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1994-01-23
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SEA Technical Memorandum #0209, SEAdog 4.50; Undocumented Features of MAIL
Last updated: January 26, 1989
Copyright 1988,89 by System Enhancement Associates, Inc.
SEAdog 4.50
Undocumented Features of MAIL
The purpose of this document is to document the undocumented features of
the MAIL program that comes with version 4.50 of the SEAdog electronic mail
system. These features remain undocumented, even if documented by this
document.
MAIL 4.50 provides several obscure features that are not explained in the
manual, for reasons of clarity. These features are obscure because they
deal with uses of SEAdog that the typical SEAdog user doesn't use, such as
alternate message areas.
Undocumented Command Keys
=========================
MAIL implements several undocumented command keys that are available when
reading messages, as follows:
Alt A Anchor; This was also supported in version 4.10, and is even
documented in the manual, but in an obscure location and with an
obscure description. This causes MAIL to reset your "last message
read" marker to the message just prior to your current message.
If you do this just before exiting MAIL, then your next session
will begin at the current message.
Alt K Kill; This was also supported in version 4.10, but has never been
documented. This tells MAIL to delete the current message without
asking for confirmation. This also works on the "F10 Select"
screen.
Alt R Rotate; This cause MAIL to rotate the text of the current
message, thus providing an "open cypher". Rotation consists of
shifting any character in the range of exclamation mark to tilde
(21 hex to 7E hex, inclusive) and rotate it 180 degrees. Extended
address fields are not rotated. For those who insist that others
send code, the actual C code used is:
for(p=mt; *p; p++)
{ if(*p>' ' && *p<='~')
if((*p+=47) > '~')
*p -= 94;
if(*p=='\01')
while(*++p)
if(*p == '\r')
break;
}
Rotation is a reversible algorithm, so a rotated message may be
unrotated simply by rotating it again. It should be noted that
rotation acts on disk, not merely on the display. If you rotate
(or unrotate) a message, it is now stored on your disk in rotated
(or unrotated) form. This could cause unpleasant results in some
situations, such as when you are in an echomail area that does not
have hidden seen-by data.
Additionally, Alt R may be used when entering a message, in which
case it causes MAIL to rotate the message text and save the
message.
Rotation is NOT a security technique, as anyone can easily
unrotate a message. Rotation is mostly useful for messages that
contain punch lines, movie spoilers, or scatological remarks. The
intent is to allow others to not accidentally read something they
might not have wanted to read.
Alt L Lock; This causes the current message to be locked. That is, the
file attribute on the message file is set to "read only". This
can be useful for, among other things, keeping a particular
message from being deleted by an automated process.
Alt U Unlock; This unlocks the current message. That is, it removes
the "read only" attribute from the message file.
Comma Autoscan; This causes MAIL to scan forward for any message with
your own name in the "To:" field. If MAIL reaches the last
message in your current area without finding one, it shifts to the
next area listed in your AREAS.DOG file and continues, starting at
the "last read" marker for that area. This process continues
until either a message is found (in which case it becomes your
current message), or until all areas have been exhausted (in which
case it returns to your network mail area). The scan may be
interrupted by striking any key.
Undocumented Aspects of Forwarding a Message
============================================
Forwarding a message while in the network mail area works exactly as
before.
Forwarding a message while in an alternate message area works slightly
differently. The copy going to the forwardee is placed in the network mail
area, and thus goes by network mail. Also, the name of the area (that is,
the name of the directory that contained the message) is placed in the
forwarding note, thusly:
* Originally to Kilgore Trout in area BLATZ
Undocumented Aspects of AREAS.DOG
=================================
The AREAS.DOG file is documented as listing directories which contain
messages. What is NOT documented is that an entry in AREAS.DOG may be a
file, in which case it is expected to be another list of directories in the
same format as AREAS.DOG. When selected, it causes your alternate area
list to be changed to whatever the contents of that file specifies.
Your primary list of alternate areas always begins with area zero, "Network
mail area". An alternate list of alternate areas does also, and always
follows it with area 1, "Primary message areas". Selecting this returns
you to your primary AREAS.DOG file.
If the directories listed in an alternate list are given without drive and
path qualifiers, they are assumed to be relative to the location of the
area list. For example, if your AREAS.DOG file contains an entry:
D:\MSGBASE\GROUPS.DOG Mail groups
and GROUPS.DOG contains an entry:
GROUP\BLATZ Gzorniblatz forum
Then BLATZ messages are assumed to reside in the D:\MSGBASE\GROUP\BLATZ
directory.
This is especially handy when several systems share a local area network,
which is why we put it in.