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__________ _______ _______ _______ _______ // _______ / __ __ / / _____/ / _____/ / _____/ / /__ / // / ___ / / / / / / / / /____ / / / /__ / / / / // / / / / / / /_/ / / /____ / / / __ / ___/ / / / / // / / /\/ / / / / _____/ / / /__/ / / /____ / /__/ / // / /__/\ \ / / / / /______/ /______/ /______/ /_/____/ // /______/\_\ // _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ Msged/Q A Freely Available QuickBBS Compatible Message Editor Version 1.60 Copyright 1991 by Pieter Muller All Rights Reserved Manual Written and Compiled by Simon Driver and Pieter Muller Copyright 1991 July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 2 1. Introduction.................................................3 1.1 Disclaimer.............................................3 1.2 Author's Address.......................................3 1.3 Version Numbers........................................3 2. What you need................................................3 2.1 A Point System.........................................3 2.2 A QuickBBS System......................................4 3. Installation.................................................4 3.1 Point Installation.....................................4 3.2 QuickBBS Installation..................................5 3.3 Batch Files............................................5 4. Configuration................................................6 4.1 Where Msged/Q gets it's area information...............6 4.2 Adding New Areas.......................................6 4.3 Configuration Keywords.................................7 4.4 Configuration Flags...................................13 4.5 Debugging config files................................14 4.6 Origin Line Overrides.................................15 5. Using Msged/Q...............................................15 5.1 Starting Up...........................................15 5.2 Reading Messages......................................15 5.3 Entering Messages.....................................21 5.3.1 Message Header.................................21 5.3.2 Carbon Copies..................................22 5.3.3 Editing Message Text...........................22 6. Tips and Tricks.............................................23 6.1 Backing Up Your Message Base..........................23 6.2 Local Message Areas...................................23 6.3 Moving Messages to another area.......................23 6.4 Using only CONFIG.BBS.................................23 6.5 Quoting multiple messages.............................24 6.6 Combining config files................................24 7. Distribution and Source Code................................24 8. Acknowledgements............................................24 9. Revision History............................................25 July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 3 1. INTRODUCTION Msged/Q is a message editor which was designed for the QuickBBS message base. It was developed primarily for point use, but it can also be used by QuickBBS sysops. It is based on the Msged 1.99 source code of Jim Nutt, with his permission, and has inherited all it's features. This manual is based on the Msged 1.99 manual and various addendums written by the author. 1.1 Disclaimer This software is distributed free of charge and with no restrictions on its use in non-commercial settings. If, for any reason, you decide to use this program in a commercial application, please contact the author at the address listed below. This program is guaranteed to work only on the author's own computer system in his home! Use of this program is at your own risk and the author cannot be held responsible in any way for anything that happens as a result of your using Msged/Q. Remember, you got this program for free and the source code is available. 1.2 Author's Address Please don't bother Jim Nutt with questions about Msged/Q. The author can be contacted in one of the following ways. Netmail: Pieter Muller at 5:7102/11@Fidonet Internet: pmuller@cs.sun.ac.za Paper Mail: P.O. Box 7124 7600 Stellenbosch South Africa 1.3 Version Numbers All versions will be numbered in the #.## (two decimal digits). Beta versions will have a non-zero second decimal digit, being the beta release number. 2. WHAT YOU NEED Check the following lists to make sure that you have all the programs you need. These lists represents the minimum software requirements. 2.1 A Point System In addition to the Msged/Q executable and manual, you need a QuickBBS message packer for your netmail and echomail and other QuickBBS message base utilities for message maintenance. You need at least the following files for your point setup. Talk to your pointnet host to find out where to find these programs. Note that Fidonet software are continually updated and new packages appear all the time. Therefore this list may not be up to date. July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 4 Program Function Where? MSGEDQ.EXE Message Editor (included) QECHO.EXE Import/Export Echomail QNET_263.ZIP MAILSCAN.EXE Export Netmail QNET_263.ZIP MAILTOSS.EXE Import Netmail QNET_263.ZIP MSGEDQ.DOC Manual for Msged/Q (included) QUICKBBS.DOC QuickBBS manual QDOC_261.ZIP MSGUTILS.EXE Message maintenance QUTL_262.ZIP (in QEXE_263.ZIP) MSGPACK.EXE Message maintenance MSGPK24B.ZIP (or QUPD_204.ZIP) In a Binkley environment you will also need a mail packer like oMMM (OMMM_140.ZOO) or Qmail (QM_100.LZH). Sample config files are included. You will also need an archiver like PKZIP, PKARC or LHARC. Msged/Q has been used with the ZmailQ mail processor. It has also been used with FrontDoor and D'Bridge. 2.2 A QuickBBS System You will already have the required QuickBBS programs installed, so you only need the files included here. 3. INSTALLATION Msged/Q was designed with easy installation in a QuickBBS/BinkleyTerm environment in mind. It makes use of most of the data files that are already necessary for the other programs needed to operate a QuickBBS or Point system, but it can use it's own separate configuration file if necessary. 3.1 Point Installation o Extract all the files needed into an empty directory. o Read the sections on The Message Base, Netmail and Echomail, and Qecho in the QuickBBS manual and modify the sample QECHO.CTL for your system. o Modify the origin line and the conference names and numbers (called boards by QuickBBS) in the sample AREAS.BBS file supplied so that you receive the correct areas from your point host. The conference names have to be exactly the same as the names of the conferences you are receiving from your point host. You can use any board number from 1 to 200 as long as the number is unique for each conference. Some mail processors might require that you use consecutive board numbers. o Modify IMPORT.BAT, EXPORT.BAT, BINKLEY.CFG and MSGEDQ.CFG for your system so that the directories referenced and other commands are correct. July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 5 Now that your point has been set up correctly, it is time to tell Msged/Q to create the various other files that are needed by the QuickBBS utilities. Run Msged/Q with the following command line: MSGEDQ -n<Directory Name of NETMAIL messages> This will create the QuickBBS USERS.BBS and CONFIG.BBS files using the information found in the Msged/Q configuration files. The QuickBBS utilities use the information in CONFIG.BBS so you should use this command line switch every time you add to or modify your conference configuration. The IMPORT.BAT file is used to unpack new mail received from your pointnet host. The EXPORT.BAT file is used just before you call your host to export all new mail entered by you. (You can change messages before they are exported with the <Alt-C> command. If you change a message after it has been exported, it will be exported again). 3.2 QuickBBS Installation If you already have your QuickBBS system set up to send and receive netmail and echomail, all you need to do is use the MsgedQ.Exe file. You should run Msged/Q with the "-q" command line switch so that it takes all the information it needs from CONFIG.BBS and AREAS.BBS. You can create a MSGEDQ.CFG file if you want to override the information found in these files. You should never use the "-n" command line parameter if you are running QuickBBS. The "-n" parameter causes Msged/Q to overwrite your CONFIG.BBS and USERS.BBS files and is required for points setups so that they don't need to run QConfig. You can modify the MSG.BAT file for your system. Use this file to run Msged/Q and to pack newly entered netmail and echomail automatically. 3.3 Batch Files If you are planning to run a well designed point system, it is important to make use of the batch files supplied and ones that you create yourself. In order to facilitate this, Msged/Q provides you with some exit codes that can be trapped using the DOS errorlevel system. The following codes are used, others can be assumed to be errors. 0 No New Mail Entered 1 New NetMail Entered 2 New Echomail Entered 3 New Net and Echomail Entered July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 6 4. CONFIGURATION 4.1 Where Msged/Q gets it's area information Msged/Q can get its area information from a number of sources. The first source searched is the board configuration in CONFIG.BBS (if you specified the "-q" command line switch. Next, AREAS.BBS is searched. Lastly, the Msged/Q configuration file is searched for "quick" statements defining message areas. Some of these files do not provide all the information needed for the area description. It is important that the message board numbers be consistent throughout your system, i.e. if an area is listed in several of these configuration files, you should use the same board number in all the different files. The following table shows which kind of information is listed in each type of configuration file. Board Echo Board Board Type Tag Descr. Number CONFIG.BBS yes no yes yes AREAS.BBS yes yes no yes MSGEDQ.CFG yes yes yes yes Msged/Q doesn't use the Echo tag directly, but it can display it for you on the areas screen. If it can't find a board description, it will use the echo tag. 4.2 Adding New Areas If you are a QuickBBS sysop, you should modify your AREAS.BBS and CONFIG.BBS files in the normal way. If you are a PointOp you should add a unique board number in AREAS.BBS. If you want to add a descriptive name to a conference, you can add a "quick" statement to your MSGEDQ.CFG file. The format is: Quick Mail|Local|Echo [pcks] "Description" boardno [tag] Only one of Mail, Local or Echo must be present. These keywords define Netmail, Echomail or Local message areas respectively. The [pcks] flags are optional and set the Private, Crash, Kill/Sent and SoftCR bits on Netmail. The [tag] is only required for Echo boards. If you are a PointOp and you have modified your areas configuration you should run Msged/Q with the following command line: MSGEDQ -n<Directory Name of NETMAIL messages> Which will re-create the CONFIG.BBS and USERS.BBS files with the new information. July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 7 4.3 Configuration Keywords These are all the statements that Msged/Q recognizes in it's configuration file. The keywords contain a subset of the keywords from the BinkleyTerm and Msged configuration files. This allows you to add your Msged/Q-specific configuration information to your BINKLEY.CFG file. Msged/Q will use all the BinkleyTerm statements it recognizes. If quotation marks are shown, they are required. Alternatives are indicated with "|". Optional parts are between square brackets, "[...]". The source of each configuration statement is shown at the right of the line containing the keyword. The source can be "Binkley", "Msged", "Msged/Q" or "Msged 2.00". Although Msged 2.00 is not yet available, the author used some of the ideas that are being incorporated in Msged 2.00 by following the MSGED echo. Address Zone:Net/Node.Point@Domain Binkley This is your node number with point and domain being optional. The current version doesn't handle multiple address statements and will use the last one found. Application AppName [params ...] Binkley If AppName is "Msged" or "MsgQ" Msged/Q will parse the rest of the line as if it is a normal configuration statement. Any other values for AppName is ignored totally. This command is defined by Binkley and allows you to include application-specific configuration information in your Binkley configuration file. Attrib AttributionLine Msged/Q This command sets the Attribution line that is used when quoting messages. The default attribution line is "In a message of <$d>, $f ($a) writes:". This, like the quote string is totally configurable. $d Date of the message that you're quoting $f Who the message that you're quoting was from $t Who the message that you're quoting was to $a The address of the message that you're quoting See "Quote" for more information on spacing etc. but you might come up with something that looks like: Attrib "In a message to $t on $d, $f scribbled ..." Attrib "Original $d was from $f to $t" July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 8 Attrib "$f said:" The attribution line can be disabled by setting it to the empty string, "". Try to keep the attribution line short, remember to leave space for the expansion of the "$" macros. BBSFiles DirectoryName Msged/Q See "QuickBBS". Color ColourArea Foreground/Background Msged See "Colour". Colors ... Binkley See "Colours". Colour ColourArea Foreground/Background Msged The following ColourArea values may be used: Normal, Warn, Quote, Block, Info, Hilite The following colours are recognized (only the first three letters are significant): Black, Blue, Green, Cyan, Red, Magenta, Yellow (or Brown) and White (or Gray). You can append "+Intense" to a foreground colour. Example: Colour Quote Yellow+Intense/Black Colours ... Binkley Only for compatibility with BINKLEY.CFG. See the Binkley documentation for more information. EditKey ScanCode Function Msged Using this command allows redefining of the editing keys used in Msged/Q. "ScanCode" is the code returned by the BIOS for a particular key. It is represented in hexadecimal. For example: <Ctrl-A> is 0x0001 <Down Arrow> is 0x5000 "Function" can be one of the following: Backspace Backspace and delete Del Delete character under cursor July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 9 Left Moves cursor one left Right Moves cursor one right Up Moves cursor up one line Down Moves cursor down one line WordLeft Moves cursor to previous word WordRight Moves cursor to next word PageUp Moves cursor up one screen PageDown Moves cursor down one screen NewLine Creates a new line at cursor position DelLine Deletes the entire line under cursor Anchor Mark the beginning of a block Cut Cut from anchor point to current line Paste Paste cut text into message text GoEOL Moves cursor to the end of the line DelEol Deletes all text to the end of the line Top Moves cursor to the top of screen Bottom Moves cursor to the bottom of screen. First Moves cursor to the first line Last Moves cursor to the last line Quit Save the message and exit to the reader Abort Exit to the reader without saving Tab Go to the next tab stop, insert spaces Shell Go to a DOS shell Import Import a text file into the message Export Exports text to a file or device GoBOL Go to the beginning of the line Insert Toggle the insert/overwrite mode EdHelp Key to bring up on-line help. Format Reformats the current paragraph Null Does nothing. Use to deallocate a key Function KeyNumber String Msged Defines your function keys for use within Msged/Q. KeyNumber can be any number from 1 to 40. 01 - 10 Normal Function Keys 11 - 20 Shifted Function Keys 21 - 30 Control Function Keys 31 - 40 Alt Function Keys To place a control character into the string use a ^ before the character. Example: <Ctrl-A> = ^A To place a special key, use a 5 character string, the last two characters representing the scan code of the key in hexadecimal. Example: <Up Arrow> = \0x48 July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 10 Include FileName Binkley If you wish to include configuration data from another file, use this command. You might want to combine this keyword with the "Application" keyword to include Msged/Q-specific information into your BINKLEY.CFG file. MaxX Number Msged Defines the screen width. Use this if you have a non- standard video card. The number must be at least 80. MaxY Number Msged Defines the screen height. Use this if you have a non- standard video card. Name Your Name Msged See "Sysop". Origin Your Origin Line Msged This is the default origin line that will appear at the end of each echomail message that you write. If you don't use this config keyword, Msged/Q will get the default origin line from CONFIG.BBS or AREAS.BBS. It can, however, be overridden in specific areas by using the ECHOORIG.CTL file. This line should be shorter than 80 characters after the " * Origin: " and your address is added by Msged/Q. If you use the "-d" command line parameter, you will be warned of origin lines that are too long. Outfile FileName Msged This is the default filename that Msged/Q uses when you write data to a file using the <Alt-W> command. The default value is "prn" to send the output to the printer. PrivateNet NetNumber Binkley This is your private net number that your point host will recognize you as. This statement will only take effect if your address statement contains a non-zero point number. Quick Type [pcks] "Description" BoardNo [Tag] Msged 2.00 This statement defines message areas. Type is Mail, Local or Echo. [pcks] is optional and sets the Private, Crash, Kill/Sent and SoftCR flags for the area. Description should be in double quotes and is a July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 11 descriptive name for the area. BoardNo is a unique board number for each area. Tag is optional and specifies the echomail tag. See also the section "Adding new areas". QuickBBS DirectoryName Msged 2.00 This is the directory in which Msged/Q should look for the *.BBS files. Note that Msged/Q always looks for CONFIG.BBS and AREAS.BBS in the current directory when loading. The reason for this is that these two files are read before the Msged/Q configuration file is read. Quote QuoteString Msged This defines the string to be used to prefix quoted text. The default QuoteString is ">". When quoting a message using Msged/Q it is often nice to have the initials of the quoted person's name next to the quoted piece of text. Msged/Q provides "magic" characters that are replaced by the initials of the quoted person. You can create any kind of quote style that you want with the following characters: & All initials * First initial ^ Last initial If you want to include spaces inside your quote string then you need to enclose your quote string within single (') or double (") quotation marks. Example: Quote "<*^> " or Quote ">&: " Please remember to include a ">" character within the first 5 characters of your quote string. This allows message editors to recognize quoted text and display it in a different colour. QuoteRight Number Msged This is the position of the right margin for the quoted part when quoting a message. The default value is "Right" - 1. ReadKey ScanCode Function Msged Using this function allows the modifying of keys used by the Msged/Q reader. See "EditKey" for further details. Previous Go to previous message July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 12 Next Go to next message First Go to the first message in the board End Go to the last message in the board Last Go to the last read message in the board Link_To Go to the next message in thread Link_From Go to the previous message in thread Reply Reply to current message Quote Reply to current message and quote Areas Go to message areas screen View Toggles hidden lines Home Go to the first message in thread Search Search messages for text Delete Delete current message NewMsg Enter a new message Move Move, copy or forward current message Export Export message to a file or device Config Settings menu Help Reader Help screen List List messages in the current area Change Change current message Exit Exits from Msged/Q Shell Go to a Dos shell Lastread Set lastread pointer NxtArea Go to next areas with new mail PrvArea Go to previous area with new mail UpArea Go to next area DownArea Go to previous area MaintArea Go to maintanance menu Null Does nothing. Use to deallocate a key Right Number Msged This is the position of the right margin. The default is "MaxX" - 1. Sysop Your Name Binkley This is the name that you want the "From:" field in Msged/Q to default to. TabSize Number Msged Defines the size of your tab stops. The default size is 8 characters. Userlist Filename [, Filename] Msged This specifies the name of your fido user list(s). Msged/Q uses these lists to search for the address of a person when you type in the name in the "To:" field. The lists are searched in the order they are listed here. The list must be a sorted ASCII file and all lines in the file must be of the same length. This allows Msged/Q to July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 13 perform an extremely fast binary search of the file. The line format is: Lastname, firstname <spaces> address Every line (including the last line) should have a CR/LF at the end. The address must come after column 35 and there should be no empty lines at the end of the file. Don't use tabs for the spacing and make sure that there aren't any blank lines at the end of the list. A userlist file in the correct format can be generated from the Fidonet nodelist by nodelist processors like ParseLst. Video Direct | Bios | NoSnow Msged Depending on what kind of graphics card you are using, you may choose one of the three methods of writing to the screen. The default value is "Direct". Use "NoSnow" for old CGA cards that create display "noise". VideoSeg Address Msged Defines the video segment address if you have a non standard video card. By default Msged/Q determines the video segment itself. This is done in a DESQview aware manner. 4.4 Configuration Flags Compared to plain Msged, Msged/Q uses a slightly different way of setting the configuration flags. It uses statements of the form "Enable | Disable | No Flag". "No" means the same thing as "Disable" and is provided for Msged 2.00 compatibility. The following list indicates which keywords are allowed after an "Enable", "Disable" or "No" keyword. The default values of these keywords are indicated in brackets. Beeps (Enabled) Msged/Q Enables the generation of beeps. Confirm (Enabled) Msged Used to ask for confirmation of deletions and other potentially dangerous commands. EIDs (Enabled) Msged 2.00 This is used to generate ^aEID lines in echomail. ^aEID lines are used for duplicate checking and reply linking. July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 14 Global... (Disabled) Msged/Q The full name of this keyword is "GlobalSearch". This flag determines if Msged/Q should search through all areas when doing the searches with the <Alt-F>, <Alt-Z> and "/" keys. By default Msged/Q searches only in the current area. In all cases Msged/Q starts searching at the current message. MSGIDs (Enabled) Msged 2.00 This is used to generate ^aMSGID and ^aREPLY lines in netmail and echomail. ^aMSGID and ^aREPLY lines can be used to uniquely identify messages and replies. ShowNotes (Disabled) Msged Tells Msged/Q whether to display hidden "kludge" lines. SoftCr (Defunct) This flag was used to tell Msged/Q whether to generate soft carriage returns at the end of lines. Soft carriage returns are ignored by Fidonet software and make messages longer. However, they are required for messages gated to Usenet and related networks. This flag is superceded by the "s" flag in the "quick" statement. See the section "Adding new areas" for more details. Strip (Enabled) Msged 2.00 This is used to tell Msged/Q to strip all ^a lines in a message before adding new ones when changing a message with <Alt-C>. Leave this flag enabled in most cases. TosScan (Disabled) Msged/Q This option is used to tell Msged/Q to mark all mail as "local". Apparently TosScan won't export messages unless they are marked local. Some older versions of Qecho didn't export messages with the "local" bit set, but the new versions don't seem to mind. 4.5 Debugging config files If you use the "-d" option on the command line, Msged/Q will provide you with debugging information while the configuration files are read. This can be very useful in tracking problems. The debugging output is directed to the standard output device, so you can pause it with ^S, or even re-direct it with normal Dos re-direction symbols. July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 15 4.6 Origin Line Overrides Msged/Q will use ECHOORIG.CTL if it is found. This is a flat ASCII text file which provides origin line overrides for each board. The format of the lines in ECHOORIG.CTL is: <board#> <origin line> Boards whose origin lines have not been overridden return to the default origin line. If the first item on a line is not a number, the line will be ignored by Msged/Q. 5. USING MSGED/Q 5.1 Starting Up Msged/Q accepts two optional command line parameters and several command line switches. The switches start with a "-" character and can be intermixed with the command line parameters. The first command line parameter is the file name of the configuration file. It defaults to BINKLEY.CFG and, if that is not found, MSGED.CFG and then MSGEDQ.CFG. The second command line parameter is the name of the areas file. It defaults to AREAS.BBS. The "-q" command line switch is used to tell Msged/Q that you are a QuickBBS sysop and that you already have a CONFIG.BBS file. Msged/Q will always refuse to overwrite CONFIG.BBS if you use this switch. If this switch is not used, Msged/Q will ignore any information in CONFIG.BBS. The "-n" switch is used to re-create CONFIG.BBS for point setups. The syntax is "-nNetPath" (no spaces) and it should be used only when you have modified your areas configuration. It causes CONFIG.BBS to be overwritten or created and it adds your user name to USERS.BBS if it isn't already there. The message board descriptions are taken from the other configuration files and entered into CONFIG.BBS. Your name and origin line is also saved in CONFIG.BBS, in case other utilities need them. These files are required by some mail utilities like Mailscan and Mailtoss. The startup screen displays information about your setup, e.g. your address, name and origin line. After you press a key, Msged/Q will search for areas with new mail and automatically place you on any area with new mail. If no new mail is found, it will beep and leave you on the first area. 5.2 Reading Messages Reading messages has been made very easy with Msged/Q. All commands are simple and nearly all may be redefined using the "EditKey" statement in the configuration file. July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 16 Msged/Q keeps a "highest-read message" pointer for each message area. This information is stored in QuickBBS's LASTREAD.BBS file. Some of the message reading commands update the highest-read pointer and some don't. In the following list of message reading commands the last column indicates if the specified command updates the highest-read pointer. Function Keys Updates highest-read Next Message <RightArrow> yes Moves to the next message in the current message area. Previous Message <LeftArrow> yes Moves to the previous message in the current message area. Next in sequence <Enter> yes Moves one message further in the same direction as the last movement. Next in Thread <Ctrl-RightArrow> no Moves to the next message in the current message thread using the "See #" message pointer. Previous in Thread <Ctrl-LeftArrow> no Moves to the previous message in the current message thread using the "Reply To #" message pointer. This command does not update the highest-read pointer. First in Thread <Home> yes Moves to the message you were at when you started to issue <Ctrl-RightArrow> and <Ctrl- LeftArrow> commands. This is often the original message in the current thread. First in Board <Ctrl-Home> yes Moves to the first message in the current board. Last in Board <Ctrl-End> yes Moves to the last message in the current board. July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 17 Highest Message Read <End> yes Moves to the highest message number that has been read in the current board. Next New Messages <+> no Moves to the next area with new messages. If there are no other areas with new messages, it moves to the first area. Previous New Messages <-> no Moves to the previous area with new messages. Next Area <Ctrl-N> no Moves to the next message area. Previous Area <Ctrl-P> no Moves to the previous message area. Search for New Mail </> (forward slash) no This searches from the current message forward for new mail address to you. It will not update the highest-read pointers, so you can later go back and read the rest of the mail. If the GlobalSearch flag is set, this command searches through all areas for new mail addressed to you. Scroll Up <UpArrow> no Scrolls the current message up one line. Scroll Down <DownArrow> no Scrolls the current message down one line. Next Page <PageDown> no Displays the next page of the current message. Previous Page <PageUp> no Displays the previous page of the current message. Goto Message <Any Digit> yes Prompts for a message number starting with the digit you typed to start this command. If the message exists then the entered number becomes July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 18 the current message. If you enter 0, it will return to your current message. Area Select <Alt-A> no This key activates the area selection screen. It also flushes all the message base files to disk to provide protection against power failures. Once in the area selection screen, you can use the cursor keys to move the selector around. Sometimes more than one page of area information is used and you can move the selector between pages. To select an area, press <Enter> and to abort press <Esc>. The areas screen supports "incremental search". You may type enough characters of the area name to uniquely identify it. Using <Alt-T> (the Techie key) will toggle between the full descriptions and the echomail tags and board numbers. <Alt-H> will show a help screen. Change Messages <Alt-C> no This command allows you to change the header and text of an existing message. The message will be marked for re-export if it is not a local message. Be careful with this as people tend to see liability claims in most things :-) Delete Messages <Alt-D> no Deletes the current message. You will be asked to confirm your choice unless you have disabled the confirm flag. After deleting the message, Msged/Q will move to the message after or before the deleted message, depending on the previous movement direction. Enter Messages <Alt-E> no Allows you to enter a new message in the current area. Quote a Message <Alt-Q> no This is similar to replying except that the text of the current message is quoted in the new message using the quote string as defined in the July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 19 configuration file. See also the <Alt-N> command. Quote in Another Area <Alt-N> no This is similar to quoting a message except that you may select the area in which the quoted message will appear in. This command is very useful to keep echomail messages on topic. Msged/Q will add a message "* Moved from ... by ... " at the top of the quoted message. Reply to a Message <Alt-R> no Allows you to reply to the current message. This means that address and name information is kept for you and your reply chains will be updated. See also the quote commands, <Alt-Q> and <Alt-N>. Find Text in Messages <Alt-F> no This searches through the text and headers of all the messages in the current area for a text string. The search always starts from the current message in the area. You can continue a search by pressing <Alt-F> and <Enter>. The search can be terminated by pressing <Esc>. Find Text in Headers <Alt-Z> no Essentially the same as <Alt-F> the only difference being that this command searches only the message headers for the search string. Help <Alt-H> no Displays the help screen. List Messages <Alt-L> no Gives you a listing of the messages in the current area. The information included shows the message originator and addressee and the subject line. Use the arrow keys to scroll through the list and press <Enter> to go to a message or <Esc> to go back to the previous message. Note that the highest read pointer is not updated if you go to a message with <Enter>, i.e. you can browse with <Alt-L> without disturbing your "place" in the area. If the current area is a Netmail area, Msged/Q July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 20 will also display the destination and source address of the message. The addresses displayed are the raw net/node addresses of the message, without interpreting the IFNA kludge lines imbedded in the message text. Using <Alt-A> will toggle the display of addressing information in Netmail areas. Move Messages <Alt-M> no Allows you to move, copy, forward or copy-and- show a message. The copied, moved or forwarded message will be marked for re-export. MOVE messages by pressing <m> at the prompt. You will then be asked to select an area to move the message to. The original message will be deleted if the copy operation was successful. COPY messages by pressing <c> at the prompt. Again you will be asked to select an area to copy the message to. This time, the original will not be deleted. FORWARD messages by pressing <f> at the prompt. You will be prompted to select the area in which to store the forwarded message. The message header will be displayed for editing. The original source of the message is left intact and two lines displaying who the message was to and who forwarded it are added to the message text. COPY-AND-SHOW messages by pressing <s> at the prompt. This is the same as copy except that a "* Copied from ..." message will be added to the message text. Settings <Alt-S> no Allows you to temporarily change the configuration file defaults. The changes made on the settings screen are active only for the duration of the current run of the program. Press <Space> to change the settings and <Enter> to accept them. Pressing <Esc> will abort the screen without accepting the changes. If you change the origin line on the settings screen, the new origin line will remain active until you move to another area. This allows you to temporarily change your origin line. July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 21 The Privileged, Kill/Sent and Crash flags on the settings screen are the flags of the current area. View <Alt-V> no Toggles the display of hidden lines. This overrides the default ShowNotes flag set in the configuration file. Write Messages <Alt-W> no Writes the message, including header information, to a text file or device. If written to a device, a formfeed is added at the end. The default file name may be changed in the configuration file. You can print messages by writing them to "PRN", or "LPT1". See also the "Outfile" config file statement. Exit <Alt-X> no This exits Msged/Q and returns you to your original command shell without confirmation. Update read pointer <Alt-U> yes This key sets the highest-read pointer to the current message. You can use it to mark all messages from the current message to the end of the area as "unread". 5.3 Entering Messages You can begin entering a message in one of five ways. By entering a new message, by replying to a message, by changing a message, by quoting a message and by quoting in another area. After selecting one of these methods, the screen is cleared and you get a chance to enter the header and the message text. 5.3.1 Message Header When entering a new message, the only default presented is the "From:" line. In all other cases, the "To:" and "Subj:" lines are also defaulted. You can change the header using the standard cursor keys to move to the field you want to change. You may also change the attributes of the message by moving to the attribute line. Toggle the attributes by pressing the first letter of the specific attribute. If the attribute is on then it is July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 22 highlighted. If you can't see the highlighted attribute, change the "HiLite" colour in your configuration file. o [A]ttach indicates that there are files attached to the message. The file names are listed in the "Subj:" field with a single space between them. Msged/Q automatically sets this attribute if the "Subj:" field starts with a letter, a colon and a backslash. In this case it also checks if the named files exist and beeps if they don't. File names that don't exist will be displayed in the warning colour. o [K]ill/Sent tells the message packer to delete the message after it's been sent. This should be used only with Netmail messages. o [P]rivileged indicates that the message is to be marked "Private". Most BBS's allow only the addressee and Sysop to read "Private" messages. Some mail packers will move "Private" echomail messages to Netmail, but rather use the <Alt-N> command to reply to an echomail message with Netmail. o [C]rash marks the message as "Continuous" mail. Most mailers will send crash mail directly to their destination by making a direct call to the destination. Be careful with this as it could cause other systems high phone costs. 5.3.2 Carbon Copies Msged/Q allows you to create messages that will be sent to several people automatically. To do this, once you've entered your message, go to the first character in the message text and enter "CC:" followed by the name of the first person (other than the one in the "To:" field) that you want a copy sent to. You may enter as many names as you like, each at the start of a new line. Only one "CC:" is needed, and only on the first line. End your list by leaving a blank line. All the copies of the message will be marked "kill/sent", so they will vanish after being packed and only the original message will remain. Sending carbon copies only makes sense for Netmail. Echomail messages will be visible to everyone in any case. 5.3.3 Editing Message Text Msged/Q has a complete and fast editor. It supports full word wrap and automatic line reformatting. The cursor pad works as you would expect it to and the keys used by the editor can be defined by the "EditKey" configuration command. See the "EditKey" command earlier in the manual for more information on what each function does. Here follows a list of the default keys used for each command that aren't otherwise obvious cursor commands. WordLeft <Ctrl-LeftArrow> WordRight <Ctrl-RightArrow> NewLine <Enter> July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 23 DelLine <Alt-K> Anchor <Alt-A> Cut <Alt-C> Paste <Alt-P> GoEOL <End> DelEol <Alt-D> Top <Ctrl-PageUp> Bottom <Ctrl-PageDown> First <Ctrl-Home> Last <Ctrl-End> Quit <Alt-X> Abort <Esc> Tab <Tab> Shell <Alt-O> Import <Alt-I> Insert <Ins> EdHelp <Alt-H> Save <Alt-S> 6. TIPS AND TRICKS 6.1 Backing Up Your Message Base If you want to back up your message base then the simplest is to back up MSGHDR.BBS, MSGTXT.BBS, LASTREAD.BBS, CURRENT.BBS and AREAS.KDP. You can restore all the other index files by running "MSGPACK -I" to rebuild the index files. AREAS.KDP contains the duplicate-checking information and is not crucial for point systems. If you delete it, the worst thing that will happen is that you might get duplicate messages tossed into your message base. You can use ECHOKDUP.EXE to delete duplicates from your message base. 6.2 Local Message Areas You might like to create a couple of LOCAL areas, even if you're a point so that if you find an interesting message, you can copy it in there and you won't risk losing it by doing an accidental kill old with MSGUTILS. 6.3 Moving Messages to another area We would suggest that you use the Quote and Move to a different area function whenever a message thread drifts off topic. This save a lot on people "flaming" you and it makes things just a bit neater. 6.4 Using only CONFIG.BBS If you are running QuickBBS and you have a CONFIG.BBS file, you might want to prevent Msged/Q finding your BINKLEY.CFG. You can run "MsgedQ Nul" to do this. July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 24 6.5 Quoting multiple messages You can use the cut and paste function to quote from multiple messages. Press <Alt-Q> to quote a message and cut out the part you need. Then press Esc to abort the quote command and quote the second message. Now you can use the paste command to insert the part of the original quote and continue editing your reply. This technique can be used to quote from multiple messages by repeating the <Alt-A>, <Alt- C>, <Esc>, <Alt-Q>, <Alt-P> command sequence. 6.6 Combining config files You can combine your Msged/Q configuration file with your BINKLEY.CFG, using the Application and Include config file statements. Msged/Q will recognize a few of Binkley's config file statements (e.g. Address, PrivateNet). If you want to add other Msged/Q-specific config statements to BINKLEY.CFG, you can use the "Application Msged" or "Application MsgQ" statements. If you want to include a file of "local" Msged/Q information, you can use "Application MsgQ Include <filename>". This file will only be included by Msged/Q and other programs reading BINKLEY.CFG won't include it. You can use the "local" file to set your attribution line, message flags, message areas etc. 7. DISTRIBUTION AND SOURCE CODE Msged/Q is distributed as two LHARC archives, one containing the executables, manuals and sample config files and the other containing the source code. The xxx in the files names below stand for the version number. The name in parenthesis after the actual file name is the magic filename which should be used for requesting the latest version. o MSGQxxxE.LZH (MSGEDQ) This is the normal executable version of Msged/Q with manuals and sample config files. o MSGQxxxS.LZH (MSGEDQSRC) This is the Msged/Q Turbo C source code. The latest version should always be available from either 5:7105/1 or 5:7101/1 (both HST). Contact the author if you have problems finding the files. 8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to Jim Nutt for creating Msged and releasing the source code. Thanks also for permission to distribute my Msged/Q. Thanks to the Binkley Trio for the code to do FIDOUSER.LST lookups in Msged. Thanks to James A. Woods, Jeff Mogul and Frank Whaley for the BMG.C search module. Thanks to Stig Jacobsen for distributing his Qmsg utility's source code -- I learned a lot about the QuickBBS message base from it. Thanks to Johan Zwiekhorst for supplying the source code of his July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 25 areas screen. Thanks to Frederik Chabot for the D'Bridge config file code. The following people have to be singled out for their contributions by bug reports and suggestions: Bryan Haefele, Casey Schaphorst, Dave Pedler, Dave Thompson, Ernie Bokkelkamp, Frank R.Pizer, Gene Leduc, Jaco Burger, Ken Burke, Kevin Duff, Mark Cole, Mike Quinlan, Peter Frith, Peter Sheldon, Rob Bernstein, Simon Driver, Stronger Shen, Tommy Svenson, *.* Thanks to Niel Uys and all the other Fidonuts for getting all the source code and other interesting stuff for us. The following are either trademarks or the efforts of the person and/or company named: ARC, ARCmail - Thom Henderson, System Enhancement Associates, Inc. BinkleyTerm - Bob Hartman and Vince Perriello Confmail, Parselst, oMMM - Bob Hartman, Spark Software, Inc. Echomail - Jeff Rush Fido, FidoNet - Tom Jennings FrontDoor, TosScan - Joaquim Homrighausen DESQview - Quarterdeck Office Systems, Inc. IBM, PC-DOS - International Business Machines Corporation LHARC - Haruyasu Yoshizaki MS-DOS - Microsoft Corporation msged - Jim Nutt PKARC, PKZIP - PKware, Inc. Turbo C - Borland International Qmail - Greg Dawson QuickBBS (classic) - Adam Hudson QuickBBS (new improved) - The QuickBBS Group, Inc. ZmailQ - The Mojave Group 9. REVISION HISTORY The following revisions were made between version 1.50 and 1.60: - In function closemsgbase(), if area is empty, set it's lastread/current to 0. This should fix the "one new message not marked" bug. - fixed bug when replying to mail with domain and no domain defined - add domain to MSGID if not NULL - fix Alt-R cutoff bug - Don't put out LF's in text, only CR's (saves space) - Don't print to screen using printf/puts (^C) - Keep previous filename on Alt-I and Alt-W (Peter) - always check message base and report if MSGINFO/MSGIDX are consistent - highlight in Alt-L in quoting colour - Change ^A to @ before export - don't quote hidden lines if not shownotes - Create new msgbase, fix msginfo.bbs to right size July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 26 - remove TOPT/FMPT from echomail - order of kludge lines TOPT/FMPT in front and only in netmail - date: last friday, yesterday etc. - Delete all messages in area (Alt-G Global options) - got rid of Turbo C screen module -- modes > 80x25 now work - flush files after write (#define PARANOID) - Alt-C: If not shownotes, don't show hidden lines. - CONFIG.BBS: Use/Set Private/Public bit in areas * Rewrote read word-wrapping totally. Should be faster. - date display format (seealso/reply -> <-) - removed EIDs totally - CURRENT.BBS for multi users, exactly like LASTREAD.BBS * delete current message to lastread message in area (Alt-G) - better support for large screen modes (you should see 132x43!) - exit after new CONFIG.BBS built + auto debug mode when rebuilding - use real text of MSGID for REPLY - Added ^aPID line, cleaned up tearline and version numbering - AltL: fix PgUp/Dn skip lines bug. Added Ctrl-PgUp/Dn * removed enable/disable softcr, superceded by "s" flag * softcr flag (s) in quick statement, softcr statement overrides - Option to not use upper ASCII (#define NOIBM) - More domain address things * Multiple Address statements * AKA flag in quick statement (1..5, ...) (aka in CONFIG.BBS) - Fixed bug in userlist lookup * Swap to Disk or EMS when shelling - Made code compilable with JPI Topspeed C. Possible, but tricky * Config for Swapping, "enable/disable swapping" default enabled - +/- on areas screen * Esc aborts editing of any field, Ctrl-Y deletes line - Made swapping better, now swaps much less memory - Now always use USERS.BBS and add username if it is new - No more PID in echomail, only in Netmail - new rot13 to do lowercase * Read MESSAGES.RA and CONFIG.RA if "-r" switch specified - Read aka's from CONFIG.BBS - Areas screen GO HOME! Home/End (Below are changes after version 1.52/b) - Fixed bug in Alt-G/Delete_All - Aka's are also stored in CONFIG.BBS when creating it - if "<" occurs before ">", don't flag a quote (for <grin>) - Give error message if file create not ok (Alt-W) - config "mail", "quick" can now be any case - point number optional in MSGID - "(last)" flag - fixed movement keys in Alt-L list (good enough for now) - handle huge messages (>mem) more gracefully, you can delete them + added very basic internet address handling in quote functions. If Alt-Q/N recognizes ^aUFGATE in echomail or "From: uucp" in Netmail, it scans for "From: internetaddress" in the text. If found, the reply goes to "UUCP" (address is looked up in userlist), and "To: internetaddress" and a blank line gets added before the message. Works like a charm. - Fixed Alt-W header bug July 21, 1991 Msged/Q 1.60 Page 27 + Set "local" bit for new netmail, MBUTIL EXPORT now works - Fixed spurious open file in configuration section - Added help message (-h switch) - Replaced binidx procedure with formally derived and proved algorithm - New "-uUser_Name" switch to override user name - New "-p" switch to give simple netmail protection - Incorporate FC's Msged/DB changes