defined in the contorl.dat file.  Now, you may manually
    enter ANY number.  If MR/2 cannot find it in the master list, it will
    beep and clearly identify the conference number as a possible problem
    with the tag: "** WARNING: Unknown Conference **".  It's the user's
    resposibility to make sure a message is posted to the correct
    conference number.  Maybe I'll add a user-definable master list later.



Changes included in v0.99b
--------------------------

o   MR2PM.INI, the file that holds window position data now contains a
    version number embedded within.  Any old file found (w/o a version
    level recorded) will be erased.  This is necessary due to the
    massive changes made to the way positions are recorded.  Otherwise,
    windows end up painting off the screen.  You'll have to position
    windows to desired spots once more.

o   Internal editor is now available and functional.  Set the
    Editor=INTERNAL. The "Set Color" option does nothing yet.  Also,
    "Set font" merely toggles between mono and ps fonts.  There's no
    provision for changing the file name or importing/exporting text.
    All this will come with time ...

o   Sizable windows are started.  Size and position of several windows are
    saved and recalled.  In particular, the message viewing screen and
    conference selection screen are sizeable.  There's some tricky code
    behind these screens to minimize flashing and contorting; let me know
    if you see anything strange.

o   No Qwk (entry of message w/o a packet) is now functional.

o   I added a command line parameter "/defaultpos" or just "/d" to suppress
    the mr2pm.ini file access.  This mode uses default window sizes and
    positions.  ... until I get all the kinks out, this is a safeguard.

o   Welcome screen now displays in mono font.  Looks OK, unless ANSI
    codes are present :(

o   Merged most of MR/2 v1.51 features into this EXE.  The list of
    pertainent features follows (in latest-first order):

==============================================================================
o   RIME routed messages are now recognized as having a "header area" at
    the top of the message.  If the message is "split" due to length,
    the header area should be automically pasted into the top
    of each part.

o   FILE_ID.DIZ files were crossed between classic and PM.  Fixed.

o   OK, I linked in HPFS longname support and modified some code to
    retrieve and handle long file names.  The packet select screen
    now shows TE/2-renamed files like "pc-ohio.qwk;1".  This will need
    some testing and polish, but it works.  FileSpec in MR2.INI should
    be changed to "*.q*" in order to see these files.

o   Ooops.  I couldn't find a PKUnzip that would work with long names.
    Even the older OS/2 version puked.  This'll definitely be a problem
    with other DOS based archivers.  So, I added a little diddy to
    unqwk.cmd that, if a long name is detected, will copy the selected
    file into the tmp$$ directory as MR2$TMP.QWK and unpack this.  It
    then deletes the "temporary" QWK packet.  Works great with even
    the DOS PKUnzip now!

    If you want to use TE/2 on a HPFS system and unpack the "BBS.QWK;1"
    type names with a DOS or PK* product, you *must* set your unzipper
    to unqwk.cmd.

o   An MR/2 INI file other than MR2.INI may be specified via command line
    parameter.  Use "MR2 /IMR2_ALT.INI" to use a file named MR2_ALT.INI as
    the global MR/2 INI file.  I'm hoping that this helps in allowing
    multiple instances of MR/2 to be open on the desktop.  Needs more
    testing and experimentation ...  Opening two different MR/2 seesion
    still crashes.

o   Welcome and Goodbye screen now list on the Bulletins select menu.
    You can view these, unobstructed and at length, any time you choose.

o   Minor change to the parsing of the @Fidonet@ variable.  Removed any
    @fidonet suffix that exists in the origin line.

o   Added code to trim off nulls at end of any message.  Was trimming spaces,
    but Internet messages sometimes had nulls.  Messes up the reply file
    editing.  Also, if any embedded nulls are found, these *aren't* written
    to the reply file OR save file.

o   Processing for IDATE improved a little.  I saw some DATE: lines that
    started with weekday names like "Sun, ".

o   New INI parameter - ReplyStripTagline defaulting to YES.  Set it to NO
    if you want to use SmartQuoting (which strips the original messages
    tagline) but still want the tag quoted.

o   QuoteStyle now has an optional parameter, which is ON by default.
    If you specify TagStyle=PCBoard,Autosense, you're saying that quote
    style can use hi-end ASCII chars, but if it's a Fidonet reply,
    change to Fidonet mode.  I'm not sure if I should include Internet
    messages as Fido-typed tags ... I probably should.  I'll research.
    Without the "Autosense" keyword, tag style will adhere strictly to
    what's been specified.

o   Added new Template file sections: SaveHeader and PrintHeader.  Lets
    you define the header for messages when printed or saved.  If these
    sections don't exist, the old default header is used.

o   Added more variables to aid in the support of the new header sections:
    MsgRefNbr, MsgNumber, MsgStatus.  In addition, added some more variables
    to aid in formatting sections.  @COL:45@ sets the next column to 45.
    @RCOL:72@ says to right justify the next variable referenced at col 72.
    @Center:40@ says to center the next variable referenced over column 40.
    The @RCOL@ and @CENTER@ variables can be used w/o column specs to
    right justify at "wrap column" or center the entire line between wrap
    column and 1.

    Negative @COL@ specs may be supplied.  This will delete the specified
    number of characters before the variable.  For example, @ITIME@@COL:-4@
    would change 07:54:30 GMT to just 07:54:30.  Messes up, tho, if MSGDATE
    ends up getting substituted for IDATE (no IDATE is found).

    See example.tf, at the end.  There's a section `unused` with some
    doc/examples.

o   The template file now supports comment lines.  Simply start the line
    (very first columns) with ";;" and the line is ignored.

o   While viewing any message, you can press "~" to rewrap it.  This is
    useful only in USENET (Internet) conferences where sometimes a message
    gets posted without linefeeds.  MR/2 would display it on a single line,
    but only give you access to the first 160 characters.  This rewrapping
    is quite temporary (if you "go back" later to view the same message,
    you'll have to rewrap it again), and totally manual; performed by user
    keypress only.  I may INI-ize an automated/detection scheme later.

o   Added a bunch of code to better detect message display lines that are
    "quotes" from previous messages.  This is not configurable at this time.
    If I did too much, yell and I'll make this optional.  With all the
    messages I looked at, quoting highlights were right 99% of the time.

o   New QuoteBody option - Paragraph.  If you specify something like:

        QuoteBody="%i│▌",Paragraph

    then you'll get a quotes like:

        MN│▌Yes-  DOS 6 upgrade is... (lines chopped for brevity)
          │▌number of files that...

        MN│▌And then after your DOS...
          │▌the manual of files you...
          │▌release the whole thing...

       you can do the same thing with "%i>", and secondary lines
       get just " >".  Use the "|" (shifted backslash) and Fidonet
       sysops may not yell at you :)  (it's not hi-end ASCII).

    Bummer!  I just saw someone (a registered MR/2 user using a DOS
    package, hmmmph!) quote with a technique that this doesn't yet
    handle :(.  Just a minor nit, maybe I'll add something later to do
    this (YOU CAN'T DO THIS WITH MR/2):

        MN┤Yes-  DOS 6 upgrade is... (lines chopped for brevity)
          │number of files that...


o   Modified the logic to pick out the quoting initials to better parse
    Internet "from" fields.  Still needs some other strange-character
    detection added (nick.knight@pc-ohio should reduce to nk>).

o   Fixed a bug where internet from fields that were filled to 25 characters
    resulted in your own last initial being inserted as the senders second
    initial ([e-mail] to Nick Knight, reply would
    be quoted MK>)  This *was* fixed in v1.45 but not documented.

o   I added some things. First SmartWrapping and SmartQuoting have three
    levels: No, Yes and Full.  Full is aggressive, rewrapping all
    non-quoted text to the defined wrap column (This is the old "YES").
    If set to Yes (the "new" option), wrapping occurs ONLY after a line
    feed has been inserted by MR/2 (an overlength line was detected).
    The defaults are "YES" ... we'll see if this works any better.
    Limited testing, but you *can* now shut these off w/o crashing!

o   Also, add an "~" to the end of any line (before the linefeed) and
    MR/2 will strip out the "~" and keep the return that follows intact.
    This is for stubborn wrapping problems.  Just in case :)

o   If the quoting initials ended up longer than 9 characters (FROM name
    had no spaces), the string was not properly terminated.  This resulted
    in garbage in the initials and in one reported case, a crash.  This
    would occur most often in internet conferences.

o   New template sections are definable:  NewInternet and NewNetmail
    for creating new messages in these private-mail conferences.

o   When editing a message header and the conference is the Internet or
    Netmail defined conference, the "private" flag is set to YES.

o   New template section: `RIME` can be defined for use when replying
    to a message in private mode.  If a reply is private, and the
    source message is determined to be from a RIME source (Postlink
    origin is last line of message), then this section is used in
    generating the reply.  This allows for private, routed mail.
    Not sure what to do about "new" private, routed messages.

o   New variables:  @RimeIDCode@ and @RimeSiteNo@ for use in the RIME
    section for "routing" private messages.  Will result in blanks unless
    replying to a message with a Postlink origin line.

o   New Variables:

        @RimeIDCode@ and @RimeSiteNo@, defined above.

        @Version@ for the MR/2 version.

        @SerialNumber@ is replaced by the registered serial number
                (empty if not registered).

        @UserName@ is replaced by your user names as found in the QWK
                control.dat structure.

        @IDate@ is replaced with the Internet "Date:" spec, or the
                the same results as @MDATE@ if a date string is not
                found.

o   New template section: `Forward`.  If this section is declared, it is
    used as the template "prefix" for forwarded messages.  NOTE:  $Body is
    not required, this section is inserted as a whole.  If not declared,
    the old MR/2 default forward prefix is used.

o   See EXAMPLE.TF for examples of all new section capabilities.  My name
    and email addresses are plastered all through here.  You'll want to,
    of course, change these to your own :)

o   When replying into the Internet mail conference, the @INTERNET@
    variable will better represent a true Internet address.  If the
    Reply-To: line isn't present, MR/2 then looks for a "From:" line and
    attempts to parse out an address.  If no From: line is detected,
    MR/2 now looks to the last line of the message.  If the sender has
    included his address inside of parenthesis, then this is used as the
    INTERNET value.

o   Modified msg2rep.cmd so that if archiver.id file isn't found, it
    defaults to pkzip (configurable).  If using no packet entry, no
    unarchiver was called, so no archiver.id is created.  We need to
    be able to specify a packet as a default.

o   If a local INI specified a value for Internet and/or Netmail, it
    was not cleared when the packet was exitted.  If the next packet
    opened did not reset these values (or did not have a local INI), then
    some erroneous detection of network mail would result.  Fixed.

o   I modified the "origin" line finding logic to recognize more common
    reader/network tearline styles.  For instance, MR/2's own TwoLine
    style tagline is now recognized as the beginning of the origin section
    (and end of the BODY section).

o   Started coding of a REXX script to handle detection of the archiver
    used to pack the mail packet.  A code is returned that will be used to
    branch to the correct command for unpacking.  To me, this is the ideal
    solution, as it is forever extensible.  I've got a scheme for a packer
    script (for replies) that will match the unpacker used.  I'm new to
    REXX coding (this was the perfect excuse to get my feet wet :), so
    if anyone wants to make improvements and/or enhancements, I'll welcome
    them.  (file is named Unqwk.cmd)

o   Create msg2rep.cmd - a REXX script for packing replies into a .rep
    file based on the method used to unpack the original packet.  The source
    packet *must* have been unpacked with unqwk.cmd (or, at least, the file
    "archiver.id" must exist and identify the correct packer to use).  This
    script opens up "archiver.id" and extracts the id number.  Based on that
    number, a branch is made to the correct packet command.

    NOTE:  You may have to modify these files a tad IF your archivers
    are not in your "PATH" environment variable.

    NOTE:  These command are useful if you use multiple packet sources
    (BBS's) that use different compression techniques.  If you can get
    by with a single zipper/unzipper command, the "old" way is OK, and
    in fact, still more efficient.  These new files simply provide
    additional flexibility for those that frequent a variety of BBS's and
    need this functionality.

    INSTALLATION:  Modify your MR2.INI file to declare:

        Zipper=..\msg2rep
        Unzipper=..\unqwk

    the default .cmd files depend on all archivers being in your "path".
    If not, you may modify the path = '' statement at the top of each
    file to reflect the correct path, or modify each zipper command
    separately to reflect each's valid path.

o   The prompt "Work area has an open packet" has been enhanced.  You may
    still see this prompt.  However, if the work directory is found to
    contain replies, the prompt will read "Open packet with REPLIES found".

o   If an error occurs when unpacking the packet, you will now remain
    inside MR/2 to select a new packet, or whatever.

o   IF an error occurs while packing replies, the work directory is *not*
    purged.  Previously, any error while spawning the packer still let the
    files be deleted.  What happens now is, after the command error is
    reported, you're prompted that an open packet with replies exists.  The
    correct course of action is to go back in the packet (continue working
    with the open packet) fast exit with ALT-X and correct the zipper
    problem.

o   Cleaned up and tested UNQWK.CMD and MSG2REP.CMD.  Made sure error codes
    were properly returned to MR/2.  Seems to work well with the new error
    handling described above.

o   Added new variable @ISUBJECT@ that resolves to the Internet message
    subject line (often different than the QWK "subject" field).
    I hope there's a limit to the size of these things ... I only
    accomodate "realistic" lengths.  We'll see.

o   Ooops.  New template section logic didn't accomodate new messages
    created w/o replying.  The template file can now define a section for
    `NewMessage`.

o   The INI parameter SplitLongMessages has been enhanced.  YES/NO still
    function in the old way; YES will cause messages to be split at 92
    lines (90 lines of message, 2 lines for the <cont..d> footer).  You
    can now, however, place a number here as an option.  This sets
    splitting to YES, but modifies the line count cutoff to be the specified
    value (instead of 92).  This value *must* be greater than or equal
    to 10 (I've been told of a BBS system that requires no more than 16
    lines <really!>, so I figure 10 will be a "safe" minimum).  I would
    suggest using a reasonable number if you need to change the default
    at all.

o   New INI parameters V0 through V9 allow you to set user-defined text
    strings as template variables.  Uses of the strings @V0@ through @V9@
    in the tenplate file will be replced with the corresponding defined
    text string.

    These variables can contain any other variables, including other "V"
    variables.  This allows for a template to be defined with an
    attribution line of @V0@, for example, and this line can be changed
    for each BBS by defining different values to V0 in the BBSs local
    INI file.  The variable replacement is recursive, so any number of
    replacemnet levels is possible.  It's also possible to confuse the
    system by circularly defining variables.  My rule:  keep it where
    it's understandable.

    For example, if you add a line to MR2.INI that says "V0=1:157/200"
    and your template file starts "...writing from Fidonet address @V0@",
    the fidonet node address will be placed in the reply.

o   New INI parameters "INTERNET" and "NETMAIL".  Use these variables to
    declare which conferences, if any, handle Internet mail and Fidonet
    netmail, respectively.  For example, PC-Ohio has Internet mail in
    conference 5 and Fidonet netmail in conference 6.  My PC-OHIO.INI
    file has:

    Internet=5
    Netmail=6

    Nerd' Nook has Netmail in conference in 139 and no Internet capabilities.
    My NerdNook.INI file has the lines:

    Internet=-1
    Netmail=139

    The "-1" tells MR/2 that there is no Internet support, and makes sure
    that the Internet section template is not referenced.

o   New variables @INTERNET@ and @FIDONET@.  The INTERNET variable will
    be replaced with the "Reply-to:" address found in Internet mail.  The
    target address will be stripped of extra verbage and should represent
    a correct and "ready-to-go" internet address.  The FIDONET variable
    will be replaced with the full Fidonet address found in the origin
    line of the current message.  If either one of these variable can
    not be resolved, then an empty string is substituted.

    These variables are meant to be used for personal mail addressing
    using template "sections".  See next blurb.

o   Sections in the template file `Internet` and `Netmail`.  You may now
    allocate "sections" within the template file.  Sections are denoted
    and named by a string between "accent" characters (`).  The first
    template file section has no name and will be refered to as the
    "default" section.  A section ends at the next section name string,
    or at the end of the file.

    When replying to messages targetted for a conference declared to
    be the INTERNET or NETMAIL conferences, MR/2 will switch template
    sections to the corresponding section.  If ever a section is not found
    (by name matching), the default section is used.

    This allows for Fidonet netmail and Internet mail to have templates
    that correctly set up destination addressing.  See the file Example.tf
    for examples of sections.

o   Mods to reply creation ... removed the beginning CR/LF when creating
    the reply file.  Made changes to the way the template file handled
    CR/LF spacing.  Template file's allignment matches reply files
    better now (line spacing/blank lines).

o   When replying and the FROM user name is an Internet made-up name with
    periods imbedded, MR/2 nulls-out the quoting initials.  The quoted text
    is simply marked with whatever symbol is defined in the INI, usually
    a ">" (no initials preceed the ">").

o   Oh boy.  I modified the Save Reply logic of my QWK class.  This is
    dangerous, simply because it changes the way replies are saved.  I'll
    test it thoroughly before letting it out.  *Please* report any problems
    to me quickly.

    The change comes when splitting messages (it may effect more, my hope
    is that it doesn't :).  IF you're in sending Internet mail or Netmail,
    the message "header" will be copied to each split section.  In most
    cases, this will be the correct function.  There may be cases where
    it isn't.  Yell at me and I'll make it configurable.  In other words,
    netmail or internet mail that's split will be addressed properly for
    all "parts" if addressing is done on the first line(s) of the message.

o   When replying into the Fidonet netmail conference, the source message
    is first checked to see if the first line starts "From:".  If so, and
    what follows appears to be a Fidonet node designation (it has a ":" and
    a "/"), then this is used as the value of the FIDONET variable.
    If not found, the origin line is found.  In netmail messages (the ones
    I receive at least), there is no origin line, just a "From:" identifier
    on the very first line of the message.

o   Taglines now are filtered for variables (e.g., @FROM@).

o   Took template file checking one step further - if file name is
    empty, processing doesn't even start.

o   The initial MR2.INI file now specifies that the INTERNAL editor now
    be used as the default.  The initial INI editing is still performed
    inside the E editor.

o   New INI parameter:  "TemplateFile".  This is another one of those
    features that is merely a starting place and has lots of future
    expansion possibilities.  Place a file name here that defines a
    template for all message replies.  The reply will created using this
    file as a guide BEFORE you edit it.  This allows for any necessary
    cleanup.  The "template" file I used for testing looked like this
    (note that the variables used will be documented below):

    -------------------------------------------------------------------
    Subject: @Subject@
    In a message dated @DATE@, @FROM@ said to @TO@:


    $BODY


    Nick Knight

    From @from@ reading @CONFNAME@ (@CONFNUM@) on @BBSID@, to @TO@
    Subject: @Subject@

    FidoNet:    1:157/2
    Internet:   [e-mail]
    Compuserve: 76066,1240

    To First:   @tofirst@
    To Last:    @tolast@
    YYMMDD:     @yymmdd@
    Date:       @date@
    From First: @fromfirst@
    From Last:  @FromLast@
    Msg Date:   @msgdate@
    Msg Time:   @msgtime@
    Day:        @Day@
    Julian:     @Julian@
    Time:       @Time@
    Time 24:    @Time24@
    AM/PM:      @AmPm@

    Upper:      @Upper@@Subject@ @upper@@day@
    Lower:      @lOWER@@Subject@ @lower@@day@
    Mixed:      @mix@@From@ -> @mix@@to@
    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    The quoted version of the original message is inserted at the $BODY
    marker, which is required.  NOTE that this is not an appropriate
    template file for use within internationally echoed conferences.
    It's offered here merely as an example.

    The section before the $BODY line allows for an "attribution"
    line or section.  The area below the $BODY marker works as a
    signoff or signature section.

    AGAIN, this feature is under development and may be changed in the
    next couple of versions.  My idea is to add more blocks to this file.
    For example, a definition for saved message headers, forwarded
    header definition, etc.,.  I've got plenty of ideas.

    The reply file generated by my test template file looked like:
    -----------------------------------------------------------------

    Subject: NEW ZOO
    In a message dated 03/06/93, DAN HANSON said to ALL:

    DH>I saw this in Time Magazine.  The New York Bronx Zoo has been
    DH>renamed to the International Wildlife Conservation Park.  In

    <My reply would be inserted here.>

    Nick Knight

    From DAN HANSON reading Main Board (0) on PC-OHIO, to ALL
    Subject: NEW ZOO

    FidoNet:    1:157/2
    Internet:   [e-mail]
    Compuserve: 76066,1240

    To First:   ALL
    To Last:    ALL
    YYMMDD:     930306
    Date:       03/06/93
    From First: DAN
    From Last:  HANSON
    Msg Date:   03-06-93
    Msg Time:   14:21
    Day:        Saturday
    Julian:     065
    Time:       03:08
    Time 24:    15:08
    AM/PM:      PM

    Upper:      NEW ZOO SATURDAY
    Lower:      new zoo saturday
    Mixed:      Dan Hanson -> All
    -----------------------------------------------------------------

o   Variables are available for use in the template file.  They are
    currently only used by the reply file generator.  I'll add the
    capability to other areas as I think of them.

    The following variables have been provided:

        BBSID                           TIME
        CONFNAME                        TIME24
        CONFNUM                         TO
        DATE                            TOFIRST
        DAY                             TOLAST
        FROM                            YYMMDD
        FROMFIRST                       UPPER
        FROMLAST                        LOWER
        MSGDATE                         MIX
        MSGTIME                         AMPM
        SUBJECT                         JULIAN


    The literals UPPER, LOWER and MIX are not actual variables, but
    modifiers.  They will convert the case of the NEXT variable
    replacement to either all upper, all lower or mixed case, respectively.
    Mixed case basically lower cases all letters except the first letter
    of each word.  See the example above for more detail.

o   GREATER CHICAGO Online BBS is now offering a service called the
    "OS/2 Shareware Author Support Program".  They are willing to handle
    Visa/Mastercard charges for shareware authors.  Starting immediately,
    MR/2 may be registered by "charging" it!  You can register online by
    calling Greater Chicago Online BBS at [phone].  Alternatively,
    you can provide your charge card information to me directly on the
    MR/2 registration form provided (register.doc).  There is a $2.00
    handling fee associated with all charged registrations, making the
    total charged registration cost $22.00 US for domestic orders.

    Shareware authors may get more information on the OS/2 Shareware
    Author Support Program by calling the GREATER CHICAGO Online BBS at
    the number above (leave a note to the sysop) or by Compuserve mail
    at 70404,3277.  Fidonet netmail can be sent to Bill Cook at 1:115/895.

==============================================================================

Changes included in v0.99a
--------------------------

o   Attempting to show the BBS's Welcome screen in the message listbox
    behind conference select picklist.  It isn't pretty (I need a
    monospaced font) and you can't see much of it.  Maybe I'll try
    something else.

o   After deferring a message, the message status was not updated with a
    "D", even though the message WAS deferred.  Fixed.

o   New routine "clear_resulttable()" is called if there is no local INI
    and a packet is closed.  Previously, hit counters for custom
    conferences would not respresent the correct counts (counts would
    not be cleared for the next packet).

o   Index display showed message number with some trailing garbage
    sometimes. This is fixed.

o   No QWK Entry code started.

o   Open by association started (specifying a packet as a command-line
    parameter).

o   The spacebar now really does work as in MR/2 classic ... it works
    like the page-down key until the end of a message is displayed, then
    like the NEXT key.

o   When editing the message header, the F10 key now works as it does
    in MR/2 classic.  That is, it works as the "accept" key.  I'll leave
    the F11 key also as an "accept" key for those that got used to it.

o   Write New:  The selected conference would be erased on the "after"
    header edit.  It would be reset to "000".  Fixed.

o   The E editor was demonstrating some very unusual behaviour.  When
    replying, parts of the message would be hidden and unavailable for
    editing.  Yet, they *were* there!  There would be no vertical scroll
    bars displayed, and the horizontal was only in one (the wrong)
    direction.  This ended up having something to do with the program
    control value I was setting.  EPM seemed to work OK, as did text mode
    edit sessions, but E just croaked.  This *seems* to be fixed.

o   Also, the $ and ! specifiers for DOS and FullScreen sessions added
    earlier can now be combined in the form $! for both packers and
    your editor.  IE, you can force a DOS session to full-screen.

o   Tagline stealer had a problem with certain characters (while editing
    the tagline-to-save) invoked message functions (Reply, for example).
    This has been fixed ... I need to review all my dialog boxes for the
    same types of problems.

o   Sizable message reading screen.  It has some painting problems when
    the screen is resized, but once the size is remembered it works
    pretty well.  You can also size the Conference selection dialog.
    MR/2 PM now remembers the size of these screens in addition to the
    position.

o   The possibility of the message listbox getting the focus has been
    eliminated (I think? :).  When this happened, keys would cease to
    function as they would normally (X would not exit, F would not
    find).

Changes included in v0.99
-------------------------

o   For your archivers:  if you wish (or have to :) use a DOS version
    of PKUnzip, for example, MR/2 PM will now work correctly.

    This bug was causing lockups (blank screen, no keyboard, manual
    boot time) on OS/2 2.0 GA and simply failing on the old 2.1 beta.
    No idea what it did to versions in-between.

    Now, when a DOS archiver is called upon, MR/2 PM opens a DOS window
    (in the "background", even) and runs the DOS utility there.

    Editors may also be DOS-based.

o   I changed the way that the zip/zipper work.  Basically, whether
    using DOS or OS/2 executables, a new session (windowed usually)
    is created.  I'll have to see if I like this better, and get
    outside opinions (anybody?).  Also, the editor is called with
    the same logic.  This should help with those cases where the
    reply editor would end up "in the background".  That shouldn't
    happen at all now, as MR/2 PM is suspended UNTIL the editor is
    terminated.  Uh oh, can't have this!

o   Tagline selection list now has buttons for OK and CANCEL.

o   Lockups due to missing or unnamed template file (lockup when
    requesting the editor for a reply) are now fixed.  Same problems
    as with MR/2 classic.

o   Read markers are back on the message index list, and the read
    count is now back on the thread selection list.  Sorry!

o   Write button is now enabled and can be used to write "new" messages.
    I'm getting some random crashing ... more work is needed.

o   New buttons on Conference selection list:  News, Files and Bulletins.
    Bulletins is still non-functional.  Soon.  Buttons call your editor
    accessing the specified file.  No checking for non-existent files.

o   Mods to keep secondary dialog box positions as "relative" to the
    open/message windows.  That means that if you place the conference
    select window somewhere, then move the message reading screen, the
    conference select box will move to stay in the same "relative"
    position.

o   Cleaned up some of the "extra" little informative dialogs that would
    end up appearing as independent windows.

o   The zipper/unzipper EXE is now queried, and if found to be a DOS app,
    a DOS session is started.  No strange "$" specifiers needed :)
    The window is now opened foreground, though.

o   The editor call is now handled differently.  You editor should now
    end up with the correct focus, even if windowed.

o   The conference listbox is now automatically updated if/when the
    background "custom conference" thread completes.

o   Edit header now sets the focus to the SUBJECT field.

o   Cleaned up some of the button resetting to "default" values
    after some other button is pressed.  More to come ...

o   Removed the makeshift "paging" buttons I had placed on the message
    reading dialog.  Turns out PM already accomodates paging by clicking
    inside the scrollbar track, above or below the slider.  I just
    recently learned that!

o   The MR/2 PM version is now part of the packet select dialog title.

o   The distribution zip now contains a FILE_ID.DIZ description file.

o   Bulletin button on the conference select list is now functional.  It
    brings up a selection list of available bulletins.  Selecting one will
    load your editor with the appropriate bulletin.  Only minimal error
    checking is performed.


Changes included in v0.98
-------------------------

NOTE: Version 0.97 never really made it into distribution.

o   Relinked with many of MR/2's latest features being added automatically.
    Others needed some minor code adjustments.  Deferred messages are
    functional, as is the new "template" feature.  I'll include MR2READ.ME
    for anyone that wants to get a feel for what else *might* be new.
    Also, the "TwoLine" TagStyle is now available.

o   I played around with saving window positions.  It works OK, but isn't
    quite right, particularly with regards to secondary dialog boxes.  Work
    will continue.  MR/2 PM now creates and maintains an "MR2PM.INI" file
    in the software's base directory.


Changes included in v0.97
-------------------------

o   Buttons on the Message Index dialog box are now functional.

o   Removed some unnecessary screen repaints that would occur when a
    function (e.g., Pick Thread) was canceled and the same message was
    left on the screen.

o   If CTRL-PAGEDN was used to page forward by thread, pressing the NEXT
    button would redisplay the same message immediately afterwards (only
    once).

o   Focus for reading messages now starts on the NEXT button.

o   The SPACEBAR now functions as it does in MR/2 classic (page down,
    next message if at end of current message).  NOT YET !!!!  BROKEN

o   Origin recognition enhancements inherited from MR/2 classic.  Custom
    Conference now recognize the "origin" section of a message better
    whe using the "check = origin" option.

o   After "reList"-ing packets, the focus is set on the OPEN button.

o   Thread summary listbox - sometimes the last entry would be malformed
    (characters missing from the front of the thread text).  Fixed.

o   You can now (again) double click on a packet name to open it, save file
    to save to it.

o   Pressing the Tagline button while editing a reply header would crash
    MR/2 PM.  This now works correctly.

o   Color is supported in the message viewer listbox.  I wouldn't call
    it pretty, but it's there.  A new MR2.INI entry has been added just
    for specifying PM viewer colors.  PMColor=1,2,3 ... where 1 is the
    color for quoted text, 2 the color for normal text and 3 is the
    background color.  The defaults are half-tone, black and default
    entry field color (half-tone yellow, sorta).  You may specify one,
    two or all three and let whatever's left default.  See the MR2INI.ORG
    file for colors possible.

o   Many improvements inherited from MR/2 classic.  The speed of conference
    name sorting has been dramatically improved.  Some obscure control.dat
    file problems cleared up.  Personal message beeping problem fixed.
    Minor tagline problems fixed (?).

o   Packet selection dialog sometimes had the file date/time clipped.
    This has been corrected.


Changes included in v0.96
-------------------------

o   Personal messages now beep if configured to do so.

o   The "find" text is cleared when a new conference is selected.  Old way,
    the text locator would still be in effect when a new conference was
    entered.

o   Packet path was previously lost when a packet was exited, resulting in
    an empty packet selection list.  This has been fixed.

o   If the FROM user is changed when replying, this change is remembered for
    all subsequent replies, until a new packet is selected.

o   Message viewer keyboard interface enhanced.  Up/Down arrows now scroll
    message by line; Page Up/Down by page.  Home jumps to beginning,
    End to end.  Insert key calls up INDEX (still trying to stay SLMR
    keystroke compat for some reason :)  Paging improved somewhat.

o   Added a more direct way to get message lines from the QWK engine.  The
    previous method involved querying the message line by number, walking
    through increasing number requests.  Each call resulted in the entire
    message being traversed until the line was found.  Now, the new call
    oStart = GetNextMessageLine(char *target, int oStart) speeds this up.
    Filling the message list box is now faster.

o   Columnized listboxes now display selected item in a more "correct"
    color.

o   Bookmark flags were not getting set and/or being read.  This has
    been corrected.

o   Message window now displays the bookmark flags in a minimal fashion.
    If a message has been read, a "√" is displayed next to the reference
    number.  After this, an "R" appears if the message was replied to,
    an "S" if it was saved, and a "K" if it's a reply that's been killed.

o   Taglines are now selectable via the "taglines" button.  Hot key of
    F2 not yet implemented.

o   Save Header button on reply message header now functions.

o   If using an existing packet, flags to save replies and bookmark flags
    were not being defaulted to TRUE.  This caused problems - now fixed.

o   When modifying or killing a reply, the message header and message text
    are now updated on screen when the action is complete.

o   When spawning to the editor, the path was *not* inherited from MR/2 PM.
    You would usually end up with a default path of C:\.  This cause
    problems with reply files named "reply.msg" (not fully qualified) to
    appear to be missing.  You now start editing while pathed into the
    tmp$$ working directory.

o   Enabled the "T" key when viewing a message.  This now steals the current
    message's tagline.  As with MR/2 classic, the arrow keys let you scroll
    through the message lines.  Pushbuttons are also provided for this
    purpose.

o   Save-to-file has also been enabled.  Press "S" while viewing a message.
    A file dialog screen comes up for save-file selection.  There are some
    inconsistencies here that I hope to clean up quickly ... but it does
    work.

o   Enabled the F2, F3, F9 and F10 keys on the Reply Header Edit screen
    to function as in MR/2 classic;  Pick tag, Toggle to, Save Header Only,
    Accept, respectively.  F10 won't register for some reason (it's a PM
    special "menu" key - I'll have to read up :), so I've assigned F11 as
    the "Accept" hot key (in addition to F10, which I hope to get working).

o   The "Save Header" botton when editing the message header is enabled
    only when editing an existing reply.  This allows you to modify
    the destination data w/o editing the message content.  This makes no
    sense unless the message already exists.

o   The "R" replied mark wasn't showing up immediately after a message was
    replied to.  Fixed.

o   The Page Up/Down "buttons" on the message viewer no longer obtain the
    focus when clicked on.

o   Private/Public buttons now work correctly while editing a reply's header.
    Conference name is now static text - no user editing can be performed.

o   Expanded the conferences w/mail listbox width a tad.

o   Most pushbuttons now have associated hotkeys that are underlined.  I
    may have went a little overboard, but I dunno.

o   When modifying a reply, old tagline is extracted and becomes the
    default tagline for the "new", updated reply.  This was previously
    broken.

o   There was some crazyness happening with WM_CHAR messages (keyboard
    characters) that I've kludged around.  For example, with a message
    displayed and a secondary dialog box up (pick thread, reply header,
    etc.,.) and a pushbutton highlighted, pressing the "X" key would
    prompt you to exit.  The "S" key would bring up the save dialog.
    Even stranger things would happen.  I'm not sure what I'm doing
    wrong when nesting dialogs, but I put a simple filter in that
    disables keystrokes to the message window when another dialog box
    is on top.

o   Double clicking on the system menu button, or ALT-F4'ing from either
    of the programs main screens now exits cleanly.  It used to trap.

o   MR/2 classic uses TAB/BACKSPACE while viewing a message to move
    forward/backwards an entire thread.  Since TAB is used by the PM
    dialog routines, this key is logically unavailable.  I've attached
    the same functionality to the CTRL-PAGEDN (fwd) and CTRL_PAGEUP (back)
    keys.  These work the same way in MR/2 classic - they're a carry-over
    from SLMR-compatibility days.

o   Often MR/2 PM would leave a file or conference unselected by default.
    When this occurred and ENTER was pressed, the program would process
    it as if ESCAPE was hit, either closing the packet, or exiting the
    program.  I've now taken steps to always have something selected by
    default when the dialog box is initially displayed.

o   Thread summary - message count is now columnized.

o   Custom conferences now align the line containing matching text on
    the second line of the message listbox.  Also, the alignment process,
    which is shared with the "Find" search function, now parses compound
    search strings and matches any one string.  (Previously, the PM
    listbox message LM_SEARCHSTRING was used - this was for straight
    word-for-word matches only).

o   The "Find" dialog box now displays any currently active search string.

o   The "L" key (find LAST search hit) did not function properly.  Fixed.

o   Played around with WinMessageBox to post the "Replies Exist" message.
    This is what I'll use for most confirmations, since I'm supposed to :)

o   Played with changing the color of text/quoted text in the message
    viewer.  It worked, but I'm not very happy with it.  I'm leaving it
    at this time to do quoted test in "halftone".  I'll make this optional,
    or allow a wider selection of color options.

o   The "hit" status (Hit nn/nnn) is now displayed on the message viewing
    screen if the message is part of the current search results.

o   Logging of messages (my "remote" debugging trail) is now off by default,
    but can be invoked by supplying a command-line parameter (anything).

o   The "Config" button now functions to edit the MR2.INI file.  I place
    a dialog box up that requires an "OK" when editing is complete.  This
    will be removed when I get to reading the editor's exit queue.

o   If no MR2.INI file exists, an initial one is made and you're placed in
    the E editor to make any necessary revisions.

o   If you answer NO to "use the existing open packet?", the packet is
    actually deleted.  Before, this prompt could come up several times.

o   While building the message header index (short pause on a fast machine,
    more significant on a slower machine), a "waiting" dialog is displayed.
    I need to find that snippet about setting the hour-glass mouse pointer.
    No, actually, I need to add some secondary threads to this stuff ...
    maybe this weekend.

o   Most all of the message viewer letter command found in MR/2 classic
    are now functional in MR/2 PM.  The exception seems to be the "B"
    command, read backwards w/in thread.  I'll fix this one soon :)
    The "Z" key now works (zip to first non-read in conference).

o   The "B" key (read backwards w/in thread, go to thread summary at
    beginning of thread) now functions correctly.  Note that selecting a
    thread from the thread summary places you at the FIRST message in a
    thread, not the last.

o   There's a new button on the Conference Select dialog box labeled
    "Write".  This is for composing new messages w/o a message to
    reply to.  I just have to put some code behind it now :)

o   The No QWK button is now operational on the packet select screen.
    If you depress this button, the "Pick BBS" dialog pops up and allows
    you to select a BBS.  From then on you're in "write new" mode.

o   The reply header edit dialog now has a "Conferences" button for
    selecting a different response conference.  The MR/2 classic hotkey
    F4 also maps to conference selection.  Also, the conference number
    may be plugged in by hand.  MR/2 now validates the number supplied and
    displays the conference name, or "Unknown" if a bad conference number
    is specified.

o   The Message Index dialog box now has horizontal scrollbar.  There's
    nothing to scroll yet, but the scrollbar's there :)

o   I changed the way messages are displayed when unpacking a packet and
    checking for existing replies.  This still isn't right, but it's better
    than it was.  I still need to multithread and pipe the PKZip/unzip stuff.
    That'll be first thing on the list for the next beta.

o   The Config button now properly resets the packet path, if it is changed
    in the INI file.  Previously, the path would not be changed.

o   OK, so my message index listing has a horizontal scrollbar, and I've
    got stuff to scroll.  Hmmm, I must have to actually do the scrolling,
    too.  I thought all this stuff was magic?  I guess not.

o   OK, Cancel buttons added to message index dialog.


Version 0.95 - Original ALPHA release 10/12/92
Version 0.96 - Second release - BETA  10/25/92
----------------------------------------------

No ANSI code support exists.

Message display is relatively slow, particularly on long messages.

No online HELP exists at this time.

Just for fun, here's my "to do" list in its current form.  Note that these
notes aren't intended to make sense to you ... don't worry, they do to me :)
Listing these may help identify problems I'm already aware of.  There seems
to be alot, but the thing works fairly well.

To Do's (Bugs/Fixes):
=====================
o   Long conference lists
o   Highlight search hits - define a color.
o   Alt-R & Alt-W inside editor
o   Reorder Message read buttons?
o   Expand message index, horizontal scroll bars.
o   Hit counter for searching (checking ... )

o   Online help
o   Manual

o   Keep focus out of message box - reset focus to NEXT?
o   Edit button on Save dialog doesn't work
o   No-file error checking for bulletins.
o   Config button: editor opens in the background.  Wait box is off.

To Do's (Long term enhancements):
=================================
o   Toolbar(s) instead of pushbuttons.
o   Get rid of listbox for message viewer and write to window myself,
    paging, scroll bars much faster.
o   Make 32 bit and use v2.0 controls (eg, settings in a notebook).
o   Font control - colors?  Moveable/sizeable windows?


CONTACTING THE AUTHOR
=====================

You  can contact me in a number  of ways.  Unfortunately, I can't
provide a phone number at this time.

US Mail:       Nick Knight
               1823 David Ave.
               Parma, Ohio 44134

Fido netmail:  1:157/2 to "Nick Knight"

Internet:      User "Nick Knight", ([e-mail])

Fido Echomail: Echomail messages to  me are discouraged,  as
               keeping  them "on  topic" and  interesting to
               the  masses would  be difficult.   I  do read
               OS2,  OS2PROG,  C_PLUSPLUS and DR DEBUG daily,
               though.   OFFLINE  echo also  (deals with mail
               readers), this might be THE place to ask public
               questions, eh?

               I recently have acquired access to a host of other
               networks with OS/2 conferences.  These include RIME,
               SmartNet, Uninet and some others I can't remember.

               I also do poll the Fidnet OS2PRODSUPPORT echo.

Direct BBS:    Leave a message on the Nerd's Nook BBS
               (1:157/2) at (216)  356-1772, 356-1872  or
               356-1431.   I check in here multiple times a
               day.  I will also keep the most recent copy
               of MR/2 posted here.    Other boards
               (non-local) will get updates at my  convenience.

**************************************************************************
**************************************************************************
**             NOTE:  Nerd's now supports an MR/2 conference            **
**             and file area.  Conference #208 is dedicated to          **
**             MR/2 support and files.  File area #45 contains          **
**             MR/2-related files.  Any file uploaded into              **
**             conference 208 will be placed in file area 45.           **
**************************************************************************
**************************************************************************

               Nerd's does support file requests (157/2 or 157/3)

               Optionally, I call into PC-OHIO regularly.

Compuserve:    I check in  here only  when I have  to.   Try
               mail to  my  user ID  - 76066,1240,  although
               this isn't the best approach.

Internet FTP:  Well, during normal business hours, 8-5 or later EST,
               my work machine is on the internet.  I have an anonymous
               FTP "site" setup as a directory on my machine.  This is
               a hit-or-miss proposition, but you can try it.  Ftp to
               nick.raleigh.com.  You can upload bugs, packets, notes,
               whatever.

               AGAIN, this will only be available when our company SLIP
               connection is up, when our LAN Server network is running,
               and when my machine is on (almost always).  It's very
               "hit or miss".