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   1 .TH PROMPTER 1 RAND
   2 .SH NAME
   3 prompter \- prompting editor front end
   4 .SH SYNOPSIS
   5 This program is not called directly but takes the place
   6 of an editor and acts as an editor front end.
   7 .br
   8 \fBprompter\fR \%[\fB\-erase\fR\ chr] \%[\fB\-kill\fR\ chr] \%[\fB\-help\fR]
   9 .SH DESCRIPTION
  10 \fIPrompter\fR is an editor which allows rapid composition of
  11 messages.
  12 It is particularly useful to network and low-speed
  13 (less than 2400 baud) users of MH.
  14 It is an MH program in that
  15 it can have its own profile entry with switches, but it can't
  16 be invoked directly as all other MH commands can; it is an editor
  17 in that it is invoked by an ``\-editor prompter'' switch or by the
  18 profile entry ``Editor: prompter'', but functionally it is merely
  19 a text-collector and not a true editor.
  20
  21 \fIPrompter\fR expects to be called from \fIcomp\fR, \fIrepl\fR, \fIdist\fR, or
  22 \fIforw\fR, with a draft file as an argument.
  23 For example, ``comp
  24 \-editor prompter'' will call \fIprompter\fR with the file ``draft'' already set
  25 up with blank components.
  26 For each blank component it finds in
  27 the draft, it prompts the user and accepts a response.
  28 A
  29 <RETURN> will cause the whole component to be left out.
  30 A ``\\''
  31 preceding a <RETURN> will continue the response on the next line,
  32 allowing for multiline components.
  33
  34 Any component that is non-blank will be copied and echoed to the
  35 terminal.
  36
  37 The start of the message body is prompted by a line of
  38 dashes.
  39 If the body is non-blank, the prompt is
  40 .br
  41 ``--------Enter additional text''.
  42 Message-body typing is terminated with
  43 a <CTRL-D> (or <OPEN>).
  44 Control is returned to the calling
  45 program, where the user is asked ``What now?''.
  46 See \fIcomp\fR for
  47 the valid options.
  48
  49 The line editing characters for kill and erase may be
  50 specified by the user via the arguments ``\-kill chr'' and ``\-erase
  51 chr'', where chr may be a character; or ``\\nnn'', where nnn is the
  52 octal value for the character.
  53 (Again, these may come from the
  54 default switches specified in the user's profile.)
  55
  56 A <DEL> during message-body typing is equivalent to
  57 <CTRL-D> for compatibility with NED.
  58 A <DEL> during
  59 component typing will abort the command that invoked
  60 \fIprompter\fR.
  61 .PP
  62 The first non-flag argument to
  63 .I comp
  64 is taken as the name of the draft file, and
  65 subsequent non-flag arguments are ignored.
  66 (`Repl' invokes editors with two file arguments:
  67 the draft file name and the replied-to message file name.)
  68 .SH FILES
  69 None
  70 .SH PROFILE COMPONENTS
  71 .ta 2.4i
  72 prompter-next:  To name the editor to be
  73         used on exit from \fIprom