1PROMPTER(1) General Commands Manual PROMPTER(1)
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6 prompter - nmh's prompting editor front-end
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9 prompter [-help] [-version] [-erase chr] [-kill chr] [-prepend | -no‐
10 prepend] [-rapid | -norapid] [-doteof | -nodoteof] file
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13 prompter is an editor front-end for nmh which allows rapid composition
14 of messages. This program is not normally invoked directly by users
15 but takes the place of an editor and acts as an editor front-end. It
16 operates on an RFC 822-style message draft skeleton specified by file,
17 normally provided by the nmh commands comp, dist, forw, or repl.
18 prompter is particularly useful when composing messages over slow net‐
20 work or modem lines. It is an nmh program in that it can have its own
21 profile entry with switches, but it is not invoked directly by the
22 user. The commands comp, dist, forw, and repl invoke prompter as an
23 editor, either when invoked with -editor prompter, or by the profile
24 entry “Editor: prompter”, or when given the command edit prompter at
25 the “What now?” prompt.
26 For each empty component prompter finds in the draft, the user is
28 prompted for a response; A <RETURN> will cause the whole component to
29 be left out. Otherwise, a `\' preceding a <RETURN> will continue the
30 response on the next line, allowing for multiline components. Continu‐
31 ation lines must begin with a space or tab.
32 Each non-empty component is copied to the draft and displayed on the
34 terminal.
35 The start of the message body is denoted by a blank line or a line of
37 dashes. If the body is non-empty, the prompt, which isn't written to
38 the file, is
39 --------Enter additional text
41 or (if -prepend was given)
43 --------Enter initial text
45 Message-body typing is terminated with an end-of-file (usually CTRL-D).
47 With the -doteof switch, a period on a line all by itself also signi‐
48 fies end-of-file. At this point control is returned to the calling
49 program, where the user is asked “What now?”. See whatnow(1) for the
50 valid options to this query.
51 By using the -prepend switch, the user can add type-in to the beginning
53 of the message body and have the rest of the body follow. This is use‐
54 ful for the forw command.
55 By using the -rapid switch, if the draft already contains text in the
57 message-body, it is not displayed on the user's terminal. This is use‐
58 ful for low-speed terminals.
59 The line editing characters for kill and erase may be specified by the
61 user via the arguments -kill chr and -erase chr, where chr may be a
62 character; or `\nnn', where “nnn” is the octal value for the character.
63 An interrupt (usually CTRL-C) during component typing will abort
65 prompter and the nmh command that invoked it. An interrupt during mes‐
66 sage-body typing is equivalent to CTRL-D, for historical reasons. This
67 means that prompter should finish up and exit.
68 The first non-flag argument to prompter is taken as the name of the
70 draft file, and subsequent non-flag arguments are ignored.
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73 $HOME/.mh_profile The user profile
74 /tmp/prompter* Temporary copy of message
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77 prompter-next: To name the editor to be used on exit from .B prompter
78 Msg-Protect: To set mode when creating a new draft
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81 comp(1), dist(1), forw(1), repl(1), whatnow(1)
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84 `-prepend'
85 `-norapid'
86 `-nodoteof'
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89 None
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92 The -rapid option is particularly useful with forw, and -noprepend is
93 useful with comp -use.
94 The user may wish to link prompter under several names (e.g., “rapid”)
96 and give appropriate switches in the profile entries under these names
97 (e.g., “rapid: -rapid”). This facilitates invoking prompter differ‐
98 ently for different nmh commands (e.g., “forw: -editor rapid”).
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101 prompter uses stdio(3), so it will lose if you edit files with nulls in
102 them.
103nmh-1.8 1999-04-30 PROMPTER(1)