PROMPTER(1)                   [mh.6]                  PROMPTER(1)


NAME
       prompter - prompting editor front-end

SYNOPSIS
       prompter  [-erase chr] [-kill chr] [-prepend] [-noprepend]
            [-rapid] [-norapid] file [-help]

DESCRIPTION
       This program is normally not invoked directly by users but
       takes  the  place  of  an  editor  and  acts  as an editor
       front-end.  It operates  on  an  822-style  message  draft
       skeleton  specified  by  file,  normally provided by comp,
       dist, forw, or repl.

       Prompter is an editor which allows  rapid  composition  of
       messages.   It  is  particularly  useful  to  network  and
       low-speed (less than 2400 baud) users of MH.  It is an  MH
       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 Editor: prompter, or when given the com-
       mand `edit prompter' at What now? level.

       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 `\'  preced-
       ing  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 dis-
       played 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

           --------Enter additional text,

       or (if `-prepend' was given)

           --------Enter initial text.

       Message-body typing  is  terminated  with  an  end-of-file
       (usually  CTRL-D).   At  this point control is returned to
       the calling program, where the user is  asked  What  now?.
       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



MH                        April 22, 1986                        1

PROMPTER(1)                   [mh.6]                  PROMPTER(1)


       contains text in the message-body, it is not displayed  on
       the  user's terminal.  This is useful for low-speed termi-
       nals.

       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 nnn is the octal value for the character.

       An interrupt (usually CTRL-C) during component typing will
       abort prompter and the MH 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.

FILES
       $HOME/.mh_profile                     The user profile
       /tmp/prompter*                        Temporary copy of message

PROFILE COMPONENTS
       prompter-next:       To name the editor to be used on exit from prompter
       Msg-Protect:         To set mode when creating a new draft

SEE ALSO
       comp(1), dist(1), forw(1), repl(1), whatnow(1)

DEFAULTS
       `-prepend'
       `-norapid'

CONTEXT
       None

BUGS
       Prompter uses stdio (3), so it will lose if you edit files
       with nulls in them.

















MH                        April 22, 1986                        2