PROMPTER(1)
NAME
prompter - prompting editor front-end for nmh
SYNOPSIS
prompter [-erase chr] [-kill chr] [-prepend] [-noprepend]
[-rapid] [-norapid] [-doteof] [-nodoteof] file
[-version] [-help]
DESCRIPTION
Prompter is an editor front-end for nmh which allows rapid
composition of messages. This program is not normally
invoked directly by users but takes the place of an editor
and acts as an editor front-end. It operates on an
RFC-822 style message draft skeleton specified by file,
normally provided by the nmh commands comp, dist, forw, or
repl.
Prompter is particularly useful when composing messages
over slow network or modem lines. It is an nmh program in
that it can have its own profile entry with switches, but
it is not invoked directly by the user. The commands
comp, dist, forw, and repl invoke prompter as an editor,
either when invoked with `-editor prompter', or by the
profile entry "Editor: prompter", or when given the com-
mand `edit prompter' at the "What now?" prompt.
For each empty component prompter finds in the draft, the
user is prompted for a response; A <RETURN> will cause the
whole component to be left out. Otherwise, a `\' preced-
ing a <RETURN> will continue the response on the next
line, allowing for multiline components. Continuation
lines must begin with a space or tab.
Each non-empty component is copied to the draft and dis-
played on the terminal.
The start of the message body is denoted by a blank line
or a line of dashes. If the body is non-empty, the
prompt, which isn't written to the file, is
"--------Enter additional text",
or (if `-prepend' was given)
"--------Enter initial text".
Message-body typing is terminated with an end-of-file
(usually CTRL-D). With the `-doteof' switch, a period on
a line all by itself also signifies end-of-file. At this
point control is returned to the calling program, where
the user is asked "What now?". See whatnow for the valid
options to this query.
By using the `-prepend' switch, the user can add type-in
to the beginning of the message body and have the rest of
the body follow. This is useful for the forw command.
By using the `-rapid' switch, if the draft already con-
tains text in the message-body, it is not displayed on the
user's terminal. This is useful for low-speed terminals.
The line editing characters for kill and erase may be
specified by the user via the arguments `-kill chr' and
`-erase chr', where chr may be a character; or `\nnn',
where "nnn" is the octal value for the character.
An interrupt (usually CTRL-C) during component typing will
abort prompter and the nmh command that invoked it. An
interrupt during message-body typing is equivalent to
CTRL-D, for historical reasons. This means that prompter
should finish up and exit.
The first non-flag argument to prompter is taken as the
name of the draft file, and subsequent non-flag arguments
are ignored.
FILES
$HOME/.mh_profile The user profile
/tmp/prompter* Temporary copy of message
PROFILE COMPONENTS
prompter-next: To name the editor to be used on exit from prompter
Msg-Protect: To set mode when creating a new draft
SEE ALSO
comp(1) dist(1) forw(1) repl(1) whatnow(1)
DEFAULTS
`-prepend'
`-norapid'
`-nodoteof'
CONTEXT
None
HELPFUL HINTS
The `-rapid' option is particularly useful with forw, and
`-noprepend' is useful with comp -use.
The user may wish to link prompter under several names
(e.g., "rapid") and give appropriate switches in the pro-
file entries under these names (e.g., "rapid: -rapid").
This facilitates invoking prompter differently for differ-
ent nmh commands (e.g., "forw: -editor rapid").
BUGS
Prompter uses stdio (3), so it will lose if you edit files
with nulls in them.