AEMAIL.README (September 29, 1996) Contained in this archive is version 1.10 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 AmiTCP, or 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 version corrects a number of bugs that were discovered in the 1.03 version released to AmiNet. Some of these were corrected in special versions with limited release. A list of the bugs corrected are given in the version history below. This version also incorporates a number of enhancements and revisions suggested by users. These include: o Added time zone support. This was both a "bug", in the sense that it was overlooked in the earlier version of AEMail, and an enhancement. Consult the AEMail.guide for how to set your local time zone. o A window is now displayed when exiting AEMail which informs you that AEMail is updating it's configuration files. If you had turned your computer off before this update was complete, you would have corrupted configuration files. o Eliminated the Delete/Undelete Verification Requester. This requester seemed unneccesary since you could always "undelete" a message you deleted by mistake. o The Copy and Transfer operations no longer require you to click on "Continue" to complete the operation. Instead, an informational window will be displayed with a "Cancel" button. Closing the window is automatic when you click on a folder. Clicking on "Cancel" will abort the operation. o After a Copy or Transfer operation, the folder message list FROM which the messages were copied or transferred will be displayed. o Printing has been enhanced to allow the user to print a list of messages in a folder and to print the contents of the Address Book. See the AEMail.guide file for details. o The Address Book window has been modified to include a number of new features including: The Nickname has been increased in size to 9 characters. The Previous and Next command icons are activated to exit from the Address Book and display either the previous or next message in a message list. This facilitates adding addresses to the Address Book. Double clicking on an address in the list view when the Address Book is called from the Compose window will immediately return to the Compose window transferring the Nickname of the appropriate Compose string gadget. In the Address Book, when you click on a group's "Distribution List" line, any existing address in the Address string will not be destroyed. This facilitates adding addresses to the group. o Allowed messages in QUEUED folder to be edited. o Remembers the last directory used when adding multiple attachments. Also allows you to establish a default path for adding attachments. o Sets an environmental variable called AEMail_dir during the install process which contains the directory AEMail was installed in to facilitate future AEMail updates. For more information on these revisions and/or enhancements see the appropriate sections of the AEMail.guide file. 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 faster message display routines Built in message editor Other features suggested by users AEMAIL is copyright (c) 1996 by John F. Zacharias, all rights reserved. This version is "Freeware". 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. Later versions will become "shareware". 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 A sample mailcap file to be used with AmigaDos 3.0 or above Before attempting to use AEMail you should read the documentation in AEMail.guide. 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 ruinning under 2.1. AEMAIL, version 1.10, release date: 09/29/96 As payment for receiving and using this 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 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 AmiTCP or a TCP/IP compatible with AmiTCP, 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. 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 prelimary version of the program. An automatic registration 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. THE FUTURE This version of AEMail is version 1.10, and is the seventh BETA release. At this point it is still under evaluation and is "Freeware" to encourage as much wide spread use of the program as possible. This "Freeware" version can be distributed to any and all BBS's provided the entire archive is kept intact. The archive is also being posted to AmiNet. I also hope to shortly develop my own "home page" where the latest version can be obtained. However, as a user of the program you will receive updates via email or a notice when a new version is posted to AmiNet. When certain features such as: AREXX Background retrieval and sending of mail. Directing retrieval of mail to selected folders. Built in editor. are implemented, AEMAIL will be released as shareware. When this occurs, a number of these features will be disabled until the shareware fee is paid. Since the doc file is quite large, I am also considering a printed manual that will be sent to registered users that pay the shareware fee. The availability of this manual may be before the features listed above are implemented. -John Zacharias September 29, 1996 jzachar@calweb.com VERSION HISTORY 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.