ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ S F M A I L for SPITFIRE 3.3 S M R E A D The Offline Mail Reader Offline Mail and Message System ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ A Quality Product from MetaúSys Supported via The Mainframe BBS Sysop: Bob Zimmerman (708) 223-2344 MetaúSys PO Box 1387 Arlington Hts, IL 60006 T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ (1) Disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 (2) Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 What is SFMail? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 What is SMRead? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Some SMRead Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 (3) Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 (4) Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 (5) Sysops wanting to register the SFMail Door . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 (6) Hardware & Software Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 (7) Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 (8) Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Communication Software and Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 SMREAD Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 SMREAD command line parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 A mail packet name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 /MONO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 /SUBJORDER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 /DATEORDER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 /NS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 /NOZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 /BEEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 /TONE=150 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 /TONEDELAY=20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 /FORMAT= . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 /DISKSWAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 /NOHIGH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 SMREAD.CFG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 SUBJORDER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 NOSORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 DATEORDER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 CONFNUM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 VGA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 NOTRUNC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 LIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 TOYOU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 BEEPONMINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 TONE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 TONEDELAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Setting SMRead's Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 DISKSWAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 NOHIGH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 FORMAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 UNZIP, UNARJ, UNLHA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 i SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page ii --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ZIPMOVE, ARJMOVE, LHAMOVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 ZIPADD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Using An External Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Installing Your Serial Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Getting The Latest Readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 (9) SMRead Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 SFM.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 SMREAD.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 VERSION.DAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 SMREAD.TXT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 SMREAD.CFG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 SMREAD.KEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 SMUSERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 SMTAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 xxx.ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 xxx.REP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 xxx.SFP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 SFMAIL.WRK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 SFMAIL.SYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 SFMAIL.MSG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 NEWFILES.DAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 (10) Step By Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Using the SFMail Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Selecting Which Conferences To Process . . . . . . . . . . 27 Selecting Which Messages To Process . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Extracting Messages From You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Extract Deleted Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Selecting a Download Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Completing The Download . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Configuring the SFMail Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 (11) Using SMREAD To Read Your Mail Packet . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 The SMREAD Main Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 F1 - Selecting The File You Downloaded . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 F2 - Show File Stats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 F3 - Read and Reply to Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Reading Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Moving Around The Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Finding/Searching Through Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Searching For Unread Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Message Threads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Getting An Index of Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Jumping Around Message Conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Saving or Printing a message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Saving User Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Entering A New Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Deleting a Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 ii SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page iii --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Replying to a Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Editing Your Replies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 F4 - Entering A Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 F5 - View New File List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 F6 - Save BBS Conference Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 F7 - Reset Message Read Pointers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 F8 - Edit your replies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 F9 - Shell to Dos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 F10 - Sort Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 ESC - Quit to Dos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 (12) Using the Editor to Create a Reply or Message . . . . . . . . . 44 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Using the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Copying Text Into Your Reply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Saving A Copy Of Your Reply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Quoting A Message Into Your Reply . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Routing Netmail Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 (13) TAG LINES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 DEFAULT versus RANDOM Tag Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Specifying The Default Tag Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Random Tag Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 (14) Uploading Your .REP File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 (15) History of Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Version 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Version 2.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Version 2.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Version 2.3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Version 2.4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Version 2.5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Version 2.6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Version 2.7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Version 2.8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Version 2.9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Version 2.95 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Version 2.96 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Version 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Version 3.02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Version 3.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Version 3.11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Version 3.3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 iii SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 1 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) Disclaimer --------------- In no event shall the author of SFMail/SMREAD and/or his associates be held liable for any damages whatsoever, including, without limitation, damages for loss of profits, business interruption, loss of information, or other pecuniary loss, arising out of the use of SFMail or it's associated software (such as the Reader/Replier SMREAD)! If you do not agree to this in whole, you are to delete SFMail and/or SMREAD and their associated files immediately; you should not run it at all. By running it in any part, you are agreeing to the above terms! SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 2 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (2) Introduction ----------------- What is SFMail? --------------- SFMail is an offline message system for Spitfire Bulletin Board Systems. SFMail allows you to extract messages from your Spitfire BBS in just seconds. SFMail consists of a door program that you run on your bbs and a reader program that your callers use to read and reply to messages offline. The door is typically installed on the Message Menu. It allows you to extract messages in either SFMail, ASCII or QWK formats. (QWK is a standard for offline readers, but is a bit slower and has less Spitfire message base features then the SFMail format). SFMail is priced and available with and without QWK support; a Sysop is not forced to purchase the QWK support for the door. After they hang up, callers use the READER (SMREAD for SFMail format or any QWK reader for the QWK format) to read, reply and enter new messages. They can then call back and upload the replies and new messages. Long distance callers can save some big bucks. If you are trying to get callers to use your message base more, this door may be just the trick. It has worked very well for netmail systems such as PC Relay and Circuitnet. Mike Woltz, the author of Spitfire, uses SFMail exclusively when he travels. As a caller, you may not want to "use up all your logon time" by reading messages. SFMail gives you the opportunity to extract messages (and a list of new files on the bbs) and then download them to your pc. After you hang up, you can read and reply to messages without incurring phone charges or using up your logon time. What is SMRead? --------------- When you download a mail packet from the SFMail door, you then read the SFMail format packet with the SMREAD program. SMREAD currently only supports SFMail format message packets. It currently does not support QWK format messages. SMRead will organize the messages you download just like they are on the bbs. The reader (SMREAD) will list all available message conferences and allow you to read messages in any conference. You are able to create replies to any message, and enter new messages as well. If you have the authority, the reader will allow you to delete messages off the bbs (something no other offline mail system SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- does today). The built in editor has many features, including saving a message, copying text from an ascii file into a message, quoting a message you are replying to, support for tag lines and too many more features to mention here. Some SMRead Features -------------------- ú No limit to the # of messages processed ú Can search for a string anywhere in the message ú Has a full featured built-in editor ú Supports using your favorite external editor ú Bookmarks are supported so you may save your place ú Reading messages by thread are supported ú Full support of tag lines ú You may print copies of messages or their replies ú Full copy and save functions are supported within the editor ú Quick Help Screens are supplied for reading and editing messages ú Drop to Dos while reading or editing a message ú Maintains an address book of callers you correspond with ú Full support for routing messages on PC Relay or Circuitnet ú Defaults replies to private if the original message is private ú You can toggle any message's netmail and public flags ú You can move a reply across conferences ú You can delete the message(s) off the bbs ú Supports up to 255 conferences ú Preview and table of contents by conference ú Full support and upgrades ú Only $15 Shareware!!! SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 4 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (3) Support ------------ SMREAD is shareware. It is supported by Bob Zimmerman of MetaúSys. If you have a question regarding a feature, first check this doc file. The sysop running the SFMail door should be able to answer most questions you have for the reader. If you still need further assistance, you may call the Mainframe BBS at 708-223-2344. It run Spitfire 3.1 using a US Robotics Dual Standard modem (v32/v42). You may also contact Bob via RIME. There are several Spitfire conferences setup, including one devoted to MetaúSys and product support. If you prefer, you may route messages to node ->METASYS. If you prefer, Bob Zimmerman has an account on CompuServ. His ID is 72371,1700. You may leave messages via CompuServ Mail. Bob logs on fairly often and can help answer questions there. If you are reporting a potential problem with SFMAIL the door or SMREAD the reader, it is important that you include your Autoexec.bat, Config.Sys, Dos version, if you are running on a network or under Desqview, how many file areas you have, if you have CD Rom, what version of Spitfire you are running, what version (compile date) of SFMAIL you are running, and what steps lead up to the problem. You would be surprised how many messages every week say something like: I tried running SMREAD on my system and it doesn't work. Do you have any ideas why not? We simply cannot help folks posting that little info. If you prefer you may contact MetaúSys or Bob Zimmerman at MetaúSys PO Box 1387 Arlington Hts, IL 60006 SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 5 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (4) Registration ----------------- SMREAD is shareware. Many hours of work and design went into this program. It contains a full editor with features found in stand alone editors. MetaSys and Bob Zimmerman have designed this program to make it the mail reader of preference for Spitfire. Mike Woltz himself uses this program to manage his messages. You may evaluate this program for 30 days. If after 30 days you still want to use this program, you must register this program with MetaSys. The current registration fee is $15. After registering the reader, you will receive a KEY file that turns on your license number in the reader tag line. This license/serial number will only be assigned to you. Each number is unique! Sysops registering the SFMail door are entitled to download their key file. If you are registering the reader (you are not a sysop) then MetaSys will send you the latest reader along with your key file on disk. Please specify 5 1/4" or 3 1/2" diskette. You should also specify a return address (you would be surprised how many folks neglect to specify this address). Finally, please provide the name of the bbs that has the SFMail door installed. This way we can keep track of which readers are used by which bbs. All funds must be in US Dollars! Registered customers are supported by MetaSys. If need be, we can call you and make sure that you get the program running to your satisfaction. As with all our software, if you have any requests and or changes, don't hesitate to contact us. Many existing SFMAIL and SMRead customers will find their requests included in this version. You should mail your registration to: MetaúSys PO Box 1387 Arlington Hts, IL 60006 Be sure to include the information specified above. Without that information, your registration will be delayed. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 6 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (5) Sysops wanting to register the SFMail Door ----------------------------------------------- If you are a sysop and are interested in running the SFMail door on your bbs, you should contact Bob Zimmerman on the Mainframe BBS (phone number on the front cover of this doc). SFMail (the door) is not available as shareware at this time. Full information on obtaining the door, costs etc... can be found on the Mainframe in a doc file called SFMail.ZIP. There are also several bulletins that discuss SFMail on the Mainframe. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 7 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (6) Hardware & Software Requirements ------------------------------------- SMRead is designed to run on Dos based PCs. SMRead has been tested on XT, 286, 386 and 486 systems. The specific disk space requirements vary depending on your message packet size. Since SMRead "un- compresses" the message packet, you should always have enough space to uncompress and re-compress that file. Your compression program (e.g. PKZIP) can tell you more specific information on how much disk space it requires. SMRead itself requires approximately 300k to run. 100k is required for shelling to PKZIP. We will be supporting other archive programs in the future (such as ARJ and LHARC). You may need more memory depending on their requirements. SMRead can be run when shelling to Dos from Spitfire (if you are a sysop)... but you are required to unzip your mail separately. This is discussed later for sysops only. If you have at least 450k free memory, you should have no problem running this reader along with all of it's features. With version 2.8 of SMREAD, we have added some memory swapping code. This will allow you to run SMREAD in as little as 300k. SMREAD will swap itself out of memory if it cannot run the archive program. SMRead has been tested with Dos 3.2, 3.3, 4.1 and 5.0. It has run successfully under Desqview, Novell, Lantastic and standalone. SMRead supports netmail systems such as Fido, Rime, Circuitnet, Throbnet, Interlink, all PC Relay based system as well as Qnet/Rnet based systems. As long as the messages are imported and exported to the Spitfire message base using the SFMail door in SFMail format, SMRead can handle it. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 8 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (7) Quick Start ---------------- If you want to JUMP right into things, create a directory on your drive and call it SMREAD. Unzip the SFM.EXE file into this directory. Several files will be generated including SMREAD.CFG and a tag line file called SMTAGS. Next, download a sample message packet in SFMail format. Move the packet to your SMREAD directory. Finally type SMREAD followed by the name of the message packet. For example, if you download mail from the Mainframe BBS, the message packet will be called MAIN.ZIP. Start SMREAD with the following command: SMREAD MAIN or SMREAD MAIN.ZIP Choose option 3 from the SMREAD main menu to begin reading messages. While reading messages, there are MANY commands you can use. For example, pressing the letter S will save a copy of the message to an ascii file. Pressing ENTER or the SPACEBAR will take you to the next page of your message. Press F1 for a full screen of HELP. All of these commands are available when viewing messages. To reply to any message, simply press R (while viewing the message). You will then placed into the built in editor. While in the editor, you may again press F1 for a full screen of help on the "editor". The above should be enough to get you started. SMRead has far too many features to document them in a Quick Start section. The above information should be enough to get you started using the reader. When you exit the reader, any replies you have created are stored in the file xxxx.REP where xxxx matches the mail packet name. For example, MAIN.REP if the mail packet was called MAIN.ZIP. You upload the .REP file to the bbs to post the messages to the bbs. You can then delete the .REP File. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 9 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (8) Installation ----------------- Communication Software and Hardware ----------------------------------- There are no special requirements placed on your hardware or software when using the SFMail door on the bbs you call. Begin the SFMail door and extract a mail packet. The door will compress your mail packet using a compression program. The default is PKZIP. You will need to have a copy of PKZIP and PKUNZIP on your PC so that you may uncompress and re-compress the mail packet. If you do not have PKZIP/PKUNZIP, ask your sysop how you can obtain a copy. The SFMail door will use Chuck Forsberg's DSZ program to transfer the file to you (download). It supports Xmodem, Ymodem and Zmodem transfers. Any communication program that supports these protocols can be used to download messages and upload your replies. Make sure that PKZIP and PKUNZIP are placed in a directory somewhere in your Dos path. If you have "any" questions on how to do this, please don't hesitate to contact us or your sysop for assistance. In addition, SMREAD uses the Van Buerg's LIST command to view the list of New Files available for download. You can alter what programs SMREAD's uses with the SMREAD.CFG file. SMREAD Installation ------------------- You may place SMREAD in it's own directory or in a directory containing your downloaded files. I actually recommend that you place SMREAD in any directory that is in your path. For example, I keep all of my utility programs such as PKZIP, DSZ etc... in a directory called C:\UTIL. This directory is included in my Dos Path. I place my SMREAD.EXE and it's files in that same directory. That way, I can read a mail packet anywhere on my PC. I don't have to worry about moving it anywhere... I can read it in my download directory as well! SMREAD command line parameters ------------------------------ When starting SMREAD, you are able to type "parameters" on the command line. With version 2.0 of SMRead, some command line parameters are no SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 10 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- longer available. Specifically, /VGA and /C have been made configuration options in the SMREAD.CFG file. This is explained in the next section of this document. The following summarizes the valid command line parameters. A mail packet name When downloading mail, your mail packet will be named xxxx.ZIP where xxxx identifies which bbs it came from. Prior to version 2 of SFMail, the mail packet was always named SFMAIL.ZIP. As of version 2, the mail packet is uniquely named, allowing you to download different packets from every bbs and not "overlaying" any mail from another bbs. For example, if you download mail from the Mainframe, it's mail packet is called MAIN.ZIP, while the mail packet from Buffalo Creek Software is called BUFFALO.ZIP. When starting SMRead, you may specify which mail packet you would like to process. If you do NOT specify which packet to process, you will have to select option 1 from the SMREAD menu to specify the mail packet name. So, if you want to start the reader and process the MAIN.ZIP mail packet, simply type SMREAD MAIN. /MONO This command line parameter is actually being phased out. By specifying /MONO, the color set used by the reader will be black and white. With the release of v2 of SMREAD, you are able to set all colors using the SMREAD.CFG file (explained in the next section). We will be supplying a sample CFG for mono systems called MONO.CFG in the reader package. This option will remain active for only a few more releases. /SUBJORDER This command instructs the reader to automatically sort the messages into thread/subject order. See page 13 for a complete discussion. This feature only works in registered readers. You may abbreviate this command by specifying /T instead of /SUBJORDER. /DATEORDER This command instructs the reader to automatically sort the messages into message date order. See page 13 for a complete discussion. This feature only works in registered readers. You may abbreviate this command by specifying /TD instead of /DATEORDER. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 11 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- /NS This command instructs SMREAD to ignore any sort requests (in the .CFG file). Once a given mail packet has been sorted (into thread order), you don't have to sort it every time you re-read the same mail packet. Specify /NS on the SMREAD command line to avoid the sort. /NOZIP Normally, the first thing that SMREAD will do is uncompress your mail packet (PKUNZIP by default). This means that you must have 300k of free memory for the reader and an additional 100k of free memory for PKUNZIP. If you don't have enough memory to run PKUNZIP, it will fail and SMREAD will NOT be able to continue. By specifying the /NOZIP keyword, SMREAD assumes you have already unzipped the files. For example, if you are constantly running low on memory, you may have a bat file as follows: CD \DOWNLOAD PKUNZIP MAIN.ZIP -o SMREAD MAIN /NOZIP PKZIP -fm MAIN The above lines are required to run SMREAD with the /nozip keyword. Note that the "bbs id" (in our example MAIN) is required or an error will occur. For sysops running SFMail locally, you have the ability to move the 'unzipped' files directly into your SFMail directory when running the door locally. To read those files, you are required to use the /NOZIP keyword with your BBS= ID. /BEEP This command line option is the same as the SMREAD.CFG option BEEPONMINE. It instructs the reader to sound a TONE when getting to a message that is addressed to you. The commands TONE and TONEDELAY can change the level and length of the tone sounded. /TONE=150 This command allows you to set the "level" of the beep sounded by the BEEPONMINE (/BEEP) commands. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 12 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- You should never set this lower then 25 and it can be set as high as 2000. You can use this command line option to test different tones and when you find your preference, set it in the SMREAD.CFG file permanently with the TONE command. /TONEDELAY=20 This command specifies how long the "tone/beep" signals for. The default is 20 milliseconds. You can set this to any value from 1 to 1000. 1000 is 1 second * 3. (the tone is altered so what ever value you use is multiplied by 3). You can set this permanently with the TONEDELAY command in the SMREAD.CFG file. /FORMAT= This command tells SMREAD what the "extension" of the mail packet is. For example, you are able to download a mail packet in SFMAIL doors with the extension of .ZIP or .SFM (depending on the version of SFMAIL the sysop uses). Specifying /FORMAT=ZIP tells SMREAD to process files ending with .ZIP. Specifying /FORMAT=SFM (the default) tells SMREAD to process files ending with SFM. SMREAD will automatically detect what type of compression was used. PKZIP, LHA and ARJ are currently supported. You may abbreviate /FORMAT as /F=. /DISKSWAP Informs SMREAD that if it is going to swap itself out for a compression program or for dropping to dos, it should swap to disk instead of EMS. Can be used to test if your EMS is non-compatable with SMREAD and some Win 3.0 customers may require this. I don't recommend this parameter. You may specify SET SWAP=dir in your Autoexec.bat to tell SMREAD what directory to swap to. The default is your root directory of the current drive. /NOHIGH This command line parameter forces the tag line to use low ASCII characters in place of high ascii characters. The þ SMREAD uses * SMREAD in it's place. This is required if you use FIDO. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 13 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SMREAD.CFG ---------- This file is a configuration file which should reside in the same directory containing SMREAD.EXE. This file is a simple ascii text file. You may use any text editor on it. Every line should have one command on it. Any text following a semi-colon is considered a comment. A default SMREAD.CFG is found in the SFM.EXE file. The following explains the commands found in the SMREAD.CFG file: SUBJORDER --------- Normally, when you read messages with SFMail, it will read them in message number order. This is "typically" in date-entered order, although for netmail systems, it is NOT by date... It is the same order the messages are in, if you read the messages online the bbs! By placing this command in the CFG file, the messages are sorted into THREAD order automatically after loading the file. This allows you to read messages of the same subject in subject order. This feature ONLY works in registered readers. See page 42 for a full description of "how" the sort works. NOSORT ------ If you want to "exclude" a conference from being automatically sorted, then specify NOSORT followed by the confernece number. For example, if you don't want Conference #1 sorted by thread automatically, but you do all others (maybe they are netmail), then in your CFG file, have both SUBJORDER and NOSORT 1. The NOSORT command should be on a line by itself. If you want to exlucde more then one conference, you need multiple NOSORT commands on separate lines. NOTE: If you sort using the F10 from the Main Menu, then NOSORT is IGNORED! It ONLY applies to the auto-sort at start up! DATEORDER --------- Normally, when you read messages with SFMail, it will read them in message number order. This is "typically" in date-entered SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 14 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- order, although for netmail systems, it is NOT by date... It is the same order the messages are in, if you read the messages online the bbs! By placing this command in the CFG file, the messages are sorted into message DATE order automatically after loading the file. This allows you to read messages in chronological order. This feature ONLY works in registered readers. See page 42 for a full description of "how" the sort works. CONFNUM ------- When reading messages, you will find 2 "message numbers" on the screen. In the upper left hand corner is the actual internal message number. This number is unique within the given conference. In the upper right hand corner you will see Message x of y. This tells you where you are in the current packet. If you are reading message 1, then this will say Message 1 of 30 (for a 30 message packet)... When using netmail systems, it is usually more meaningful to view your position within the message conference, rather then the message packet. For example, 1 of 30 where 30 messages are in the current conference, as opposed to 1 of 276 (276 messages in the packet). When viewing messages, you can toggle this counter by pressing Alt-C. If you always want to view your relative position within the conference, then specify CONFNUM in the SMREAD.CFG file. This command takes no parameters and should be placed on a line by itself. If you want to comment the line, place a semi-colon after CONFNUM. VGA --- The SMREAD program supports reading mail on Ega/Vga monitors in 43/50 line mode. Normally Dos shows you 25 lines at a time. With EGA monitors you are able to view 43 lines in extended mode. On VGA monitors, this extended mode actually is 50 lines long. When viewing a message, you can toggle EGA/VGA mode by pressing Alt-V or Alt-E. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 15 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you always want to be in EGA/VGA mode, then place the VGA command in the SMREAD.CFG file on a line by itself. NOTRUNC ------- When using the built-in editor and replying to a message, you are able to "quote" that message into your reply. If the message you are replying to already contains QUOTES and they are too wide to fit within your message, they are truncated. If you want SMREAD not to truncate them, and to wrap them to a second line, specify NOTRUNC in your SMREAD.CFG file. LIST ---- When downloading a packet of mail, you are able to extract a list of New Files available for download from the bbs. This file is called NEWFILES.DAT. On the main menu of SMREAD, you are able to view this file. SMRead will shell to the LIST command (from Van Buerg - shareware) to read the file. If you want to shell to another DOS command, then specify LIST followed by the Dos Command Name. For example, to shell to a program called BROWSE.COM, your SMREAD.CFG file would contain the line: LIST BROWSE TOYOU ----- When viewing the LIST of messages in a conference using "I" or F7, all messages to you are flagged with a check mark. If you specify the keyword TOYOU in the .CFG file, then messages addressed to ALL or ALL USERS are also flagged as being TO YOU. BEEPONMINE ---------- This is the same as the SMREAD command line option /BEEP. It instructs the reader to sound a TONE when getting to a message that is addressed to you. The commands TONE and TONEDELAY can change the level and length of the tone sounded. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 16 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TONE ---- This command allows you to set the "level" of the beep sounded by the BEEPONMINE (/BEEP) commands. You should never set this lower then 25 and it can be set as high as 2000. You can use the command line option /TONE to test different tones and when you find your preference, set it in the SMREAD.CFG file permanently with the TONE command. The TONE command takes one parameter, the level. For example, TONE 150. TONEDELAY --------- This command specifies how long the "tone/beep" signals for. The default is 20 milliseconds. You can set this to any value from 1 to 1000. 1000 is 1 second * 3. (the tone is altered so what ever value you use is multiplied by 3). You can set this permanently with the TONEDELAY command in the SMREAD.CFG file, or test different delays with the /TONEDELAY command line option. For example, setting the delay to 20 milliseconds is: TONEDELAY 20 Setting SMRead's Colors ----------------------- You are able to customize the colors that SMREAD uses. The SMREAD.CFG file comes with one set of default colors. If you totally remove the color commands in SMREAD.CFG, then SMREAD uses the default colors used in version 1.x of the reader. You can change any set of colors, by specifying the following commands in SMREAD.CFG. Each command should be followed by one of the following colors: BLACK, BLUE, GREEN, CYAN, RED,MAGENTA, BROWN, GRAY, DARKGRAY, LIGHTBLUE, LIGHTGREEN, LIGHTCYAN, LIGHTRED, LIGHTMAGENTA, YELLOW and WHITE. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 17 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Place each of the commands on a line by itself followed by the color code. See the SMREAD.CFG for examples. The color commands are: FC Sets normal foreground color BC Sets normal background color PLAID Sets the "speckled" background used on the menu HFC Sets the foreground color used to highlight text HBC Sets the background color used to highlight text EFC Sets the foreground color for the edit window EBC Sets the background color for the edit window EHFC Sets the foeground color for edit highlighted text EHBC Sets the background color for edit highlighted text EAFC Sets the foreground color in edit for the window lines EABC Sets the background color in edit for the window line DISKSWAP -------- Place this command in your SMREAD.CFG file to force all swapping (when shelling to a compression program or Dos) to use Disk as opposed to using EMS. You may specify SET SWAP=dir in your Autoexec.bat to tell SMREAD what directory to swap to. The default is your root directory of the current drive. NOHIGH ------ This parameter will turn off the high ascii characters from the tag line (required when messaging via FIDOnet)... The þ SMREAD will be changed to * SMREAD and the ¯ is changed to a greater then sign. FORMAT ------ The default compression routine used by SMREAD is PKZIP. In the future, if the sysop allows, the door will support other archivers such as PKPAK, ARJ and LHARC (to name a few). The format command tells SMREAD what type of archiver you would like to use. The default is ZIP. If you are downloading the file in a different archive format, then simply specify the "extension" of the file here. For example, for ARJ files, you would specify: FORMAT ARJ SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 18 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- in SMREAD.CFG on a line all by itself. You also have to set the next few commands. UNZIP, UNARJ, UNLHA ------------------- These commands instructs SMREAD how to uncompress your mail packet. If your mail packet ends with .ZIP, or it ends with .SFM and it was created with PKZIP, SMREAD will use the UNZIP command line to uncompress the packet. UNARJ is used for SFM mail packets created with ARJ and UNLHA for LHA. The SFMAIL door only supports these 3 types of compression programs at this time. If you want to use a different program other then PKUNZIP, ARJ or LHA to uncompress the file(s), you must specify this command line followed by the DOS command to unzip the file. On this command line, you MUST specify the parameter %FILE. This is where we "stick" the mail packet name. For example, if I have downloaded a mail packet called MAIN.SFM, then the UNZIP line would be: UNZIP PKUNZIP %FILE When SMREAD sees the above, it replaces the %FILE with MAIN.ZIP so the command it actually issues to unzip the file is PKUNZIP MAIN.ZIP For ARJ, the command may look like: UNARJ ARJ x %FILE If you have any questions, please ask. We will supply sample lines in the SMREAD.CFG file as the "SFMAIL door" begins to support these archivers. ZIPMOVE, ARJMOVE, LHAMOVE ------------------------- This command instructs SMREAD how to re-compress your mail packet after you are done reading your mail. As described in the previous UNZIP, UNARJ, UNLHA section, SMREAD will process SFM files and will automatically detect what type of archiver compressed the program. You may override the command line with your own command as follows: ZIPMOVE PKZIP -m %FILE %FILES NOTE! There are 2 keywords on the previous command. One is the %FILE (singular) and the other %FILES (plural). The first is the SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 19 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "archive or mail packet name". The second is the list of files that need to be moved into the mail packet. For example, the above command would be translated to: PKZIP -m MAIN.ZIP SFMAIL.WRK or to something similar. ZIPADD -------- This command instructs SMREAD how to compress your mail packet if you save the bbs info from the Main Menu of SMREAD. By default, SMREAD will PKZIP the work files into a new ZIP file. This new zip file contains a valid mail packet with NO mail in it, so you can enter new messages for that bbses in the future, without requiring you to extract a mail packet. If you are using a different archive format (see FORMAT above), or if you want to use a different program (other then PKZIP) then use must specify CMPRADD followed by the Dos command that SMREAD should issue. For example: CMPRMOVE PKZIP -u %FILE %FILES NOTE! There are 2 keywords on the previous command. One is the %FILE (singular) and the other %FILES (plural). The first is the "archive or mail packet name". The second is the list of files that need to be moved into the mail packet. For example, the above command would be translated to: PKZIP -m MAIN.ZIP SFMAIL.SYS SFMWORK\SFMAIL.MSG SFMWORK\SFMAIL.WRK or to something similar. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 20 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using An External Editor ------------------------ SMRead has an excellent editor built into it. Things such as Auto- routing, Auto-quoting, address books etc... all customize the editor for Offline Mail use. Very few other offline readers have a built in editor. If you do prefer to use another editor, create a file in the SMREAD directory called EDITOR.CFG. This file should contain a the command to invoke the editor (the one word!)... For example, to invoke QEDIT the file should contain: QEDIT That is all. When replying or entering a new message, SMREAD will shell to QEDIT. The editor must be found in your path and run in under 200k memory. This editor will not be used when editing existing replies. It will only be used when creating new replies or new messages. Installing Your Serial Number ----------------------------- When you register your reader (and sysops that register their door) will receive a key file from the Mainframe BBS. This key file will be called ###.KEY, where ### is your serial number. Sysop serial numbers all begin with the letter S. Simply place this file in the directory containing the SMREAD.EXE file. You must also RENAME the file to SMREAD.KEY. That is all there is to it. When SMREAD starts, it will look for this file and decipher it. If the file has been hacked in any way, the reader will mark the tag line of each message with a HACKED message. Your serial number is licensed to you only. Sharing your key file is a violation of your license agreement. It is also, simply, stealing. Please support shareware and keep your file for yourself only. A special thanks for your understanding. Getting The Latest Readers -------------------------- The latest reader is always available on the Mainframe BBS. Many other bbses that run the SFMail door, make a habit of carrying the latest SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 21 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- reader. Simply go to their SFMail door and check option R. It will list the version of the reader they have available. Simply download the reader file, SFM.EXE. Then check the .TXT file (this file) for a list of changes that occurred since your last reader. The history of changes are located at the back of the document. Most of the time, you can simply overlay your old reader with the new one and begin using it. THE ONLY THING YOU SHOULD NEVER DO IS ATTEMPT TO EDIT REPLIES FROM AN OLDER READER WITH A NEWER READER. NEWER READERS CAN NEVER EDIT THE REP FILE CREATED BY AN OLDER READER. IT CAN APPEND TO THEM ONLY!!! SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 22 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (9) SMRead Files ----------------- The following lists all files you should be aware of (using SMRead) and what they are used for. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask... SFM.EXE ------- This is a self-extracting ZIP file containing the SMRead program. This file can be downloaded from any SFMail door by selecting option R of the door. After downloading this file, create a temporary directory and run SFM.EXE while you are "in" the new directory. It will generate the SMREAD files. Most of them are explained below. SMREAD.EXE ---------- This file is generated by SFM.EXE. It is the actual reader program. You should never see this program available for download. It should always be inside the SFM.EXE file. VERSION.DAT ----------- This file is a small text file. It is found inside the SFM.EXE file. It contains the version and release date of the reader (SMREAD.EXE) found in the SFM.EXE file. SMREAD.TXT ---------- This file is the doc file you are reading. A history of changes to the SMREAD program can be found at the end of this file. This file is found in the SFM.EXE file. SMREAD.CFG ---------- This file is a sample configuration file. It contains default colors and options for the reader. A default file is found in the SFM.EXE. Once you customize it, you will not need a new one. This file should be placed in the same directory that contains your SMREAD.EXE file. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 23 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information on SMREAD.CFG and how to configure it, see page 13. SMREAD.KEY ---------- This file is only distributed to registered users of the readers. It contains the "key" to your serial number. You place this file in your SMREAD.EXE directory. SMRead will automatically read this file and will place your serial number at the top of your Main Menu and in the tag line of every message you write. You must NEVER give this file to anyone else. It is licensed to you for your use only. Distribution in any manner is a violation of your license agreement. At the current time, the shareware version of the reader is full functioned. Registrations have been few in number. Less then 20 for a two year time period. We may add some features to the reader, that will only be unlocked when this key is available. This key will not be required for any current feature. SMUSERS ------- This is sort of an address book you can save other callers names in. If you are using PC Relay software, their NODE ID is also saved. This way, you can remember their NODE ID so that you can route messages to them at any time. This file should be placed in your SMREAD.EXE directory. Creating this file is actually done by the reader itself. When viewing a message, pressing U or Alt-U will save the name in the To or From fields. When editing a reply (or new message), pressing Alt-U will bring up the list of callers and allow you to select a NODE to route the message to (for PC Relay software). SMTAGS ------ This file contains your tag lines. You create this file using an ASCII editor you would like. The file should be in the same directory containing SMREAD.EXE. The file contains tag lines to be added as "signature" lines at the end of messages and replies you write with the reader. It is not a required file, but is a very common file in Netmail systems. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 24 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Each line should be from 1 to 52 characters long. If you wan a 2 line tag, the 2nd line must be indented at least one space. xxx.ZIP ------- When you download a mail packet in SFMail format, it will be called xxx.ZIP where xxx is the BBS ID the sysop has assigned to it. This should allow you to download packets from several bbses, and each packet should have a unique name. xxx.REP ------- When you finish reading a mail packet, any replies you have created are placed in the file xxx.REP, where xxx is the BBS ID that sysop has assigned. For example, if you have downloaded MAIN.ZIP, then the rep file will be called MAIN.REP. This is the file you upload to the bbs so you can post your replies to the board. xxx.SFP ------- Within every mail packet you download (from a version 2.x SFMail door) you will find a file called xxx.SFP where xxx is the BBS ID assigned by the sysop. For example, if you downloaded a packet called MAIN.ZIP, then the SFP file inside the MAIN.ZIP file is called MAIN.SFP. This file is very small, usually less then 1k in size. When you extract "new messages" from a bbs, there is a "Last Message Read" pointer that tells SFMail (and Spitfire) what was the last message you read. Then we know what messages are new for you. For example, if you read the first 200 messages in a conference that has 250 messages, then your LMR (Last Message Read Pointer) is set to 200. If you want to read new messages, we know to begin with message 201. If you then read to the end of the message conference, your LMR is "updated" to reflect your "new" LMR of 250. There are times, that when you extract messages, you may want to reset your Last Message Read. For example, if your mail packet is accidentally deleted or corrupted, you would want to be able to reset your LMR to what it was "before" your download. The SFP file contains the LMR pointers, both before and after it's download. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 25 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I KNOW THIS CAN BE CONFUSING, BUT LETS LOOK AT AN EXAMPLE AND THIS WILL CLEAR UP! Let us say, that yesterday, in a given conference, there are 200 messages. My LMR was 150. This means that 50 messages were new for me. When I downloaded yesterdays packet, I receive 50 messages. The BBS then updated my LMR to say that my "last message read is 200". This is simple enough. The SFP file in my mail packet has, internally, both "150" and "200". It has what was my LMR before I downloaded yesterday's mail and what was the LMR after I successfully downloaded yesterday's mail. Let us say that today, the conference has 225 messages in it. That means there are 25 new messages for me. I download the file and my LMR is now set to 225. BUT... The packet I download was accidentally deleted! DARN! I go back to SFMail but when I download new messages (or try to read them with Spitfire), it tells me there are no new messages. It assumes I already downloaded them! I can take "YESTERDAYs" SFP file and upload it to the SFMail door. The SFMail door will look at the file and say, Do you want to set your LMR to 150 or 200 (to what it was before yesterdays packet or after yesterdays packet)... I say AFTER. My LMR is now set to 200. I can now download new mail again without losing ANY! Because all of this is done with internal message numbers, you will always get the correct mail, even if the sysop has packed his message bases and there are a "different number" of messages. NOTE! When you read your mail, the SFP file is extracted and always left on disk. Every day (or week) when you get more mail, the SFP file is overlayed with the new one. It is never deleted by SMREAD from your disk, in case you need to recover the LMR. *** If this was too confusing, please ask for help. This is one of the neatest recovery features built into SFMail and SMREAD. SFMAIL.WRK ---------- In every mail packet, there is a file called SFMAIL.WRK contained "in" the compressed mail packet. This file is internal to the reader. It should always be in every mail packet. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 26 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SFMAIL.SYS ---------- In every mail packet, there is a file called SFMAIL.SYS contained "in" the compressed mail packet. This file is internal to the reader. It should always be in every mail packet. SFMAIL.MSG ---------- In every mail packet, there is a file called SFMAIL.MSG contained "in" the compressed mail packet. This file is internal to the reader. It should always be in every mail packet. NEWFILES.DAT ------------ This file contains a list of new files available for download from the bbs. It is only extracted if you have the feature turned on within the BBSes SFMail door. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 27 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (10) Step By Step ----------------- Using the SFMail Door --------------------- To begin using SMRead, you must logon to a bbs containing the SFMail door. Once you start the door, it will create a configuration file for you. This file is on the bbs and remembers your preferences for using the door. The SFMail door has several options and most of them are self explanatory. Option R will allow you to download the latest SMRead available. Your SMREAD.KEY file should work with all versions of the reader. Option C allows you to configure SFMail to your preferences. We will discuss this option last. To begin your mail run, select option 1) Download SFMail Format. The following assumes you have never run SFMail before and you do not have a configuration defined (using option C of the door). Selecting Which Conferences To Process -------------------------------------- At this point, SFMail will ask you which conferences to download. Your choices are: * All Conferences * Queued Conferences * Selected Conferences * Local Conferences * Current Conference Note that Queued Conferences does NOT refer to the Spitfire Queue. You set up your conference queue using SFMail's option C from the main menu. By default, all conferences available to you are in your queue. When the sysop adds a conference to the bbs, or makes your security level higher, and you now have access to new conferences, those conferences are automatically added to your SFMail queue. Using option C from the main menu, you can customize which conferences are in your queue. You should select which conferences you would like mail from. If you are trying SFMail for the very first time, you may want to select mail from only the current conference (for an initial test). SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 28 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note, that only conferences that Spitfire would allow you access to are available to you. If Spitfire would not allow you to read messages on-line in a conference, then you will not have that conference available to you via SFMail. Also note, that if you select "Selected Conferences", then when the extract of mail begins, SFMail will present "every" conference to you and ask you if you would like mail from that conference. You may specify: Y yes, you want mail for this conference N no, skip this conference C yes, this conference and Y for every other conference Q no, and stop asking, no more conferences A abort, stop and return to bbs Selecting Which Messages To Process ----------------------------------- Next, SFMail will ask you which messages (in the selected conferences) you would like to process. You may select: * All messages in the selected conferences * New messages in the selected conferences * Your messages (messages to you) * Messages entered after a given date * The last # messages (you specify the number) If you are using SFMail for the very first time, it would probably be wise to select messages as of a given date. Then specify a date about a week ago and you will get a good selection of messages to read. This will vary depending on the bbs and the type of conference you are processing. Extracting Messages From You ---------------------------- Next, SFMail will ask if you want to extract messages you have posted on the bbs. Many callers prefer NOT to see messages they have posted. They obviously have read these messages when they wrote them. They would answer no. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 29 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Others prefer to be able to read messages they have posted on the bbs (sort of review past messages). These callers answer Y to extract their messages. Extract Deleted Messages ------------------------ If you are a Sysop, or have Sysop status on the bbs, you are asked if SFMail should extract deleted messages. Many sysops want to read messages their callers have marked deleted. Specifying Yes to this question instructs SFMail to extract the deleted messages. The reader will display a status on the top line of the message when you are reading it. Selecting a Download Protocol ----------------------------- The final question asked before the door will begin extracting messages is what transfer protocol you would like to use. If you are running the door locally, this question does not appear. Completing The Download ----------------------- Next, the door will extract the selected messages from the conferences you have selected. Depending on how the sysop has configured the door, you may also receive bulletins from the bbs, and a list of New Files available for download from the bbs. After the extracts, the files are compressed (PKZIPed) and the transfer begins. You then begin your download. After the download, the door will count down for 20 seconds and then automatically hang up. Pressing G during this count down will have the door hang up immediately. Pressing A will abort the hang up and you will be returned to the bbs. After the download, you will have a file called xxxx.ZIP where xxxx is the bbs id (the sysop configures this). If the transfer was successful, your message read pointers are updated as well. This way, when you logon next time, you will NOT download the same messages you have just downloaded. If the transfer fails, your last message read pointers are NOT updated. Since you did not successfully download the file, you can re-extract these messages as new. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 30 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Configuring the SFMail Door --------------------------- As you have just read, there are alot of prompts that the door asks you when you download a file. Most of the time, you will logon and want to download all new messages from your queued conferences. You will probably select the same options each time you use the door. Selecting option C from the Main Menu allows you to "Configure" the door so you won't be prompted each time you use it. After selecting option C, you are presented another menu displaying your defaults. You can set your Conference selection to Queued, select which conferences to queue, select new messages etc... By setting all of the options, and saving them to disk, you will remove the prompts each time you download. Once you have set and saved these options, when you begin a download from the Main Menu, it will simply begin the extract and not ask you "what to do"! The specific configuration options are explained as you select them. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 31 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (11) Using SMREAD To Read Your Mail Packet ------------------------------------------ Introduction ------------ To use the reader, you MUST have an SFMail mail packet. Without an SFMail packet, you cannot read, reply or enter messages for a bbs. Once you have downloaded a mail packet, go to the directory containing it. Then type SMREAD to begin SMREAD. If you would like, you can specify the name of the mail packet. For example: SMREAD MAIN if the packet was called MAIN.ZIP. Once you have started the SMREAD program, you will be presented with the opening SFMAIL / SMREAD welcome screen. If you have not registered the reader, a line on the bottom of this screen asks you to support Shareware. If you have registered SMREAD and have your SMREAD.KEY file installed correctly, there is no shareware notice on the bottom of the screen. Press ENTER to go to the next screen. If you specified the mail file to process on the SMREAD command line (e.g SMREAD MAIN), then it will begin to unzip the file after you press ENTER. Otherwise, the SMREAD Main Menu is presented. You must select option 1 to select your mail packet. No other option will work at this time. After the mail file unzips, it will scan the mail file and load some internal statistic tables. To view this information, select option 2 of the menu. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 32 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The SMREAD Main Menu -------------------- After you start SMREAD, the following Main Menu is available: ---------------------------------------- SFMAIL Version x.x #xxxx Main Menu F1 Select your Mail Packet F2 Review File Statistics F3 Review Messages (and Reply) F4 Enter a New Message F5 View New File List F6 Save BBS Conference Info F7 Reset Msg Read Pointers F8 Edit Reply File F9 Shell To Dos F10 Sort messages (REG Only) ------------------------------------------- You may select any option by using your arrow keys to highlight an option, or by pressing the Function Key, or the number next to the option. The top line (SFMAIL Version) also contains #? if the version has not been registered. If you do have a valid SMREAD.KEY file, then it will contain # followed by your registered serial number. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 33 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following summarizes each option on the Main Menu. F1 - Selecting The File You Downloaded --------------------------------------- When beginning the reader, you are able to specify the name of the mail packet on the command line (e.g. SMREAD MAIN). The reader will immediately unzip and load that mail file. If you do not specify the mail file to read, you must select option 1. A Directory window will open that allows you to select a mail file. You are not able to use the other menu options until a valid mail file has been loaded. You are not able to load a second mail file once the first has been loaded. For memory reasons, you must exit and save the first mail file before loading the second. F2 - Show File Stats --------------------- This option is only available once you have loaded a mail packet. It shows you statistics specific to that mail packet. Information supplied includes, What BBS you downloaded it from, What version of SFMail they run, How many messages are in the packet, "when and what time" the mail was extracted, a list of conferences and how many messages are in each conference etc.. This can be handy if you find a mail packet on disk, and you forgot when you downloaded it. This option will tell you from where and when it was downloaded. F3 - Read and Reply to Mail ---------------------------- This is where you will most probably spend most of your time in the reader. This option allows you to read and reply to mail you have downloaded. If for some reason, the packet you have downloaded does not have any messages in it, then this option will give you an error and say there are no messages available to read. Normally, after selecting this option, you are presented a list of conferences containing mail for you to read. If the bbs has 50 conferences, but only 3 have mail to read, then only those 3 are listed. Using the arrow keys, select the conference you would like to begin reading. If you want to read the first conference, Press ENTER on conference 1. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 34 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- While "reading" messages, you can return to this screen (so you can read messages in another conference) by pressing F10. While reading mail, there are MANY options available. The available commands are displayed by pressing F1 while viewing /. reading messages. Most commands are obvious. For example, press R to reply to a message. Press S to save a copy of the message you are reading to a .TXT file. I always recommend that if you would like to be able to do something (like print a message), check the F1 screen first! Reading Messages ---------------- When reading messages, you will find the screen split into two areas. The top lines are the message header. The following is a sample message in the reader: ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Conference 1: General (C) Msg 1 of 22 2 Msg #2501 4-28-91 13:51 3 [Read] 4 To: Sysop 5 From: Mike Woltz 6 Subject: Hello ----------------------------------------------------------------- 7 * Total Lines: 6 (1) ----------------------------------------------------------------- 8 Just a note to say Hi! 9 I have been using SMREAD for a year now and LOVE it :) 10 Hope to see you at the Spitfire conference this year! 11 12 Bye for now! 13  ----------------------------------------------------------------- 14 1 of 1 | F1:Help | R:Reply | S:Save | D:Del | F10: Conf ----------------------------------------------------------------- On line 1 you will find the conference number and conference description. On the right hand side you will find the "message number" within the mail packet. If this is the first message within the mail packet, it will say Message 1 of xx, where xx is the total messages in the packet. If you prefer, you can have the message number specify the number within the conference (as opposed to the message packet). For example, if I have downloaded 200 messages, but I am reading the SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 35 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd conference, which contains 10 messages, I may prefer to see Message 1 of 10 rather then Message 36 of 200. The (C) specifies you are relative to the "conference" as opposed to the entire packet. Pressing Alt-C toggles the numbering system. If you prefer to permanently set this to "conference numbering", then check SMREAD.CFG for the configuration option. Line 2 contains the message number of the message internal to Spitfire. This number is always unique. It also shows the time the message was entered onto a message base, and what status the message is. For example, Private or Public, Netmail, Received, Deleted etc... Line 3 shows the "reader" status. If this line is blank, then this is the first time you are reading this message. If this line contains [READ], then you have already read this message at least once. If this line contains [Marked for Deletion], then not only have you read this message, but you have requested that it be deleted from the bbs. This request has been placed in your .REP file, and when you upload the file, it will actually delete the message. If you are not allowed to delete the message by Spitfire, then SMREAD will not allow you to delete it either. Lines 4 through 6 contain the regular message heading you see in Spitfire. Line 7 is the "split line" and separates the heading from the message text. The * on this line only appears if the message is addressed TO YOU. It will bring your attention to "your" messages. If the message contains more text then can fit on ONE screen, you will find a little down arrow next to the * as well. This tells you to scroll the text using your down arrow key. On the right half of line 7, you will find Total Lines: xxx. This tells you how many total lines are in this message text. The number in parenthesis is what is the "line number" of the top line. If a message takes up more then one screen, you may use the arrow keys to scroll through it. If you press ENTER or the Space bar, you will see the next page of text for the current message. If there is NO MORE text, then you are presented with the next message. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 36 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pressing Ctrl-END takes you to the bottom of the current message. Ctrl-HOME takes you to the top. Line 13 has a diamond on it (reverse video). This diamond signifies the last line of the text has been reached. Line 14 is a reminder line. The first field tells you what page you are on (of the current message text). If the current message has 5 pages of text and you are on page 2, this will say 2 of 5. The rest of the line reminds you of some often used keys while reading messages. Remember that pressing F1 gives you a full screen of help. Moving Around The Messages -------------------------- When viewing messages, there are several commands to help you move around the messages in the packet. To simply move from one message to the next, use the Page Down key to move forward and Page Up to move backward. As you move from one conference to another, the conference list is displayed to show you what conference you are entering. Simply press Page Up or Down again to continue. If you do NOT want to see the conference list while moving from one conference to another, then use the RIGHT and LEFT arrow keys instead of the Page Up and Page Down keys. The Right and Left Arrow keys move you from message to message the same way, but you are not notified when you have changed conferences. If a message is several pages long, Page Down will only view the first page. To view the other pages, you may use the arrow keys (up and down) or pressing ENTER (or the space bar) will move forward page by page through the message. If you are on the last page of a message, and you press ENTER, it will take you to the next message. Ctrl Home and Ctrl End take you to the first and last page of a message. This is handy for viewing long messages. The HOME key takes you to message 1 in your packet. The END key takes you to the last message in your packet. If you want to go to a specific message (e.g. message number 50 in your packet of 100), then press G. It will show you the current message number and you can type any new number. It will jump you to the select message. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 37 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pressing M places a bookmark on the current message you are reading. Pressing J at any time will "jump" you to that bookmark/message. Bookmarks are not remembered when you exit the reader. Finding/Searching Through Messages ---------------------------------- The first thing I do when I download my mail packet is "search" for all messages addressed to me. I do this by starting the reader and beginning to read messages. On the first message, I press the letter F (to find some text). The Find command begins searching all messages "following" the current message. After pressing "F", you are asked "where" to search. You may search for text in: the TO: field the FROM: field both TO: and FROM: the SUBJECT: field the "text" of the message or ALL OF THE ABOVE Any time you search the text of the message, the search may seem slow. That is because it is reading every line of text searching for your text. Searches are never case sensitive. The first thing I do when extracting mail is search the TO: field for text: SYSOP. After I find the first message, pressing "A" will find Again.. repeat the find and take me to my next message. This way I can read all my personal mail first. I then press HOME to go to the beginning of the mail packet and do a find on "ALL OF THE ABOVE" for ZIMMERMAN. I can see who is "talking" about me in their message text ... Pressing F will begin a search. Pressing A will repeat the previous find command. If you begin a find command decide you want to interrupt it for some reason, simply press the ESC key. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 38 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Searching For Unread Messages ----------------------------- As you read messages, they are marked "read" in the mail packet. If you want to find what was the last message you read, then press HOME to go to the beginning of the packet and press Alt-N. Alt-N starts with the next message and checks to see if you have read it. If you have not, it backs up one message (that will be the last message you read) and jumps you to that message. Pressing N without the alt doesn't back you up but leaves you on the next message that has been unread. Message Threads --------------- At the current time, SMREAD reads messages in the same order you find them on Spitfire. We are looking at enabling callers to read message in subject order. Until then, pressing the letter T will scan forward and jump to any messages in the current conference that have the same message subject as your current message. Getting An Index of Messages ---------------------------- Pressing I while viewing messages will show you a Table of Contents for the current conference. It will list all the messages in the current conference and allow you to jump to any message. Simply highlight the message and press ENTER. Jumping Around Message Conferences ---------------------------------- If you want to jump to a new message conference, press F10. Your message conference list is displayed. Pressing Alt-F10 will jump you to the first message in the next conference. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 39 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saving or Printing a message ---------------------------- Pressing S while viewing a message allows you to save that message to any TXT (ascii) file. Pressing P will print the file to your printer. Saving User Information ----------------------- While viewing a message, you may want to remember (save) the name of the person the message is From (or To). Pressing U will save the name in the TO field to the Address book (SMUSERS). Pressing Alt-U will save the name in the From field. When entering a message, you can press ? in the TO field to search your address book for the saved name. Entering A New Message ---------------------- While viewing a message, you are able to ENTER a new message to anyone. Press the letter E and you will be prompted for "who" is the message to. This is identical to option 4 from the Main Menu. Deleting a Message ------------------ If you have sysop authority, or if a message is to you, you have the ability to delete the message. Press the letter D and you will be asked to confirm your delete request. Pressing Y will delete the message when you upload your reply packet. Replying to a Message --------------------- When viewing a message, you may reply to it by pressing the letter R. Pressing Alt-R will reply to the person in the TO field. Pressing R (without the Alt key) replies to the callers in the from field. A separate section is devoted to the editor used when creating replies. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 40 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Editing Your Replies -------------------- While viewing your messages, you may want to edit your current .REP file. Change a message you have sent, or completely delete a reply. Pressing F8 will list all messages pending in your .REP file. Be sure to press F1 while viewing message for a complete list of shortcut commands. They are separate form the short cut commands found when using the editor. F4 - Entering A Message ------------------------ You may enter a message by selecting option 4 of the Main Menu, or by pressing E while viewing messages. You must have "loaded" a mail packet before this option will be available. You are displayed the complete list of conferences available to you. Using the arrow keys, highlight the conference you would like to place the message in. Next, you are asked who the message is to. Specify the callers name, or leave BLANK if you are sending the message to ALL. If you have a valid SMUSERS address book, you may specify a ? as the TO name. You will then be presented a list of names from the address book. You may highlight one of the names and press ENTER to send the message to that caller. After specifying who the message is to, you are asked for the message subject. This is a required field. If you leave this blank and press ENTER, SMRead will beep and give you a second chance to fill it in. If you again leave it blank, SMREAD will "cancel" your request and return you to the main menu (or viewing messages if you pressed E to enter a message). F5 - View New File List ------------------------ Depending on the bbs you downloaded your mail packet from, you may or may not have received a New File listing. This is a list of files that the bbs has available for download. Option C of the SFMail Main Menu allows you to configure this option for you. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 41 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Selecting option 5 from the SMREAD main menu will shell to a file viewer to read the New File list. By default, it uses the LIST program. If you would prefer to use another program, use the SMREAD.CFG file to configure your program selection. SMREAD.CFG is explained in the installation part of this manual. F6 - Save BBS Conference Info ------------------------------ When downloading mail, you receive a mail packet that contains a profile of the bbs as well as your mail. The profile also contains the list of conferences available to you. You may want to keep a copy of the profile, but NOT the entire message packet. This way, if you want to post an announcement to that bbs, you have a Mail packet to use with your reader to enter the new message. Using this option, you can create a new mail packet that contains all of the bbs profile information, but no messages are saved. This makes the file rather small. F7 - Reset Message Read Pointers --------------------------------- When reading messages using SMREAD, each message is marked "read" as you view them. Messages that you delete are marked "Marked for Deletion". While viewing the messages, these flags are displayed. If for some reason you would like to reset all of these flags, select option 7. F8 - Edit your replies ----------------------- If you have any replies in your .REP file (or delete requests), they will be listed when you press F8. You can press F8 while viewing messages as well. The list of replies, new messages and delete requests are presented. You may re-edit any reply by pressing the letter E. You may delete or cancel the reply by highlighting the reply and pressing the letter D to delete. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 42 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- F9 - Shell to Dos ------------------ Pressing F9 will drop to Dos. The files are all open and you should NEVER move or edit the reader files in any way. Otherwise, you will corrupt the message and reply files. Enter EXIT to return to the reader. F10 - Sort Messages ------------------- After pressing F10 you are asked if you want to sort the mail packet into a different order (for reading). You can sort by THREAD, Message Date or by Message Number (default). This feature only works with registered readers. If you press ESC when it asks for the sort order, you are returned to the SFMail menu. If you press a letter the sort begins. As with all of SFMail's features, we try not to LIMIT the reader in use... It will sort up to 1024 messages in "each" conference in your packet. So if you have 30 conferences extracted, and in total you have 5000 messages, but you do not exceed 1024 messages in any single conference, this sort will work fine. When sorting by subject (thread), any (R) or RE: in the first column of a message topic is removed for purpose of the sort. Also, if the last 8 characters of a subject line is >>###### (where ###### is your Circuitnet Node ID), then the node id is also removed for the purpose of the sort. If you do exceed 1024 in a single confernece, only the first 1024 messages are sorted. The rest are left untouched. ACTUALLY THE LIMIT IS HIGHER THEN 1024 (depending on your available memory) but never below 1024. Usually it is around 1400. The sort is a "fast sort" using Disk space to swap the messages around. This could be faster if it was done totally in memory, but it would limit us to about 300 messages maximum in the sort. Rather then place this limit on us, I have used the disk swapping sort. ONE IMPORTANT NOTE! Because we are using a disk based sort, you need enough disk space for all message ptr (180 bytes each) for any conference. So if one conference has 1024 messages, and you sort by subject, you will need 180k free disk space on the current drive. Most folks have this unless you are running the reader on a floppy or a RAM disk. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 43 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ESC - Quit to Dos ----------------- Pressing ESC from the Main menu returns you to Dos. If you have loaded a message packet, you are asked if it should be deleted. If you have completed reading your mail, and you want to delete the mail packet, reply Y to delete it. If you reply NO, then the mail packet is updated with the "read" statistics and you are returned to Dos. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 44 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (12) Using the Editor to Create a Reply or Message -------------------------------------------------- Overview -------- When replying to a message (using option R), or when entering a new message (or editing an existing message), you will be asked some basic questions. For example, should the message be marked public or private etc... This is similar to Spitfire. After answering these messages, you are then placed into the built in editor. This internal editor is designed specifically for use with this offline reader and has many features built into it. Pressing F1 while "viewing" messages brings up a help screen. Pressing F1 while "editing" a message brings up the editor help screen which is totally different and very helpful. If you want to see all of the power of the editor, play with the help screen and its' commands. The following is a sample reply being edited: ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Conference 1: General 2 3 [Read] 4 To: Mike Woltz 5 From: Sysop 6 Subject: Hello ----------------------------------------------------------------- 7 You have 100 lines of 72 columns Press F1 for Help ----------------------------------------------------------------- 8 MW> I have been using SMREAD for a year now and LOVE it :) 9 10 Well I am glad it is working for you. If you have any questions 11 please don't hesitate to ask! 12 ----------------------------------------------------------------- 13 F1 for HELP | F10:Save | Esc: Cancel | 72,399 Line 1 INSERT ----------------------------------------------------------------- The top 6 lines are the message heading. You may modify all of these lines except the FROM field. Pressing Alt-C allows you to change what conference the message is saved to. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 45 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pressing Alt-P toggles the public and private status of the current message. If this is a netmail conference, pressing Alt-N will toggle netmail status of the message. Pressing Alt-S allows you to edit the subject. Messages are limited to 100 lines of 72 columns of text. Word Wrap is fully supported. As you enter a message, the message will automatically word wrap and scroll as necessary. Using the Editor ---------------- Using standard Wordstar commands, you can move through the message you are editing. For example, Home and End takes you to column 1 or the end of the current line. Page down and Page up move you a page up and down. Ctrl-Page down and Ctrl-Page up moves you to line 1 and the last line of the text. Control right and left arrows move you word by word. Control Y deletes the line. Control U restores the line. The INSERT key toggles overtyping and inserting of text. To save your reply, press F10 or F9. F9 saves with random tag lines. See the section called TAGLINEs for a more complete explanation. F2 will copy a text file into your reply. F4 will save your reply into a text file. Remember to use the F1 key to remind you of all the features. The following explains these features in more detail: Copying Text Into Your Reply ---------------------------- There are many times, that you will want to copy a standard text file into your reply. Possibly it contains a signature, a copy of your autoexec or something similar. Pressing F2 will allow you to do this. When editing a reply, press F2 and a prompt asks you for what file to copy. If you leave this blank, a directory window will help you find the file. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 46 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once you specify the file, it will read the first 512 lines of the file and display them to you in a window. You should choose what portion of the file should be copied! If you want to copy the entire file, press F9 and the entire file will be copied. If you only want to copy a single line, highlight the line and press F10. Only that one line will be copied. If you want to copy a portion of the file (say lines 3 through 10), you need to "tag" those lines. Using the highlight bar, highlight the first line and press the SPACE bar. You will notice the line has a check mark to it's left. This means it has been tagged. Tag all lines that you want to copy and press F10. If no lines are tagged, F10 copies only the highlighted line. If any lines are tagged, then all tagged lines are copied. No text beyond column 72 will be included in the copy. Also, if you copy so many lines that you exceed the 99 line limit, then all extra lines are ignored. Saving A Copy Of Your Reply --------------------------- When creating a reply, you may want to save a copy of it for your future records. Pressing F4 will save the file. You will be asked for a file name to save it to. If the file already exists, then you are asked if you should overlay it or add to it. Quoting A Message Into Your Reply --------------------------------- When replying to someones message, it is very helpful to include portions of the original message in yours... For example, if I was replying to a customer asking about registering SMREAD, I may "copy the 2 or 3 lines" of his original message into my reply, so he can see "exactly" what I am replying to. You can quote a message you are replying to by pressing Alt-Q or Ctrl-Q in the editor. Alt-Q will highlight the quoted text by placing the persons initials in it. For example, if I quote Mike Woltz, his quote would appear as: MW> his text here Ctrl-Q actually places a BOX around the quote...Try it to get the idea of Ctrl-Q! SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 47 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- After pressing either Ctrl-Q or Alt-Q, the original message is displayed to you. You are then asked what line(s) to quote into your message. Pressing F9 quotes the entire original message. Pressing F10 quotes only the line you have highlighted. If you tag line(s) by pressing the space bar, then the F10 key will quote all tagged lines! You will find the original message has been re-word wrapped so it fits inside of the quote... if this is altering a formatted message, you may un-word wrap it by pressing Alt-W. You can then copy (quote) the message without it being re-word wrapped. Routing Netmail Messages ------------------------ PC Relay and Circuitnet are software programs that allow Spitfire BBS systems to network mail (netmail systems). Both of these software products support routing a message to a single bbs, as opposed to sending the message to all bbses on the network. If you are replying to a message and want that reply to be routed, simply press Alt-R. SMREAD will automatically find the route code from the original message and will automatically route the reply back to only the originating bbs! SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 48 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (13) TAG LINES -------------- Overview -------- Tag lines are very popular on Netmail Systems and with offline readers. They allow you to add a bit of your own personality to each message you write. What is a tag line? Basically it is a "signature" line added at the end of the message. Each message you write with SMREAD has a "tag line" added to the end. The tag line starts with the word SFMAIL followed by the SMREAD version number. Following the version number will be your serial number (you receive this when you register the reader). If you are using the shareware version and you have not registered it yet, then the serial number will appear as #?. Following the serial number you will find a little array and that is where your tag line is added. The tag line can be funny or it may be your bbs name and number. Many folks use a small one line joke for their tag line. For example, one of the tag lines I use is: " The problem with Spitting Mail is Drooling Tags " DEFAULT versus RANDOM Tag Lines ------------------------------- SMREAD and SFMail supports 2 type of tag lines. Default or Standard Tag lines are tag lines you would like added to every message. For example, if I wanted the tag line: "Author of SFMail" added to "every" message I write, that is the "default" or "standard" tag line. The second type of tag line is called RANDOM. This means, that you keep a list of tag lines (anywhere from 2 through 512) and each message you write gets a different tag line added to it (the reader grabs one from the list randomly). This makes each message you write have a different unique tag line. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 49 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Specifying The Default Tag Line ------------------------------- You setup the default tag lines using a Dos Environment Variable. Set the SMTAG variable to your default tag line. For example: SET SMTAG=Greetings From Bonzo sets your default tag line to Greetings From Bonzo. You would place the above command (SET) in your Autoexec.bat. Every message or reply you write will have this tag placed on it (regardless of whether you press F9 or F10 to save the message). If you want a second "default" tag line, you can use SM2TAG to save the second tag. For example: SET SMTAG=The problem with Spitting Mail ... SET SM2TAG= ... drooling tags lines! This will add both the above lines as your default tag lines. Tag lines should never be longer then 52 characters. Another feature unique to SFMail, is that you can customize tag lines on a conference by conference basis. So you may want custom tag lines for a specific conference, different then the tag line for the others. For example, when I send mail in the SFMail conference, I use a tag line noting that I am the author of SFMail. But only in the SFMail conference. To do this you use the "variables" SMTAG## where ## is the conference number. For example: SET SMTAG=Normal tag line SET SMTAG03=Tag line used in Conference 3 only! Random Tag Lines ---------------- When entering a reply, you save the reply by pressing F10. If you have a default tag line setup (as described in the previous section) it will be used on the message. You may want to use a random tag line from a list. When saving the message using F9, SMREAD will find the file SMTAGS and reads that file. It will present the list of tag lines found in that file in a window. You may then select an individual tag line by highlighting it and pressing F10, or simply press F9 and SMREAD will grab a tag line randomly! SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 50 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (14) Uploading Your .REP File ----------------------------- When you have completed editing replies and you exit SMREAD, you will find a file called xxx.REP (where xxx is the BBS ID). This file contains all of your replies. You need to logon to the bbs and upload this file to the SFMail door. Choose the SFMAIL UPLOAD option and begin your transfer. After successfully receiving this file, SFMail will post your replies and messages to the board. All of the standard Spitfire rules apply. If you are posting a private message in a public conference, you will be notified that the message is being forced public. If you send a message locally and the caller doesn't exist, you are asked if you want to search for the correct caller. After posting your messages, you are returned to the SFMail main menu and you may logoff. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 51 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (15) History of Changes ----------------------- Version 2.0 Version 2.0 has many internal changes. Only a few of these changes are visible. Specifically, * Readers now have a serial number printed on the tag line. Unregistered readers have the serial number printed as #?. Registered readers have the #0000 where 0000 is the serial number. The serial number is activated via a "KEY" file that is 32 bytes long. You receive the key file from MetaSys and it will work with all readers v2.0 and future. You don't have to download a personal reader. Just keep your key file. The key file MUST never be distributed or you will have violated your license agreement. Sysops registering SFMail v2.x doors (or upgraded to them) are entitled to a single key file for their use ONLY. Sysop serial numbers all begin with the letter S or X. Any key file that is corrupted or hacked prints a message on the tag line as such! The reader (v2.0 and on) are designed for use with SFMail door version 2.x and on. All Sysops that have not upgraded their SFMail door should not use the newer reader. It may or may not work. They will automatically receive a key file when they upgrade. All currently registered SMREAD customers will have their key file in the mail by October 15th. All Sysops that are entitled to a key file will find their file available for download from the Mainframe between now and October 15th. Keys not picked up by October 30th are deleted to fee up our disk space. * There is a new option on the Main Menu of SMREAD that allows you to view the list of New Files available for download from the bbs. This list is only generated in Version 2.x of the SFMail door. SMREAD shells to the LIST command to view the file. You may change what program it uses by using SMREAD.CFG (explained in this doc). * When quoting messages, SMREAD now word wraps the text you are quoting so it fits in the new message correctly (unless you are quoting a quoted message). SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 52 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * SMREAD now uses SMREAD.CFG to set colors and options. The delivered SMREAD.CFG (that is in SFM.EXE) has a new default color set that you can change to suit your needs). * When using SFMail v2 (the door), you now receive a pointer file that allows you to recover your place in the message base. See the explanation in this doc for xxx.SFP for full info. * The reader no longer automatically loads a mail file. Each bbs (as of SFMail v2.1 (the door) will have uniquely named mail packets.. You need to specify which mail packet you want to process (either by specifying SMREAD xxx or by choosing option 1 of the Main Menu of SMREAD. Sysops running locally that use the /nozip keyword MUST use the bbsid as well.. e.g SMREAD MAIN /NOZiP (where Main is the /BBS= of SFMail). Version 2.1 * When word wrapping a paragraph that was indented (typical with Megamail), the word wrap would insert the spaces into the paragraph. I have attempted to correct this problem. It is important to remember, that the word wrap built into SMREAD is "intelligent", attempting to figure out when to word wrap and when not to. To completely, not truncate quoting quotes, be sure to use the NOTRUNC keyword (found in the SMREAD.CFG). If the word-wrap when quoting does mis-align something, simply press Alt-W and it will be just like previous v2 quoting. I have also commented out the NOTRUNC keyword (it is currently not support)... I had a problem with performance and it doesn't look like it is necessary... Version 2.2 * When listing messages using the F7 key or pressing I, it will list all messages in the current conference up to the 1024th messages in the current conference. Any more messages are NOT listed (due to memory constraints). The list now shows the message number of the message internally, rather then the "position in the message packet". SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 53 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Any messages marked TO YOU are "flagged" in the left hand column with a check mark! * For registered readers (Sysops too), you can now SORT messages into thread order. This can be done automatically every time the messages are loaded using a command in the CFG file (see page 13) or using a command line parameter (SMREAD /T - see command line parameters for details)... OR using F10 from the Main Menu! The previous update (re: I and F7) becomes more important if you will be reading messages in thread order. ONE IMPORTANT NOTE! Because we are using a disk based sort, you need enough disk space for all message ptr (180 bytes each) for any conference. So if one conference has 1024 messages, and you sort by subject, you will need 180k free disk space on the current drive. Most folks have this unless you are running the reader on a floppy or a RAM disk. Version 2.3 * With this version, I have changed the tag line to have the word SMREAD on it instead of SFMail. This more correctly reflects the reader and if we do go to QWK support in the reader, will make alot more sense! * Added the /NS command line option. If this option is specified, then any "sort by thread" command in the .CFG file is ignored. This is handy if you have already read the mail packet and it has already been sorted into thread order, the next time you go into the "same" mail packet, specify /ns to avoid a 2nd sort that is not necessary. Version 2.4 * The directory window (option 1 from the Main Menu) was using it's own colors, ignoring the colors you set in the configuration file. This has been corrected. * Added some memory sort logic to the sorting in thread order. This will make sorting of small amount of messages quicker... Larger number of messages still require the disk sort. * Improved the FIND command algorythm... In testing it is a bit faster, although when you are waiting for a FIND on a large packet of netmail, it sometimes seems slow (will see if I can improve this). * Have re-organized the editor code... I am trying to see if I can include a crude but working spell checker ... SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 54 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Added a MONO.CFG file for monochrome users... You will have to rename this file to SMREAD.CFG. Version 2.5 * Someone suggested that the editor support "indented" paragraphs... This means, that as you begin typing a paragraph, if you begin in column 5, all lines should honor that indentation and wrap to column 5. I have added this feature. All lines will "follow" the indentation of the previous line * Have added Alt-B to re-word wrap a paragraph. If you delete words etc.... and your paragraph needs to be re-word wrapped, place your cursor on the first line of the paragraph and press Alt-B. What this command does exactly: Starting from the line the cursor is on, it will word wrap all lines until it finds a BLANK line! All lines will follow the indentation of the line the cursor was on. If you have questions on this feature, please ask! * Control-C (in the editor) now changes the case of the word to the left of the cursor. It will toggle the word to upper, lower and proper case. Version 2.6 * When editing a reply file (.REP) that was created with "previous versions of the reader", the reader would have an "Invalid Pointer Error". I believe this problem will no longer occur. You are now able to edit a reply file created with a different version of the reader. * You now have the ability to turn off the "tear" line that is generated above the SFMail tag line. This is done with the keyword NOTEARLINE in the SMREAD.CFG file. * You now can have the reader "beep" when you get to a message addressed to you. This is done with the keyword BEEPONMINE in the SMREAD.CFG file. * You can set the "tones" of the beep sounded by the BEEPONMINE keyword by using the TONE and TONEDELAY keywords in SMREAD.CFG. See page 15 for more information on these SMREAD.CFG parameters. * /BEEP, /TONE=150, and /TONEDELAY=20 are all command line options that you can use for these features as well. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 55 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * I changed the default color for "reading" messages to lightgray (from bright white). The default editor color remains bright white. Version 2.7 * I had a report that when editing replies, you could sometimes lose a single line (the last line would disappear)... I couldn't reproduce this problem, but did find some code that may have been causing it... I have changed that code to correct the problem. This problem would only occur if you had the NOTEARLINE keyword on (according to reports) and removing this keyword would fix the problem. Version 2.8 * In preparation for version 3 of SMREAD, I am making some internal changes to the reader. These changes CAN change the way the reader works significantly behind the scenes... I have taken every precaution to make sure that it works the same, but it is possible you will find a problem. Please report the problem ASAP if you find one and I will fix it immediately. Specifically, when unzipping a mail packet, the reader will now create a directory called SMREAD.WRK and will place the unzipped files into this directory. This way, they won't modify in any way the current directory. The SFP (pointer files) is still placed in your "current DOS directory"... When you save a message etc... it will also use the "current DOS directory" rather then the "SMREAD.WRK" directory. * Alt-S will save a copy of the current message without adding a PAGE BREAK at the end of it. * I have added memory swapping code and redesigned the reader around it. This will allow you to run SMREAD in as little as 290k free. If you are running a single node of Spitfire, you are once again able to shell to dos and run SMREAD... You are no longer required to "UNZIP the packet first"... SMREAD will swap itself out if it needs to free up memory for this. Swapping will swap SMREAD out to Expanded memory if you have it, or it will swap itself out to disk. If you want to force the swap file to go to a particular place, use the SET SWAP= to specify the full directory name where to swap to. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 56 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Notes about swapping! SMREAD will "possibly" swap itself out of memory, when it shells to an archive program (e.g. PKZIP, ARJ, LHA) or when it shells to DOS. When shelling to Dos or running a compression program, SMREAD checks how much free memory exists and compares it against a "memory needed" value. If you don't have enough memory, the SMREAD will swap itself out (totally) freeing up 300k minimum! The default "memory needed" values are, PKZIP=120k, ARJ=260k, LHA=180k and Shelling to Dos=128k. If you want to "change" the memory needed value, use the configuration commands, ZIPMEM, ARJMEM, LHAMEM and DOSMEM. For example, when I shell to DOS, I want ALL memory free so I can run large programs and then return to the reader! I have my DOSMEM set to 640. In the SMREAD.CFG file, I have placed: DOSMEM 640 That is all that is needed. Now since 640k is "never" really free, SMREAD will always swap itself out to give me a large Dos Window! If when PKZIP v2.0 comes out, we find it need 150k of free memory, simply add ZIPMEM 150 and SMREAD will compatabile with the new PKZIP! IF THIS IS CONFUSING, SIMPLY ASK US ON THE MAINFRAME AND WE WILL TRY TO ANSWER ALL YOUR QUESTIONS AS BEST WE CAN! * The configuration file has some changes... We were using CMPMOVE, CMPRADD etc... Actually, I doubt anyone was using these commands before... They have been renamed... * The reader now has built in support for PKZIP, ARJ and LHA. SFMail v3 (the door) also supports these archive formats! * SFMail v3 (the door) will begin naming all SFMAIL format mail with the "extension" of .SFM... So on the Mainframe bbs, your packets will be called MAIN.SFM or MAIN.QWK (depending on whether you are using SFMail format or QWK format)... This version of the reader will now automatically detect if the file was compressed with ARJ, LHA or ZIP. If it can't figure it out, it will assume to use PKZIP. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 57 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * The format command tells SMREAD what "extension to process". You can place the format commad in your SMREAD.CFG file (FORMAT xxx - where xxx is the file extension) or you can use the command line SMREAD /FORMAT=xxx or SMREAD /F=xxx. So if the file you downloaded ends in .ZIP (instead of the default SFM) then start the reader with SMREAD /F=ZIP or place the command FORMAT ZIP in your SMREAD.CFG. IMPORTANT! If the file you download is called xxx.SFM and is a "zip" file, DON'T use the format command. SMREAD will figure the type of file out by itself! * I have changed the default colors of the reader to match those that I recommended in the old .CFG files. If you prefer the other colors, simply uncomment the commented lines out in the sample cfg file. Version 2.9 * With the new memory management being used in version 2.8, there was a report of a problem running the new reader under Windows 3.0. I was able to reproduce this problem on one of my machines but it would never occur on another... In testing, I have found the problem occured when SMRead would swap memory to EMS (during PKZIP, Shell to Dos etc...)... I have added a configuration switch (for SMREAD.CFG) called DISKSWAP. If you specify DISKSWAP in SMREAD.CFG, it will force the swap of memory to disk (rather then EMS)... You can further tell it where to swap by placing SET SWAP=dir in your Autoexec.BAT. This problem was spontaneous and according to some contacts, was a problem with the way Windows 3.0 and QEMM work together with expanded memory. The other way to get around this problem is to FORCE Windows 3.0 to lock expanded memory for SMREAD. You do this with a PIF file. You tell the PIF file to allocate a minimum of 500k expanded memory (600 k min is prefered) and you tell the max to be the same number. Also - check mark the LOCK box. That should also fix the problem with out having to use the DISKSWAP command. You can find the /DISKSWAP and DISKSWAP commands in the appropriate chapters of this manual. Version 2.95 This release of the door is the last I am planning to release at this time. I believe I have incorporated all submitted enhancments... I do want to see if I can get the read to support SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 58 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- reading and processing QWK packets... That is going to be my current project, however, it will take some time... The significant enhancement is option 3 on the Main Menu now reads ONLY messages addressed to you while option 4 is read all messages... Version 2.96 Some folks reported that Alt-B would "sometimes" lock up their system. I did find a way where it may do this and I have cleaned up this code. Since this was an intermittent problem, if you have this happening, with this new version, please let me know asap. Thanks. Version 3.0 When reading messages, any messages that are "quoted" are now displayed in another color. By default, this is "low-intensity" of CYAN. You can configure this color using the QFC and QBC commands in SMREAD.CFG. Quotes are determined by the first 4 characters of a line... if they contain anything that resembles a quote, I assume that the line is quoted... CircuitNet v3.1 has changed their tag line format. This version of the reader will correctly "route" messages when using Alt-R. Added support for FireNet routing. Pressing Alt-R will auto-route FireNet messages as well. Version 3.02 Added keyword /NOHIGH or NOHIGH in SMREAD.CFG. This removes the high ascii codes from the tag line. Specifically, the tag line of þ SMREAD 3.0 #? ¯ is printed as * SMREAD 3.0 #? > This should eliminate the complaints of this reader being used with Fido systems. I will also be adding (in the near future) code that will BOX quotes using low ascii characters as well. SMREAD v3 from MetaSys Page 59 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 3.1 Added a keyword NETMAILDEFAULT to the .cfg file. Normally, when replying to a message in a netmail conference, the reader will ask if the message should be sent via NETMAIL? The default (if you press ENTER) depends on the message you are replying to. If the message you are replying to is local (non-netmail), then the default is NO... Adding this keyword to the CFG file will always set the default to YES (as long as the conference is a netmail conference). * POSTLINK Routing has been added to this version. Version 3.11 Some POSTLINK tag lines included a leading space. This prevented the routing (auto - routing - ALT-R) to fail. This has been corrected. Version 3.3 With Spitfire 3.3, messsages entered with the reader would have a space in column one in all lines except the first. This has to do with the way Spitfire was saving messages internally in its file. Mike has changed this between the versions. This reader will now work correctly with both pre and post Spitfire 3.3 ways.