Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!gatech!mcnc!decvax!mandrill!hal!ncoast!allbery
From: allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.mh
Subject: Re: MH drawbacks for computer-unexperienced users
Message-ID: <7709@ncoast.UUCP>
Date: 5 May 88 01:13:40 GMT
References: <336@draken.nada.kth.se> <23864@bbn.COM>
Reply-To: allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery)
Followup-To: comp.mail.mh
Organization: Cleveland Public Access UN*X, Cleveland, Oh
Lines: 54

As quoted from <23864@bbn.COM> by mesard@bbn.com (Wayne Mesard):
+---------------
| From article <336@draken.nada.kth.se>, by psv@nada.kth.se (Peter Svanberg):
| >     * There is no way to include a file in a letter without the use of
| >       an editor.
| 
| "forw -file " works for me.
+---------------

"forw" in MH 6.5 #45[UCI] of Tue Jul  8 11:38:00 PDT 1986 doesn't grok a
"-file" argument.  Or at least, so it tells me in "forw -help"....

A simple solution to this is to write a custom "whatnow" and add a new
command:

	"incl [-prepend] {-file file|[+folder] message}"

"Whatnow" is, of course, simply a "shell":

	while ${EDITOR} ${draftmsg}; do
		echo "What now? \c"
		read cmd
		case "$cmd" in
		# the various commands
		esac
	done

(Of course, it's actually in C, and the default whatnow is built into many
MH commands, but this is the basic idea.)  A C program could be written to
do this (at a slight speed penalty) and add an "incl" command rather easily;
I may actually do this in the future.  (Most often, when I want to include
a file I'm really sending a form letter reply; in this case, the best way
to handle it is to set up a reply template and send the reply with e.g.
"repl -form arch-form-letter".)

BTW, for those interested:  Back when I first joined this group (it was
still a mailing list then), someone asked how to "boxify" messages.  I had
it kluged then, now I have a "proper" technique.

(~/Mail/mhl.reply)
----------------------------------- cut here -----------------------------------
:+---------------
body:component="| ",compwidth=0,formatfield="%<(null)| %|%(putstr)%>"
:+---------------
:
----------------------------------- cut here -----------------------------------

The only problem is that it sometimes starts a "component" in a very strange
place in the middle of a line, usually splitting a word squarely in half.
I've no idea why it happens.
-- 
	      Brandon S. Allbery, moderator of comp.sources.misc
	{well!hoptoad,uunet!marque,cbosgd,sun!mandrill}!ncoast!allbery
Delphi: ALLBERY						     MCI Mail: BALLBERY