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YOURMAIL.MSG
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1993-05-12
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103 lines
Date: 05-11-93 (23:36) Number: 63189 of 63273 (Refer# 63168)
To: CHRIS SLOYAN
From: DAVID TERRY
Subj: BETA report
Read: NO Status: PUBLIC MESSAGE
Conf: BETA (6) Read Type: GENERAL (+)
-> Ok, Here is a quickie. I dialed in from the office today and read 4 new
-> messages. When I got home hours later, logged in locally,it showed me the
-> same 4 messages as UNREAD.
This would indicate that you read those messages by responding with the letter
'Y' when asked:
Read your personal mail now? (Y)es, (N)o or (A)ll?
When you answer 'Y' to this question PCBoard will display those messages to you
in READ ONLY mode. This is very logical and a little thought will reveal the
reasons why.
If there were 10 new messages waiting, and one of them, the 5th one, was for
you, and you answered 'Y' to read the mail... what would you REALLY want to
happen?
Would you want to read the 5th message and have PCBoard set the Last Message
Read pointer right there and risk LOSING (not seeing) the rest of the messages
that came be for it simply because they were not PERSONAL messages addressed to
you?
Or would you rather that PCBoard keep your Last Message Read pointer intact so
that you will be able to see the messages that you might have missed?
The obvious answer is the one that was implemented. PCBoard uses the Read-Only
mode to read your mail when you answer 'Y' to that prompt. But, here's a
difference... if you answer 'A' to that prompt you are giving PCBoard
permission to display NOT ONLY *your* messages, but all new messages (but only
in those conferences that had new mail TO YOU).
So when you answer 'A' .. you are informing PCBoard that it is okay to view all
of the messages. And therefore, none will be skipped, and none will be lost.
PCBoard will, therefore, go ahead and update the LMR pointers while you read
the messages.
Now, one "tidbit" of information for those that want to understand everything:
PCBoard v15.0 allows two different behaviors for the Read-Only command. In
prior versions, this command was strictly relegated to "sysop status" because
it allowed you to HIDE the fact that you had READ the message (by not updated
the "Read" flag in the message header) at the same time that it was avoiding
updating the LMR flags.
Well, v15.0 splits the Read-Only command into two separate behaviors:
1) Not updated the Read Flag in the message header
2) Not update the Last Message Read pointers
The Read-Only command is useful, and useable, to ALL callers of a v15.0 system
for behavior #2. But behavior #1 still requires a sysop level (as specified in
PCBSetup Security Levels).
So... there is a slight difference between what YOU, as a sysop, see and what
a CALLER sees when responding 'Y' to the "Read your personal mail now?" prompt.
A caller, when answering 'Y', will see his mail AND the Read Flag will be
updated on that message when he reads it. (but the LMR pointers will NOT be
updated)
A sysop, on the other hand, will NOT update the Read Flag unless he specifies
'A' to read all new messages.
This has one further implication: The "Read your personal mail now?" prompt
tries to AVOID making a caller see the same messages he has already seen IN
SPITE OF his LMR pointers not being updated. It does this by showing only
"un-read" mail.
The sysop, however, may see his mail twice if he doesn't delete it! The
reason? Because the Read Flag is not updated for the sysop (because the Read
Only command for sysops does not update Read Flags), PCBoard will be unable to
detect whether or not you have already seen the message.
Of course, an easy fix would be to set the security level for the Read-Only
sysop command (in PCBSetup) to a level higher than your own level. :-)
To sum it all up, answering 'Y' to "Read your personal mail now?" results in
the following command being issued, invisibly, by PCBoard, to the message
subsystem:
R;O;Y;U;WAIT
This command translates to:
R Read messages
O in Read-Only mode
Y Filtering to read just personal mail (TO YOU)
U Filtering to read only UN-read mail
WAIT Scanning all conferences that have been 'flagged' as
having mail waiting for you
For an in-depth discussion on "mail waiting flags" read backwards from here
a message or to and you'll find a long detailed message from me on the subject.
I hope I've covered everything clearly without being too verbose...