MSGRead ------- A StdInOut-MSG-Reader for use with BBS or as a VERY SIMPLE Standalone-Browser (C) 1995 by Marc J. Führer, Germany marc_fuehrer@scooter.ping.de MSGRead is FreeWare - all rights are reserved to the author Introduction ------------ Yes... MSGRead is a really simple program. I only wrote it to include my Foozle-Messagebase into WWBBS (see copyrights). But it can be used with just any BBS or via CLI - as long as StdIn and StdOut are forced into the desired direction. MSGRead gives the user a small choice of actions: - walk along the message-headers - showing FROM, TO, SUBJECT and DATE of each message. - read the actual message - reply to a message, quoting directly from the original one - mail a new message - privately or into the actual echo There are still enhancements to be made - this is the first version to be released. I hope to get some hints or whishes! Usage ----- Err... Well... I'd say... ok. Let me explain how MSGRead works. You should find a program called MSGIdx in the same directory you unpacked MSGRead to. It generates an Indexfile for each area-directory you want MSGRead to use in. This Indexfile contains the writer, receiver and subject of every message in the directory, sorted by their _originating_ date. Meaning: the first listed message in the Index is the oldest, the last the latest - depending NOT on the date of tossing but the date of writing! (...and that's the reason why MSGIdx takes some time to generate the Index... it has to open each MSG-file) MSGIdx's usage is quite simple: Give it a specific directory name with DIR=... (e.g. DIR=mail:echo/amiga.ger) or: give it a config-file with CONFIG=... (e.g. MSGIdx.config) or: start it with HAVING a configfile named "msgidx.cfg" The configfile simply consists of directorynames with full path! e.g.: -----cut------- mail:echo/amiga.ger mail:echo/ami_bla.ger mail:echo/blabla.fin mail:echo/chat.int -----cut------- After MSGIdx has done it's work you can call up MSGRead. MSGRead looks for a configfile called MSGRead.cfg. This config must contain some keywords as there are: NODE= (Format zone:net/node.point) ORIGIN= (no " * Origin:", no (x:xxx/xxx) needed) TEARLINE= (may be a single space) EDITOR= MATRIX= Node is, as I suppose, selfexplanatory. Such is Origin and Tearline... Editor must hold the call for your BBS-online-editor (e.g. emacs), where the filename to edit is added by MSGRead. Matrix is the path to your NetMail-folder, e.g. MATRIX=mail:echo/matrix It is used for private replies or mails. As soon as you have set up MSGRead.cfg you can start MSGRead: Template: MSGRead DIR=directory-to-scan LINES=number_of_screen_lines USER=well_guess! DIR I think you can imagine what the keyword DIR is for. MSGRead is designed to work with a SINGLE directory on every call - so all "level-controlling", all "groupings" and what-the-heck can be done via your BBS. You simply call MSGRead if you want to. LINES Since there is no standard screen-height in BBS (how could?) you can specify the number of lines your actual user has chosen. Refer to your BBS's manual for how to get that value! 24 is taken as standard. Please remember that LINES means _all_ lines on the screen including MSGRead's own header - and there has to be a "minimum" of lines to really work with - it doesn't make sense to use MSGRead with a single line... so in short: minimum LINES is 10. USER All characters till the end of the line are taken as part of the user's name. Again, refer to your BBS's manual for how to get the user's name - mostly you can somehow put it into an ENV-variable. Working with MSGRead -------------------- You (or the user) get a short help line at the screentop, showing all keys to use while MSGRead is working. These are: 8: scroll mark one message up (or, when viewing a message: scroll one page up) 2: scroll mark one message down (or, when viewing a message: scroll one page down) Return: read actually marked message r: reply to actually marked message, quoting it's text m: mail a new message into the echo or privately into MATRIX x: leave MSGRead (or, when viewing a message: go back to overview) After you have written or edited a message you are asked some questions: - Do you want to address your mail to ... Here the author of the message you replied to is put in - or ALL. - Is your mail private (No=EchoMail!) ? If you answer with "y" (Yes) your mail is sent via MATRIX, not into the echo. You have _then_ to answer: - Is this address correct: x:x/x.x It should be correct if you REPLY to a message, if you originate one you should answer "n" (NO) and type in the correct address. - Do you want to change the subject (...) If you don't, answer "n" (NO) - elseway type in a new subjectline. Sysop's task ------------ After MSGRead is ended you, as the sysop, have to do whatever is needed to rescan, toss, export the new messages. If you use Foozle this would be: TellFoozle Rescan Chg - and maybe, if you export every time "tellfoozle export" AND: of course you sometimes have to update your MSG.IDX-files that are written by MSGIdx. They are _not_ updated automatically for a simple reason: if you, as the sysop, want to "control" the new messages before exporting them (maybe to delete those written by an unwanted user) you would have to kill the corresponding lines from the indeces. Don't worry that MSGRead could ever write a new message twice... it does not since it takes the message-number from the ".map" file in the area's directory, keeping Foozle (or whatever) away from overwriting these messages itself: That means: if you use some tosser other than foozle (which should work if the *MSG-format is the same) you can easily generate some .map-file for each area-directory. It has to be at least 8 bytes long, since the number of the next message to be written starts at offset 4. Things to do ------------ I do not dare to count them... :-) In fact: there are some things I would like to do: - rethink format of overviewpage (that is: should I cut the FROM and TO field to give it an unique image?) - built-in word wrapping - better break-handling (yet only via CheckSignal) - help-pages? may be... - perhaps NodeList support Bugs ---- ...no serious ones found so far. I don't consider the missing wordwrapping a bug... I hope there are no problems with the _very_ simple break-handling. Last Words ---------- I wrote this program in the evenings hours with my little girl jumping onto me, my wife chatting to me, my computer guruing due to an overloaded powersupply, dates cutting down the time... Still I hope to give away some software of use. I _will_ improve it, I _will_ kill the bugs and I _will_ go to bed early tonight. Please mail me if you found something to change, if you like the program, if the weather is fine or if you simply do not know what is meant by AMIGA. Please remember that french is not my mother's motherlanguage (or was it italian I wrote this in?) Disclaimer ---------- MSGRead is FreeWare. That means it may be copied without making profit - and THIS MEANS: _no__charge__at__all may be taken for copying it. This does NOT include the price of disks, CDs or whatever carrier is used as long as they are not saled to gain _profit_ with. All rights of the program remain by the author (me...) Marc Führer. I am reachable via "marc_fuehrer@scooter.ping.de". No guarantee is given for anything. AmiNet and Fred Fish are (of course) allowed to include MSGRead in their collections under the usual terms. Copyrights ---------- Foozle - is copyright © 1994 Peer Hasselmeyer WWBBS - World Wide BBS is Copyright © 1995 Arthur Choung Excerpt from FOOZLE.TECHREF: ---------------------------- Foozle's MSG-files follow this format: Offset 0 36B From User 36 36B To User 72 72B Subject 144 20B Date / time 164 WORD Times read (ignored) (No, Peer... not really :-) ) 166 WORD Dest node 168 WORD Orig node 170 WORD Cost (ignored) 172 WORD Orig net 174 WORD Dest net 176 LONG 0 (ignored) 180 LONG MS-DOS-TimeStamp of arrival time 184 WORD Dest zone (matrix only) 186 WORD Attributes (see FTS-1 for a description) 188 WORD Dest point (matrix only) 190 STRCT Previous reply (MsgId-structure) 202 STRCT Next reply (MsgId-structure) 214 TEXT Message text Each MsgId-entry looks like: 0 WORD Zone (bit 15:data-indicator) \ 2 WORD Net \ of the originating 4 WORD Node / system 6 WORD Point / 8 LONG Data All strings are NULL-terminated.