diplodocus.org Git - nmh/blob - man/prompter.man

   1 .TH PROMPTER %manext1% 1999-04-30 "%nmhversion%"
   2 .
   3 .\" %nmhwarning%
   4 .
   5 .SH NAME
   6 prompter \- nmh's prompting editor front-end
   7 .SH SYNOPSIS
   8 .HP 5
   9 .na
  10 .B prompter
  11 .RB [ \-help ]
  12 .RB [ \-version ]
  13 .RB [ \-erase
  14 .IR chr ]
  15 .RB [ \-kill
  16 .IR chr ]
  17 .RB [ \-prepend " | " \-noprepend ]
  18 .RB [ \-rapid " | " \-norapid ]
  19 .RB [ \-doteof " | " \-nodoteof ]
  20 .I file
  21 .ad
  22 .SH DESCRIPTION
  23 .B prompter
  24 is an editor front-end for
  25 .B nmh
  26 which allows rapid composition of messages.
  27 This program is not normally invoked directly by users but takes
  28 the place of an editor and acts as an editor front-end.
  29 It operates on an RFC 822-style message draft skeleton specified by
  30 .IR file ,
  31 normally provided by the
  32 .B nmh
  33 commands
  34 .BR comp ,
  35 .BR dist ,
  36 .BR forw ,
  37 or
  38 .BR repl .
  39 .PP
  40 .B prompter
  41 is particularly useful when composing messages over slow
  42 network or modem lines.  It is an
  43 .B nmh
  44 program in that it can have its own profile entry with switches,
  45 but it is not invoked directly by the user.
  46 The commands
  47 .BR comp ,
  48 .BR dist ,
  49 .BR forw ,
  50 and
  51 .B repl
  52 invoke
  53 .B prompter
  54 as an editor, either when invoked with
  55 .B \-editor
  56 .IR prompter ,
  57 or by the profile entry \*(lqEditor:\ prompter\*(rq,
  58 or when given the command
  59 .B edit
  60 .B prompter
  61 at the \*(lqWhat now?\*(rq prompt.
  62 .PP
  63 For each empty component
  64 .B prompter
  65 finds in the draft, the user is prompted for a response;
  66 A <RETURN> will cause the whole component to be left out.
  67 Otherwise, a `\\' preceding a <RETURN> will continue the
  68 response on the next line, allowing for multiline components.
  69 Continuation lines
  70 .I must
  71 begin with a space or tab.
  72 .PP
  73 Each non-empty component is copied to the draft and displayed on the
  74 terminal.
  75 .PP
  76 The start of the message body is denoted by a blank line or a line
  77 of dashes.  If the body is non-empty, the prompt, which isn't written
  78 to the file, is
  79 .PP
  80 .RS 5
  81 --------Enter additional text
  82 .RE
  83 .PP
  84 or (if
  85 .B \-prepend
  86 was given)
  87 .PP
  88 .RS 5
  89 --------Enter initial text
  90 .RE
  91 .PP
  92 Message-body typing is terminated with an end-of-file (usually
  93 CTRL-D).  With the
  94 .B \-doteof
  95 switch, a period on a line all by itself also signifies end-of-file.
  96 At this point control is returned to the calling program,
  97 where the user is asked \*(lqWhat now?\*(rq.
  98 See
  99 .IR whatnow (1)
 100 for the valid options to this query.
 101 .PP
 102 By using the
 103 .B \-prepend
 104 switch, the user can add type-in to the beginning of the message body
 105 and have the rest of the body follow.
 106 This is useful for the
 107 .B forw
 108 command.
 109 .PP
 110 By using the
 111 .B \-rapid
 112 switch, if the draft already contains text in the message-body, it is
 113 not displayed on the user's terminal.  This is useful for low-speed
 114 terminals.
 115 .PP
 116 The line editing characters for kill and erase may be specified by the
 117 user via the arguments
 118 .B \-kill
 119 .I chr
 120 and
 121 .B \-erase
 122 .IR chr ,
 123 where
 124 .I chr
 125 may be a character; or `\\nnn', where \*(lqnnn\*(rq is the octal value for
 126 the character.
 127 .PP
 128 An interrupt (usually CTRL-C) during component typing will abort
 129 .B prompter
 130 and the
 131 .B nmh
 132 command that invoked it.  An interrupt during message-body typing is
 133 equivalent to CTRL-D, for historical reasons.
 134 This means that
 135 .B prompter
 136 should finish up and exit.
 137 .PP
 138 The first non-flag argument to
 139 .B prompter
 140 is taken as the name of the draft file, and subsequent non-flag
 141 arguments are ignored.
 142 .\" (\fIrepl\fR invokes editors with two file arguments:
 143 .\" the draft file name and the replied-to message file name.)
 144 .SH FILES
 145 .fc ^ ~
 146 .nf
 147 .ta \w'%nmhetcdir%/ExtraBigFileName  'u
 148 ^$HOME/.mh_profile~^The user profile
 149 ^/tmp/prompter*~^Temporary copy of message
 150 .fi
 151 .SH "PROFILE COMPONENTS"
 152 .fc ^ ~
 153 .nf
 154 .ta 2.4i
 155 .ta \w'ExtraBigProfileName  'u
 156 prompter\-next: To name the editor to be used on exit from .B prompter
 157 ^Msg\-Protect:~^To set mode when creating a new draft
 158 .fi
 159 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 160 .IR comp (1),
 161 .IR dist (1),
 162 .IR forw (1),
 163 .IR repl (1),
 164 .IR whatnow (1)
 165 .SH DEFAULTS
 166 .nf
 167 .RB ` \-prepend '
 168 .RB ` \-norapid '
 169 .RB ` \-nodoteof '
 170 .fi
 171 .SH CONTEXT
 172 None
 173 .SH "HELPFUL HINTS"
 174 The
 175 .B \-rapid
 176 option is particularly useful with
 177 .BR forw ,
 178 and
 179 .B \-noprepend
 180 is useful with
 181 .B comp
 182 .BR \-use .
 183 .PP
 184 The user may wish to link
 185 .B prompter
 186 under several names (e.g., \*(lqrapid\*(rq) and give appropriate
 187 switches in the profile entries under these names
 188 (e.g., \*(lqrapid: -rapid\*(rq).  This facilitates
 189 invoking prompter differently for different
 190 .B nmh
 191 commands (e.g.,
 192 \*(lqforw: -editor rapid\*(rq).
 193 .SH BUGS
 194 .B prompter
 195 uses
 196 .IR stdio (3),
 197 so it will lose if you edit files with nulls in them.