Version 0.21 by Steven Flintham (15A) Introduction This program allows you to write
messages in a wordprocessor (such as
Wordwise, InterWord or View) or text
editor (such as Edit) and then convert
them into the !Mesg format.
Writing the messages With a few exceptions, you simply type
the text of your messages into the
wordprocessor and edit it as required.
There are two ways to prepare the text:
1) Set the line length to 38 or 39
(depending on the wordprocessor) with
no left margin and no paging. You must
then 'spool' the text to disc (this
will require an extra utility with
View) and use that with the converter
program. You should keep a copy of the
messages saved in the normal way so
that you can edit them easily,
producing a new 'spooled' version when
you want to convert them.
To use this method with Wordwise you
would enter ll38 at the top of the
text (because the default is no left
margin and no paging). In InterWord,
you would adjust the ruler to start at
the far left and to be 38 characters
wide and turn paging off.
2) Type the text in with no
'formatting' at all and let the
converter program deal with line
length. This is the method which you
would use if you are using a text
editor, but you can also use this
method with Wordwise if you put no
embedded commands in the text and just
use menu option 1 to save the text.
The second method is probably the
easiest, because you do not have to
'spool' the text before converting it
and if you use Wordwise you will not
even have to see the words splitting
at the ends of lines when you are
editing the messages.
MesExm1 is an InterWord format file
using the first approach and MesExm2
is a file produced with a text editor
using the second approach (it will
load happily into Wordwise). Both
contain the same text and (once
MesExm1 has been spooled from
InterWord) will produce the same
results in the converter program.
The text itself must follow a few
simple rules so that the converter
program can determine who the messages
are from, who each one is to and what
it is about. The first line must
contain your user ID and the second
line must contain your name, as you
wish it to appear in the message
heading.
After this comes the details of the
first message. The first line of the
message should be the ID of the
recipient (999 for everyone), followed
by his/her name if you wish. The
second line of the message should be
the subject of the message. If you
give "CCC" or anything containing the
word "comment" as the recipient's ID,
the second line will be taken as the
name of the program or article you are
commenting on.
You can then either start the message,
or if you wish you can specify a
colour for the message by having
another line containing any of the
following:
Red
Green
Yellow
Blue
Magenta, Purple, Pink
Cyan, Light blue, Turquoise
White
If you do not specify a colour, yellow
will be used. The message should be
laid out just as you wish it to
appear, but with RETURNs only when you
want to start a new line, rather than
to avoid a word being split.
You can have as many or as few
messages in the file as you want. If
you have more than one, they should be
separated by lines containing a tilde
(÷) and each new message should start
with the recipient's ID and the
subject as before.
With the exception of the message text
itself (where they will appear as
blank lines in the final message),
blank lines are ignored so you can put
them in or leave them out as you wish.
The program will accept capital or
lower case letters, but where text
will appear in the !Mesg file you may
wish to use both for neatness.
Running the program The text file (spooled where
appropriate) should be placed on your
submission disc. On running the
program, you will be asked to insert
your submission disc into drive 0. You
can then press A if your submission
disc is in ADFS format, D if your
submission disc is in DFS format or
SPACE if it is in the current filing
system format. If you use both filing
systems, this should make sense, and
if you don't then pressing SPACE
should work.
You will then be asked for the
filename of the text file. You should
enter this and press RETURN, making
sure that you give the filename of the
spooled file if you are using method 1.
If there is already a !Mesg file on
the submission disc, you will be asked
if you want to add the new messages to
it or replace them. This allows you to
prepare some messages in the messaging
system and some in your wordprocessor
if you wish. Be careful not to
accidentally wipe any messages when
you are trying this program out.
The program will now carry out the
conversion, keeping you informed of
progress as it does so. If any
problems occur you will be warned and
sometimes requested to alter the text
file as appropriate. The program may
take a few minutes to convert your
messages, but as you will usually only
need to do this once the speed is not
a great problem.
Once the program has finished you do
not have to do anything else, but you
may want to use the messaging system
to view the new messages and check
that they are OK. You can, of course,
edit these messages in the messaging
system as usual but if you delete them
and later re-convert the text file,
any changes made in the messaging
system will be lost. You should
therefore make any major changes in
the text file and re-convert it.
Changes from version 0.20
There are several minor changes from
version 0.20. Firstly, filenames may
now be up to 37 characters long for
ADFS and 12 for DFS (this allows for
the longest possible DFS filenames).
Secondly, errors caused by giving a
bad filename are now trapped - the
computer will beep and ask you for the
filename again.
Finally, since the comment feature is
often used to comment on articles as
well as programs, the header at the
top of comments now says "Subject:
..." instead of "Program: ...". As
part of this change, the destination
"Program comment" used in version 0.20
has been changed to accept anything
including the word "comment".
PRESS BREAK