Amiga Plus Extra 1997 #5

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AEMAIL.README (July 6, 1997) Contained in this archive is version 1.21 of AEMail, an Internet Mail User Agent (Client), which can be used to retrieve mail fron a POP Server and send mail to a SMTP server. It requires a TCP/IP stack that is compatable with AmiTCP, and AmigaDOS 2.1 or later. AEMail has been successfully tested with TCP/IP stacks used by AmiTCP, TermiteTCP, and Miami. AEMail can also be used as a "MailTo" agent in WWW browsers, such as Voyager and AWeb, which allow the user to specify such an agent for composing and sending email. This is a maintenance version which corrects a number of bugs found with Version 1.20. A complete list of changes and the bugs corrected with version 1.21 is given at the end of this file and also in the AEMail.guide file. Version 1.20, which was released earlier this week, was a major update. It significantly changed the way messages were composed. It allowed both the creation of quoted-printable and BASE64 message bodies for transmitting 8-bit message text. It also removed the restriction on the use of CED as your editor. The 1.20 version also used a redesigned command tool bar (in color and smaller!) and folder tool bar and implemented cursor control of listview displays and drag selection for users of AmigaDOS 3.0 and above. Further enhancements to the cursor control and command tool bar have been added in version 1.21. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING -------------------------------------------------------------------------- When you send your first message with any new version AEMail, a special "Notification" message will be sent to me. Besides the normal header information, the body of this message will contain the following information (obtained from your configuration file): Your email address Your Real Name Your POP3 Server name Your SMTP Server name Your SMTP Domain Name Your editor call The version of the Exec (OS) that you are using Your Display ID (from the screen mode setting) Your Overscan Type (from the screen mode setting) Base configuration file name Currently active configuration file name Mail directory This information is provided to help me determine and debug problems with AEMail. Future versions may contain more or less information as the need arises. Most of the Internet information is public information and can be obtained from your service provider. I WILL KEEP THIS INFORMATION IN STRICT CONFIDENCE. IF YOU DO NOT WANT THIS INFORMATION DIVULGED TO ME, DO NOT USE AEMAIL! ----------------- I am including this warning because of concerns expressed to me by some people. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Later versions of AEMail are planned which will provide: AREXX Support Filtering incoming messages to specified folders Asynchronous retrieval of messages from a POP server Asynchronous sending of messages to the SMTP server Even faster message display routines with several added features including saving portions of the message to the clipboard and transferring embedded email addresses to the address book. Built in message editor Other features suggested by users AEMAIL is copyright (c) 1996, 1997 by John F. Zacharias, all rights reserved. This version is NOW Shareware. A shareware fee of $30 is requested for AEMail. The shareware fee (US Funds only) should be sent to: John Zacharias 10004 Vanguard Drive Sacramento, CA 95827 USA You must include your Real Name and email address with your remittance. A handy form has been provided in the file "registration.form" which you can print out and use for this purpose. If you have more than one email address with more than one AEMail_Mail directory, please include ALL these addresses on the "registration.form". Your registration will be acknowledged by email that must be received by AEMail version 1.15 or higher. For the un-registered "Freeware" version, permission is given to to test and evaluate the program in return for feedback on the use of the program and reporting of any bugs encountered. This archive contains the following: The AEMAIL executable The Install_AEMail install script for installing AEMail. This AEMAIL.README file AEMAIL documentation in the file AEMail.doc (for printing) AEMail documentation in AmigaGuide format in the file AEMail.guide StartNet and StopNet scripts for Miami A sample mailcap file to be used with AmigaDos 3.0 or above Registration form. Before attempting to use AEMail you should read the documentation in AEMail.guide AND the INSTALL.TXT file. After the install process the default tool for the AEMail.guide file will be MultiView if you are running under 3.0 or later, or AmigaGuide if you are running under 2.1. AEMAIL, version 1.21, release date: 07/06/97 Version 1.20 was the first version of AEMail to provides certain features only to registered users (those paying the shareware fee). These features (not available to unregisterd users) are: Ability to use multiple signature files. Ability to add user defined headers to a message. Ability to shrink or expand group entries in Address Book displays. Enhanced speed on message displays. Password protection for separate configurations. For those of you that have used AEMail 1.15, you will notice that for un-registered users, the display speed for messages will return to what it was prior to release 1.15. As payment for receiving and using the un-registered BETA version of AEMAIL, I would like any bugs, comments, or suggestions reported to me. You can send me email at jzachar@calweb.com A entry will be automatically added to your address book with a nickname of AEMAIL which can be used for routing email to me. I would also like reports of bugs, any comments, or suggestions reported by registered users. I would appreciate any suggestions that you have for improving AEMAIL. I will not guarantee that I will accept all suggestions or that I will necessarily implement them in the next release; however, I do take each suggestion seriously. In the past I have implemented a number of suggestions made by my testers. I will attempt to respond to each suggestion that is made. In making suggestions keep in mind some of the restraints that I have placed on AEMAIL: (1) The program should be able to be run on any version of AmigaDos 2.1 or greater, and (2) with the exception of a TCP/IP compatible with AmiTCP (AmiTCP, TermiteTCP or Miami), AEMAIL should not require any extension to your system that does not come with a standard AmigaDOS release. This effectively rules out MUI. Using an editor of your choice meets this criteria since you can use the standard AmigaDOS editors, ED or MEMACS, which come with the standard Amiga systems. Reports of bugs or inconsistancies in the documentation are also appreciated. When reporting bugs or making suggestions, please be as complete as possible in describing the circumstances that brought about the problem or how the suggestion could be implemented. If you give this program to anyone else to use and evaluate, please include the complete archive including the readme and documentation files and make clear to them that this is a un-registered prelimary version of the program. An automatic notification procedure has been provided which will automatically send me an email message the first time any mail is sent from AEMAIL. This message will also be sent any time the user upgrades to a new version or re-installs AEMail. When I recieve the notification message your email address is placed in a database for informing you of updates. If you do not want to be so informed, send me email to that effect and your name will be removed from the database. THE FUTURE This version of AEMail is version 1.21, and is the fourteenth BETA release. At this point it is still under evaluation and several planned enhancements are yet to be completed. The un-registered "Freeware" version can be distributed to any and all BBS's provided the entire archive is kept intact. I have my own "home page" where the latest version can be obtained. The URL for my home page is http://www.calweb.com/~jzachar New major releases will also be posted to AmiNet. However, my home page may contain special "interum" or "test" releases that may not be posted to AmiNet. As a user of the program you will receive update notices via email. When certain features such as: AREXX Background retrieval and sending of mail. Directing retrieval of mail to selected folders. are implemented, a number of these features may be disabled until the shareware fee is paid. However, once the shareware fee is paid, it will be recognized as being paid by future version provided that there is no increase in the shareware fee. -John Zacharias July 6, 1997 jzachar@calweb.com http://www.calweb.com/~jzachar VERSION HISTORY Version 1.21 Released July 6, 1997. Major corrections to this release are: A major bug has been corrected in which lines greater than 78 characters could cause AEMail to hang or guru when exiting from the Compose screen. Depending on your screen dimensions, some of the gadgets on the Compose screen could have overlayed others, especially at the bottom of the screen. This was partially caused by the use of large Screen fonts in the screen and window titles (set by the Fonts Preferences). AEMail now more intelligently calculates the placement of gadgets on the Compose screen. It also forces the use of the Topaz 8 font for screen and window titles. The word wrap feature in the display window was not taking full advantage of the width of the listview. The EXPAND checkmark gadget in the address book displays did not work properly with certain screen widths. If you were display a message when you decided to Compose a reply, the message did not remain selected so that you could delete or transfer it without re-selecting it. The message now remains selected until you exit from the message display. New cursor commands have been added to the control of the listviews. They include: "Home" or "Cursor Left" moves the listview to the top. "End" or "Cursor Right" moves the listview to the botton. "PgUp" or "Shift Cursor Up" pages the listview one "page" up. The top line of the previous page will be displayed as the bottom line of the new page. "PgDn" or "Shift Cursor Down" pages the list view one "page" down. The bottom line of the previous page will be displayed as the top line of the new page. The cursor up/down keys on the keypad will have the same action as the normal cursor keys with the exception of the shift feature. The slider bar on the message listview did not move the message as you moved the slider, but only when you released the left button. The listview now moves as you move the slider. Some of the command tool bars have been modified - primarily as to color. Two new command tool bar icons have been added corresponding to the menu items Copy Messages and Transfer Messages. These are placed after the delete icon and before the startnet icon. The copy icon looks like two sheets of paper and the transfer icon looks like a sheet of paper with arrows going out horizontally. Mode requester in the General Parameters Configuration page now displays the current screen mode in the requester. The problem with hacks or commodities that moved a window to the front when you clicked into it such as the "Click-To-Front" commodity (the folder window disappeared) has been corrected. Any other hack or commodity that automatically brings the current window to front either when you click on it or when you pass the cursor over it, should work now. Please let me know if you are still having problems. Version 1.20 Released July 1, 1997. Major enhancements and corrections in this release are: For registered users you can use password protection to access AEMail. This is particularly useful for multiple user configurations. The command tool bar as been re-designed and re-arranged. The icons are now in color and several new ones have been added including: Display Previous Folder's Message List Display Current Folder's Message List Display Next Folder's Message List Start TCP/IP Network Connection Terminate TCP/IP Network Connection The folder icon bar has been re-designed and made smaller. Since the vertical and horizontal size of each folder icon depends on the font used, the font and size for the folder bar can be user defined. The Compose Message window has been completely revised. It now allows message text to be encoded with printed-quotable and BASE64 encoding. Also, when calling your editor, the compose window is re-activated when you save and quit from the editor. Only the body of the message appears in the editor window. This change makes the use of any editor that relenquishes control (such as CygnusEd (CED)) usable without any special considerations. You can save messages from the Compose Message window in either the PENDING or QUEUED folders or you can immediately send them. The Address Book when called from the Compose Message window will normally have only the Group header without the members of the group shown. For registered users, you will be able to expand the group names, however. Also, the Address Book, when called from the Compose window, will not have the data entry fields for adding addresses to the Address Book (although there is an option to call the complete Address Book). For registered users, when you directly call the Address Book, you will be able to "shrink" the Groups to show only the Group header. For registered users, different signature files are possible. For registered users, additional user headers can be defined. Attachments can use "quoted-printable" encoding. When composing messages that are stored in the PENDING or QUEUED folders the system will "remember" previous attachments and additional headers that were added. When editing messages, the message that is edited will be completely removed from the PENDING or QUEUED folder rather than marked deleted. For all major list views, you can use the cursor keys to move the lists up or down. For users of AmigaDOS 3.0 or above, "drag select" has been implemented for the Message list. You can "select" multiple messages by holding the left mouse button down and dragging it over several messages. The messages counts that are shown in the folder icons will have deleted messages subtracted out. Several new menu items have been added including the ability to "hide" deleted messages and to show only unread messages. You can also force a reply to a message to the "From:" address even if there is a "Reply-To:" address. If you print a message, it will be marked as "un-read" the same as if you displayed it. If you are reading a message when you receive additional messages, delete a message, or print a message, the display will remain on the message and not switch to the message list. A &(to) parameter has been added to the "Quote Header" for quoted replies. Corrected a problem where (fwd) was not recognized at the end of the subject line. AEMail will now recognize the (fwd) at either the beginning or end of the line. Compose now also places the (fwd) correctly at the end of the subject line. Other minor corrections have been made. Version 1.15 Released April 5, 1997. Major corrections to this release are: The message display routines have been speeded up considerably. As a result of this, the restriction which prevented text attachments from being "shown" in the message window if they exceeded 5000 characters has been lifted. Further increases in message display speed will be implemented in future releases. Foreign character sets requiring 8-bit display are now correctly shown and sent provided your provider can handle 8-bit encoding. Other encoding methods, such as "quoted-printable" on output, are not handled as yet. They will be handled in a future version. When messages are marked for deletion, the on-disk configuration file is NOT updated. This greatly speeds up the deletion marking process. The downside of this is that, if the system crashes or your system is turned off before AEMail terminates, these messages will not be deleted or remain marked for deletion when AEMail is re-loaded. Daylight Saving Time was only being calculated correctly for the United States. The United Kngdom and Europe use "Summer Time" which starts one week before DST in the United States (last Sunday in March rather than the first Sunday in April). This has been corrected. By using a special AEMail tz environmental variable you can now specify time zone increments in half hours and with names longer than 3 characters (up to 9 characters for both Standard Time and Daylight Savings/Summer Time). In versions prior to 1.15, whenever you sent your first email (and, as a result, sent the registration message), the ABOUT window would indicate you were "** REGISTERED **. This is no longer true. The "** REGISTERED **" designation will only occur when your shareware fee is acknowledged. The Installation script has been modified so that it no longer copies the sys:rexxc directory to C:. Instead, an assign statement has been added which adds the assignment of SYS:REXXC to C:. Version 1.14 Released March 20, 1997. Minor correction release. Fixed Installation script (Install_AEMail). It would not properly install AEMail if AEMail had not been installed previously. Insured that the Mail directory and the Mailcap directories ended with either ':' or '/'. If the definitions did not, an '/' was appended to the path definitions. Corrected a problem where the Mailcap directory was being used instead of the Mail directory hor the .header file (this was not apparent in the Mail directory and the Mailcap directory were the same). Corrected a problem where the .header file was being read before the configuration file. This again probably would not have been an apparent problem. Corrected a problem with the "Remove DELETED Msgs" menu item in which selecting [CANCEL] would go ahead and delete the messages anyway. [CANCEL] will now exit without deleting any messages. Corrected a problem when AEMail was called from the shell. The "config=" parameter was not working properly. It now works correctly. Version 1.13 Released March 10, 1997. AEMail now allows for multiple configuration files. The "Project/Configuration" menu item now has five sub-items: "Open", "Edit", "Save", "Save As" and "Restore Default" The old "Save Settings" and "Restore Settings" menu items have been removed. A "Save As" button has been added to the Configuration screen. To accomodate multiple configurations, the "Mail Directory" has been removed from the "Paths" Configuration page. It is still available as a Tool Type, however. A CONFIG= Tool Type has been added to allow AEMail to start up with a specified configuration file. Miami Start Net and Stop Net scripts have been provided. A special CygnusEd script has been provided to properly use CygnusEd (CED) as your editor. If a message file is missing, AEMail no longer terminates if you try to access that file. A busy pointer has been added to a number of processes. When AEMail terminates and you don't want to check for mail, AEMail no longer attempts to access your POP server. This can result in a requester, however, that states you are online, even when you are not. Duplicate hot key menu calls have been eliminated. The Install script has been modified to provide for the added configuration items. "text/*" and "message/*" have been added to the mailcap file using MultiView (3.x users only). This allows you to view long text attachments that are not "SHOWN" (see Version 1.12 enhancement). Other minor corrections have been made. Version 1.12 Released February 15, 1997. This version was a special version without updated documentation or install script. It was not uploaded to AmiNet. It featured the following corrections and enhancements: The configuration screens have been totally revamped. Some new items have been added and others re-named or moved to other configuration 'pages'. The heading for the "Required" screen has been changed to "Identity" to more clearly indicate its purpose and the buttons to call the various configuration 'pages' have been moved to the top of the screen. When you select a configuration page, the button for that page will "light" up and stay "lit" while you are on that page. A From: (your email address), Reply To: and Organization item has been added to the "Identity" page. New Tool Types have also been added to correspond to these items. The "Mail Directory:" item has been moved to the "PATHS" page and "Edit Call:" to the "GENERAL" parameter page. The TCP Logging File process has been changed to provide additional menu control over the logging file. A new menu sub-group called "TCP Logging File" has been added under the "TCP/IP" menu group. This sub-group has three menu sub-items called "Active", "Purge", and "Display/Edit...". A new checkmarked item is added under the "TCP Logging File:" item in the PATHS page of the configuration screen called "TCP Logging active on AEMail startup". Under the Folders menu group, an item called "Remove DELETED Msgs" has been added. This will IMMEDIATELY delete ALL messages marked for deletion in the current active folder. A new menu item has been added under the "Messages" menu group called "Edit...". When you reply to a message, the compose message routine will first try to send the reply to any "Reply-To:" address that was in the message you are replying to. If the "Reply-To" header was not present, it will then send the reply to the "From:" header address. The same applies to transferring addresses to the address book. If you want to transfer the address from a message you are reading (by clicking on the address book icon), it will first try to transfer the address in the "Reply-To: header. If that is not present, it will use the "From:" header address. YOU CAN FORCE it to use the "From:" header address by pressing the SHIFT key when you click on the Address Book. There was a limitation (or bug) in the address book routine which limited the number of addresses you could store in a group to 255. This limitation has been lifted. You can now store up to 32,000 addresses in a group. The address book screen has been modified to include a check mark item for group addresses to send only the group header in any message sent to a group rather than the email addresses of each member of the group. When sending a message to a group, the messages will be sent in groups of 50. This is to allow for limitations in some SMTP servers that will not allow a message to be sent to more then a difinitive number of recipients. Most SMTP servers should be able to handle 50 recipients at a time. A busy pointer is now being displayed while a message is being read into the viewer. You can not scroll the message display while this busy indicator is being displayed. Attachments that are text attachments are generally shown in the message window itself with "SHOWN" indicated for the attachment in the Attachment requester. The behaviour of AEMail has been changed for messages with attachments exceeding 5000 bytes. Now, with such messages, the text attachment will not be shown, but you would be able to save it with the attachment requester. The buttons to call up file requesters have been changed from "DIR" to "REQ". Other minor corrections have been made including the recognition of additional UUencoding formats. Version 1.11 Released October 14, 1996. This version corrects some minor bugs as follows: Corrected the installation script which incorrectly identified the "Amitcp:bin" directory. Corrected bug that did not allow files in the file requester for the "stopnet" script in the Configuration screen. Implemented the 9 character NickName for the address book that was suppose to be implemented in Version 1.10. Made minor revisions in the printout formats for message lists and the address book. Corrected the display of dates in the mm/dd/yy format when the year was beyond 2000. Version 1.10 Released September 29, 1996. The following bugs have been corrected (includes bugs corrected with Versions 1.04 a, b, and c.): Corrected bug caused by multiple line SMTP responses. This would result in a "hang" when trying to send messages. Prevents a GURU (8000005 - Divide-By-Zero error) from occuring when AEMail was unable to determine the size of a message that was being retrieved from the POP Server. Corrected a bug in which not enough memory was being allocated for error message requester displays. This caused a GURU after the error message was displayed. When a group address book entry had an actual UserID rather than a Nickname for one of it's addresses, the entire group was not sent. A guru or freeze occurred when reading certain messages. These messages had an incomplete Content-Type: header. Some requester windows had overlapping fields when a large Screen Text font was used. If you tried to change your .signature file after you composed a message, you could not save your .signature file (the .signature file was left open). If you composed a message without an ending Carriage Return and you added attachments, the attachments were not correctly recognized. AEMail now forces a Carriage Return before attachments are added to the file. Headers were not being printed when you printed a message. Did not properly decode quoted-printable Content-Transfer- Encoding. Times from 12 noon to 1 PM and from 12 midnight to 1 AM were incorrectly displayed. Changed from 0:xx PM to 12:xx PM and from 0:xx AM to 12:xx AM. Changed install script so that it does not require AmiTCP: assign or TermiteTCP environmental variable at the Novice level. If the AmiTCP: assign is not present, AEMail will be installed in a AEMAIL directory on your largest disk partition. Also corrected some problems with install script. Did not save default "Save Attachment Path" in AEMail.cnfg file. Version 1.04c Limited release on September 11, 1996. Corrected bug caused by multiple line SMTP responses. Version 1.04b Limited release on September 4, 1996. Corrected divide-by-zero error with progress indicator. Version 1.04a Limited release on September 2, 1996. Added the time zone capability and corrected a number of bugs. Version 1.03 Released August 28, 1996 Corrects bug in which clicking on a folder after the folder strip was slid to the side selected the wrong folder. This occurred when more folders were present than could fit on the display. The correction of this bug was considered important enough to immediately release this version. Corrected a bug when messages that were not read were transferred to another folder. The number of unread messages on the folder strip was incorrect. Also, if you delete a message that was unread, it will reduce the unread count for that folder (the total message count still includes messages marked for deletion). If you undelete a message that was never read, the unread count will increase. Version 1.02 Released August 25, 1996 Major bug found and corrected! When sending email there was a problem with parsing the email addresses of the recipients of the message which could cause the system to freeze or guru. Made minor changes to accomodate TCP/IP stacks other than AmiTCP, but which are compatable with AmiTCP. Tested with TermiteTCP and Miami. Added arguments when invoking AEMail from the shell. This was to allow AEMail to be used as a "mailto" agent with several Amiga web browsers. Tested with Voyager and AWeb. Consult AmigaGuide (MultiView) document for how to implement this feature. Set default editor to C:ed. Made changes to install script to create an easier installation. Corrected bug when Text Attachments had lines longer than 100 characters. Changed Start Net and Stop Net menu items to provide for starting and stopping the network connection when your TCP/IP does not provide an automatic way to start or stop the Internet connection (signing onto your provider). See the AmigaGuide (MultiView) document on the TCP/IP parameters of the Configuration screen on how this function works. (some of the above changes were in the 1.01 release) Version 1.01 Released August 5, 1996 Limited release incorporating some changes for TermiteTCP. Version 1.0 Released July 24, 1996. First BETA release. This is the first public version of AEMAIL released at the Sacramento Amiga Computer Club meeting. The release includes the complete AEMAIL package including an installation script and documentation in AmigaGuide (MultiView) format. Version 0.06 Released July 8, 1996. Last ALPHA release. Implemented expanded configuration windows. Added feature in which AEMAIL periodically checks for mail on your POP Server. Added the "Iconify AEMAIL" feature and the menu item that supports it. Version 0.05 Released June 18, 1996 Added UUENCODED attachment support. Added "Change Password" capability to main "Configure" window. Added requirement that minimum configuration data be entered prior to starting AEMAIL. Added QUEUED message check at program startup and when StartNet script is executed. Added POP message and QUEUED message check at program termination. Version 0.04 Released June 2, 1996 Added the "About" menu item. Added the delete folder menu item. Implemented the printing of messages with your preferences printer. Added "Progress" Windows to both the Send Message and Receive message processes. AEMAIL now automatically recognizes whether it is connected to your Internet provider on program startup. A Tool Type was added (AUTOCONNECT=YES) which automatically executes the StartNet script at program startup. Added check to automatically to see if any messages are currently available on your POP server at program startup or when the StartNet script is executed. Version 0.03 Released on May 21, 1996 Added the "Startnet" and "Stopnet" menu items under a new "AmiTCP" menu and added the Tool Types to specify the calls for the STARTNET and STOPNET scripts. Added the Configuration screen activated by the "Configuration" menu item under the PROJECT menu. Version 0.02 Released on April 20, 1996. Added MIME support for attachments. Version 0.01 Released on March 20, 1996. First ALPHA version. This initial version could handle sending and retrieving text messages only; no attachment capability was present. Certain features were not yet available and configuration was by Tool Types only.