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 \*(lqEditor:\ prompter\*(rq,
or when given the command `edit\ prompter' at the \*(lqWhat now?\*(rq 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 `\\' preceding 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 displayed 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
\*(lq--------Enter additional text\*(rq,
or (if `-prepend' was given)
\*(lq--------Enter initial text\*(rq.
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 \*(lqWhat now?\*(rq.
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 contains 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 \*(lqnnn\*(rq 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.