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1996-10-16
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Least Common Denominator Mail (LCDMAIL)
LCDMail is shareware. There are no critical limits, drop
dead dates, or dire threats. If you want to keep using the
software without paying for it, that's between you and your
conscience. Be aware, however, that you REALLY SHOULD
register it if you're going to use it. The price is quite
reasonable - it doesn't matter how many users or servers you
use LCDMail on, just send a check or money order (no cash in
the mail please!) for $25.00 (USD) payable to MWC Enterprises
and mail it to:
MWC Enterprises
121 Hook Mountain Rd.
Montville NJ 07045-9619
So, what is LCDMail anyway, and why the funny name?
---------------------------------------------------
What LCDMail is, is a simple to install, simple to operate,
e-mail system, suitable for interoffice memos and phone
messages. It will work on any LAN (or WAN) that supports
DOS file locking and access to a shared disk drive (in
other words, pretty much any LAN that I've ever seen or
heard of).
I don't know how many e-mail programs you've looked at, but
I've evaluated a dozen or so, and they uniformly range from
complex to more complex. What ever happened to software
that you didn't have to be a rocket scientist to install and
use?
The list of features that LCDMail does _NOT_ include is
quite long. There is no security to speak of, there are no
gateways to dozens of different e-mail systems, there are no
complex maintenance and repair functions, there is no full
screen graphical setup and configuration program, there are
no detailed user records to enter... On the other hand, you
should be able to get LCDMail installed and working in under
20 minutes, and you won't have to send your users to school
for it, either. You also don't need to spend a hundred
dollars or more for simple email capability.
Support and enhancements policy
-------------------------------
If you find a bug in LCDMail, I'd appreciate hearing about
it so that I can correct it in future versions. You can e-
mail me at mike.cocke@cencore.com, call my BBS (Central Core
BBS, 201-575-8991 8N1 2400-57.6K), fax me at 201-575-8944,
or drop me a letter at the address that sent your
registration check to. Voice phone calls will not be
accepted or returned under most circumstances.
I have a few ideas for additional features that will be
provided free of charge (via download from the BBS listed
above) if and when I write them. Suggestions are also
welcome. However, whether or not I ever write these
additional programs is going to depend on registrations
received - I'm not going to spend my life writing add-ons
for a program that no one registers. You might keep that in
mind when you're deciding whether to register LCDMail.
FYI, the additional features that I'm already thinking about
will be some type of security for the message files, a
simple modem transport utility so mail can be transferred
from one system to another, and a simple utility to check if
the user has mail waiting.
How to install LCDMail
----------------------
1) Set up a directory that anyone can access
(read/write/create/erase privileges) on your network.
I strongly recommend that this directory contain
nothing but the LCDMail program file(s).
2) Copy LCDMAIL.EXE into that directory.
3) On every machine that will run LCDMail, set up an
environment variable named LCDMAIL that contains the
drive and path to where you want e-mail messages for
that machine stored. I strongly recommend that these
directories be located off of the LCDMail executable
directory.
Example: Your LCDMail program is stored in Z:\LCDMAIL,
and mailboxes are stored just off of that path. You
have users named Sue, Mike, and Fred. On Mikes
computer, put
SET LCDMAIL=Z:\LCDMAIL\MIKE
in the autoexec.bat file. On Sues computer, put
SET LCDMAIL=Z:\LCDMAIL\SUE
in the autoexec.bat file. On Freds computer, put
SET LCDMAIL=Z:\LCDMAIL\FRED
in the autoexec.bat file.
That's it for installation - the first time each user runs
LCDMail, they'll be shown a message indicating that their
mailbox doesn't exist and that it will now be created. As
soon as their mailbox is created, they can receive mail.
Note that a user who has not created their mailbox in this
fashion can NOT receive mail.
Basic installation of LCDMail is now complete. I'll get
into how to make it work under windows a little further on.
For DOS and OS/2, keep reading.
Using LCDMail
-------------
As a ram-resident program under DOS
-----------------------------------
LCDMail can be made to "pop-up" over other DOS applications.
When used in this mode, LCDMail uses approximately 6K of RAM
and approximately 350K of disk space. To start LCDMail as a
"pop-up" program, use this command line to start LCDMAIL:
LCDMAIL R
(Note the space between the LCDMAIL and the R). To pop
LCDMAIL up over your current program, just press the left-
hand SHIFT key and the ALT key at the same time.
If you should want to remove LCDMail from memory after you
have loaded it, use the included SRREMOVE utility. This is
the command:
SRREMOVE LCDMAIL
After you pop-up (or pop-down) LCDMail, there may be a pause
of 1-2 seconds because LCDMail is swapping itself on and
off of your disk drive. If your screen is in text mode, you
may notice a small colored box in the upper left corner of
your display - this indicates that LCDMail is swapping.
As a normal "stand-alone" program under DOS or OS/2
---------------------------------------------------
Since OS/2 can multitask properly (do more than one thing at
a time without crashing), all you really need to do is
create a program icon for LCDMAIL.EXE on your desktop and
make certain that your LCDMail environment variable is set
properly. Contact your system administrator if you have
problems with this. Under DOS, make sure your LCDMAIL
environment variable is set properly and type LCDMAIL at a
DOS prompt.
As a normal "stand-alone" program under Windows 3.x
---------------------------------------------------
Use the included .PIF file to set up a program icon for
LCDMail on your desktop and make certain that your LCDMail
environment variable is set properly. Contact your system
administrator if you have problems with this. You'll need
to make a few changes in the .PIF file (entering the correct
drive and path for where you have located LCDMail, for
example), but LCDMail must remain as a full screen
application. Trying to use LCDMail as a windowed
application will have unpredictable results.
------------------------------------------------------------
LCDMail is pretty much menu driven (except for the editor,
which I'll explain later), and is mouse aware. The menus
work either with the mouse or the cursor arrow keys.
The main menu:
Create Message(s)
Read Message(s)
WhoAmI
Exit
is, I think, pretty self-explanatory, so I'll just cover
WhoAmI. WhoAmI is a tool for the system administrator and
for the insatiably curious. Remember the LCDMail
environment variable we discussed while installing LCDMail?
This menu choice displays your current LCDMail environment
variable on the screen. That's it.
Menu choices may be selected by pressing <ENTER> or by
clicking the right mouse button. By the way, the <ESC> key
will usually exit you from wherever you are.
------------------------------------------------------------
Creating Message(s) -
This choice will display the following sub-menu:
Editor
Load saved file
Return to main menu
The "return to main menu" should be pretty obvious. You can
send someone a previously prepared text file as a message,
which is what the "load saved file" choice is about. If you
select this choice, you'll be asked for the name of the file
and, after the file has been loaded into the editor, you'll
be looking at the...
Editor -
This editor is a little simplistic, but should be pretty
easy to use. It will hold over 800 lines of text and
supports automatic word wrap. Unfortunately, it is not
mouse-aware.
As the bottom line of the editor window reminds you, you can
press the F1 key for a list of the commands that are
available to you in the editor, so I'll skip summarizing
them here.
After you exit the editor, you'll see another menu - this
one will have the choices:
Abandon message
Save message to disk
Send message to recipient
Abandon message does just what looks like - the message is
tossed in the trash, never to return.
Save message to disk allows you to save the file from the
editor to a regular disk file, so you can work on it later
if you wish. Load saved file (from the previous menu) and
save message to disk also allow you to use LCDMail as a
simple notepad.
Send message to recipient brings us to the next screen:
To:
Subject:
Let me do this out of order so I can do the simple part
first. Subject is up to 35 characters of text. This will
display on the list of messages waiting in the recipients
mailbox, so the more descriptive the better.
To: is the name (as specified in the LCDMAIL environment
variable mentioned elsewhere) of the person that you want to
send the message to. If you make a mistake or specify a
mailbox that doesn't exist, you'll see the following menu:
OOOPS - try again
Save to disk
List mailboxes
Selecting OOOPS - try again will ask again the questions
regarding subject and recipient.
Save to disk allows you to save the message as a regular
text file. You will be asked for the filename. This may be
any valid drive, path, and filename for your system. If the
file already exists, it will be overwritten. If the drive
or path does not exist, you'll receive an error message.
List mailboxes displays a scrolling list of available
mailboxes. The cursor arrows or mouse can be used to move
the highlighted choice. Select the currently highlighted
mailbox by pressing <ENTER>.
After entering a valid recipient and subject, you'll see a
display indicating that the message has been successfully
sent, after which you'll be returned to the main menu. At
this time, LCDMail doesn't support carbon copies (you can
always save the message to a disk file and send it to
multiple recipients manually). If anyone thinks this would
be useful, it's a fairly trivial addition to make - let me
know.
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Message(s) -
Selecting this choice from the main menu will display a
scrollbox of messages in your mailbox, or else you'll see a
display indicating that you have no mail waiting. This
list, by the way, is of the subject information that the
sender typed when the message was sent.
In the scrollbox, the cursor arrows or mouse can be used to
move the highlighted choice. Select the currently
highlighted message by pressing <ENTER>.
If the message is longer than fits in the screen window, you
may use the up and down cursor arrows and/or the pageup and
pagedown keys to scroll the text.
When you have finished reading the message, press the
<ESCape> key to see the disposition menu.
The disposition menu consists of just two choices. You may
delete the message, or you may print the message. After you
have printed the message, you will be asked if printing was
ok. If you answer yes, the message will be deleted. if you
answer no, the message will be printed again, and so on into
eternity. If enough people ask for it, I'll include a
choice for leaving messages in the mailbox in a future
version, but I honestly don't see a need.
Misc. Comments
--------------
LCDMail has a maximum capacity of 256 messages in a mailbox
at a time. If this turns out to be insufficient, let me
know and I'll double it - it just seemed like a reasonable
maximum.
On the subject of registrations and bug reports: If you
find a bug in LCDMail, please let me know - whether or not
you have or are planning to register LCDMail. Even if you
don't find it useful (or are just going to use the program
without paying for it), I'd like to fix the problem before
someone else (possibly a paying customer) hits it.
On the subject of registrations and suggestions/requests for
features: If you have a feature you'd like to see added to
LCDMail and you have NOT registered LCDMail, please enclose
a check or money order for $25.00 payable to MWC Enterprises,
along with a clear and complete description of the idea or
feature, and mail it to this address:
MWC Enterprises
121 Hook Mountain Rd.
Montville NJ 07045-9619
Of course, if you HAVE registered LCDMail, you can omit the
check. <grin>
Mike-