1PROMPTER(1)                 General Commands Manual                PROMPTER(1)
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NAME

6       prompter - nmh's prompting editor front-end
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SYNOPSIS

9       prompter [-help] [-version] [-erase chr] [-kill chr] [-prepend | -no‐
10            prepend] [-rapid | -norapid] [-doteof | -nodoteof] file
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DESCRIPTION

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.
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19       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.
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27       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.
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33       Each non-empty component is copied to the draft and  displayed  on  the
34       terminal.
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36       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
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40            --------Enter additional text
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42       or (if -prepend was given)
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44            --------Enter initial text
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46       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.
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52       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.
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56       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.
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60       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.
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64       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.
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69       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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FILES

73       $HOME/.mh_profile          The user profile
74       /tmp/prompter*             Temporary copy of message
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PROFILE COMPONENTS

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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SEE ALSO

81       comp(1), dist(1), forw(1), repl(1), whatnow(1)
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DEFAULTS

84       `-prepend'
85       `-norapid'
86       `-nodoteof'
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CONTEXT

89       None
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HELPFUL HINTS

92       The  -rapid  option is particularly useful with forw, and -noprepend is
93       useful with comp -use.
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95       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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BUGS

101       prompter uses stdio(3), so it will lose if you edit files with nulls in
102       them.
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106nmh-1.8                           1999-04-30                       PROMPTER(1)
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