prompter(1) General Commands Manual prompter(1)
NAME
prompter - prompting editor front-end (only available within the message handling system, mh)
SYNOPSIS
prompter [options] file
OPTIONS
Adds text to the beginning of the message body, so that the rest of the body follows. This is useful for the forw command. You can sup-
press this behavior by using the -noprepend option. 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. Specifies
the line-editing characters, where char may be a character or
nn, where nnn is the octal value for the character. 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 prompter which is not an option is taken as the name of the draft file, and subsequent non-option arguments are
ignored.
The default settings for prompter are:
-prepend -norapid
DESCRIPTION
The prompter editor is a rudimentary editor provided by comp, dist, forw, and repl. It is automatically called by the above commands; you
do not need to specify it.
The prompter editor allows rapid composition of messages. It is particularly useful to network and low-speed (less than 2400 baud) users
of MH.
The prompter editor is an MH program. Although is not invoked directly, it can have its own profile entry with options; see mh_profile(4).
The comp, dist, forw, and repl commands invoke prompter 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 prompter 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 mh_pro-
file(4).
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 prompter 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 whatnow(1) for more details of responses.
An interrupt, usually <CTRL/C>, during component typing will abort prompter and the MH command that invoked it. An interrupt during mes-
sage-body typing is equivalent to <CTRL/D>, for historical reasons.
RESTRICTIONS
The prompter editor will not work with 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
comp(1), dist(1), forw(1), repl(1), whatnow(1), mh_profile(4)
prompter(1)
