prompter(1mh) prompter(1mh)
Name
prompter - prompting editor front-end
Syntax
prompter [ options ] file
Description
The editor is a rudimentary editor provided by and It is automatically called by the above commands; you do not need to specify it.
The editor allows rapid composition of messages. It is particularly useful to network and low-speed (less than 2400 baud) users of MH.
The editor is an MH program. Although is not invoked directly, it can have its own profile entry with options; see The and commands invoke
in one of three ways: when invoked with the -editor prompter option; by an entry in the file; or by a command at the What now? prompt. If
you do not specify an editor in any of these ways, MH provides as the default editor for all of these commands.
For information on how to use a different editor with MH commands, see the reference pages for the appropriate commands, and also
Composing a Message with prompter
When you create a message with an MH command, the mail system provides a message template for you to fill in. This template consists of
two parts: the message header, comprising a number of header fields; and the body of the message, which is the area where you type the text
of your message.
The editor displays each header field, one at a time, for you to fill in. Fill in the component by typing the text that you want. Type
<RETURN> to move onto the next component. Once you have moved on from a header field, you cannot edit what you have entered.
If you want to leave a header field empty, simply type <RETURN>. You can continue a header field over one line by typing a back-slash ()
before the <RETURN>. Continuation lines must start with a blank (a space or a tab).
The start of the message body is indicated by a blank line or a line of dashes. If you are creating a new message, the cursor is placed
beneath this line to allow you to enter text. If there is already some body text in the message (for example, if you are using an existing
draft, or if you are forwarding a message), you will receive a prompt:
--------Enter additional text
or:
--------Enter initial text
The cursor is placed under the prompt to allow you to enter text.
To finish the message, type <CTRL/D>. You will then receive a prompt asking What now?. See for more details of responses.
An interrupt, usually <CTRL/C>, during component typing will abort and the MH command that invoked it. An interrupt during message-body
typing is equivalent to <CTRL/D>, for historical reasons.
Options
-prepend
-noprepend
Adds text to the beginning of the message body, so that the rest of the body follows. This is useful for the command. You can
suppress this behavior by using the -noprepend option.
-rapid
-norapid Causes the text not to be displayed on your terminal if the draft already contains text in the message-body. This is useful for
low-speed terminals. You can suppress this behavior by using the -norapid option.
-erase char
Specifies the line-editing characters, where char may be a character or
nn, where nnn is the octal value for the character.
-kill char
Specifies the line-editing characters, where char may be a character or
nn, where nnn is the octal value for the character.
The first argument to which is not an option is taken as the name of the draft file, and subsequent non-flag arguments are ignored.
The default settings for are:
-prepend
-norapid
Restrictions
The editor uses therefore do not edit files with nulls in them.
Profile Components
prompter-next: To name the editor to be used on exit from prompter
Msg-Protect: To set protections when creating a new draft
Files
The user profile.
Temporary copy of message.
See Also
capsar(1), comp(1mh), dist(1mh), forw(1mh), repl(1mh), whatnow(1mh), stdio(3s), mh_profile(5mh)
prompter(1mh)