XMH(1) USER COMMANDS XMH(1)
NAME
xmh - X interface to the MH message handling system
SYNOPSIS
xmh [-path mailpath] [-initial foldername] [-flag] [-
toolkitoption ...]
DESCRIPTION
The xmh program provides a window-oriented user interface to
the Rand MH Message Handling System. To actually do things
with your mail, it makes calls to the MH package. Elec-
tronic mail messages may be composed, sent, received,
replied to, forwarded, sorted, and stored in folders.
To specify an alternate collection of mail folders in which
to process mail, use -path followed by the pathname of the
alternate mail directory. The default mail path is the
value of the Path component in $HOME/.mh_profile, or
$HOME/Mail if the MH Path is not given. To specify an alter-
nate folder which may receive new mail and is initially
opened by xmh, use the -initial flag. The default initial
folder is `inbox'. The option -flag will cause xmh to
attempt to change the appearance of its icon when new mail
has arrived. These three options have corresponding
application-specific resources, named MailPath, Initial-
Folder, and MailWaitingFlag, which can be used in a resource
file. The standard toolkit command line options are given in
X(1).
Please don't be misled by the size of this document. It
introduces many aspects of the Athena Widget Set, and pro-
vides extensive mechanism for customization of the user
interface. xmh really is easy to use.
INSTALLATION
The current version of xmh requires that the user is already
set up to use MH, version 6. To do so, see if there is a
file called .mh_profile in your home directory. If it
exists, check to see if it contains a line that starts with
``Current-Folder''. If it does, you've been using version 4
or earlier of MH; to convert to version 6, you must remove
that line. (Failure to do so causes spurious output to
stderr, which can hang xmh depending on your setup.)
If you do not already have a .mh_profile, you can create one
(and everything else you need) by typing ``inc'' to the
shell. You should do this before using xmh to incorporate
new mail.
For more information, refer to the mh(1) documentation.
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BASIC SCREEN LAYOUT
xmh starts out with a single window, divided into four main
areas:
- Six buttons with pull-down command menus.
- A collection of buttons, one for each top level folder.
New users of mh will have two folders, ``drafts'' and
``inbox''.
- A listing, or Table of Contents, of the messages in the
open folder. Initially, this will show the messages in
``inbox''.
- A view of one of your messages. Initially this is
blank.
XMH AND THE ATHENA WIDGET SET
xmh uses the X Toolkit Intrinsics and the Athena Widget Set.
Many of the features described below (scrollbars, button-
boxes, etc.) are actually part of the Athena Widget Set, and
are described here only for completeness. For more informa-
tion, see the Athena Widget Set documentation.
SCROLLBARS
Some parts of the main window will have a vertical area on
the left containing a grey bar. This area is a scrollbar.
They are used whenever the data in a window takes up more
space than can be displayed. The grey bar indicates what
portion of your data is visible. Thus, if the entire length
of the area is grey, then you are looking at all your data.
If only the first half is grey, then you are looking at the
top half of your data. The message viewing area will have a
horizontal scrollbar if the text of the message is wider
than the viewing area.
You can use the pointer in the scrollbar to change what part
of the data is visible. If you click with the middle but-
ton, then the top of the grey area will move to where the
pointer is, and the corresponding portion of data will be
displayed. If you hold down the middle button, you can drag
around the grey area. This makes it easy to get to the top
of the data: just press with the middle, drag off the top of
the scrollbar, and release.
If you click with button 1, then the data to the right of
the pointer will scroll to the top of the window. If you
click with pointer button 3, then the data at the top of the
window will scroll down to where the pointer is.
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BUTTONBOXES, BUTTONS, AND MENUS
Any area containing many words or short phrases, each
enclosed in a rectangle or rounded boundary, is called a
buttonbox. Each rectangle or rounded area is actually a but-
ton that you can press by moving the pointer onto it and
pressing pointer button 1. If a given buttonbox has more
buttons in it than can fit, it will be displayed with a
scrollbar, so you can always scroll to the button you want.
Some buttons have pull-down menus. Pressing the pointer but-
ton while the pointer is over one of these buttons will pull
down a menu. Holding the button down while moving the
pointer over the menu, called dragging the pointer, will
highlight each selectable item on the menu as the pointer
passes over it. To select an item in the menu, release the
pointer button while the item is highlighted.
ADJUSTING THE RELATIVE SIZES OF AREAS
If you're not satisfied with the sizes of the various areas
of the main window, they can easily be changed. Near the
right edge of the border between each region is a black box,
called a grip. Simply point to that grip with the pointer,
press a pointer button, drag up or down, and release.
Exactly what happens depends on which pointer button you
press.
If you drag with the middle button, then only that border
will move. This mode is simplest to understand, but is the
least useful.
If you drag with pointer button 1, then you are adjusting
the size of the window above. xmh will attempt to compen-
sate by adjusting some window below it.
If you drag with pointer button 3, then you are adjusting
the size of the window below. xmh will attempt to compen-
sate by adjusting some window above it.
All windows have a minimum and maximum size; you will never
be allowed to move a border past the point where it would
make a window have an invalid size.
PROCESSING YOUR MAIL
This section will define the concepts of the selected
folder, current folder, selected message(s), current mes-
sage, selected sequence, and current sequence. Each xmh
command is introduced.
For use in customization, action procedures corresponding to
each command are given; these action procedures can be used
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to customize the user interface, particularly the keyboard
accelerators and the functionality of the buttons in the
optional button box created by the application resource Com-
mandButtonCount.
SELECTED FOLDER
A folder contains a collection of mail messages, or is
empty.
The selected folder is whichever foldername appears in the
bar above the folder buttons. Note that this is not neces-
sarily the same folder that is being viewed. To change the
selected folder, just press on the desired folder button; if
that folder has subfolders, select a folder from the pull
down menu.
The Table of Contents, or toc, lists the messages in the
viewed folder. The title bar above the Table of Contents
displays the name of the viewed folder.
The toc title bar also displays the name of the viewed
sequence of messages within the viewed folder. Every folder
has an ``all'' sequence, which contains all the messages in
the folder, and initially the toc title bar will show
``inbox:all''.
FOLDER COMMANDS
The folder command menu contains commands of a global
nature:
Open Folder
Display the data in the selected folder. Thus, the
selected folder also becomes the viewed folder. The
action procedure corresponding to this command is
XmhOpenFolder([foldername]). It takes an optional
argument as the name of a folder to select and open;
if no folder is specified, the selected folder is
opened. It may be specified as part of an event
translation from a folder menu button or from a
folder menu, or as a binding of a keyboard accelera-
tor to any widget other than the folder menu buttons
or the folder menus.
Open Folder in New Window
Displays the selected folder in an additional main
window. Note, however, that you may not reliably
display the same folder in more than one window at a
time, although xmh will not prevent you from trying.
The corresponding action is
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XmhOpenFolderInNewWindow().
Create Folder
Create a new folder. You will be prompted for a
name for the new folder; to enter the name, move the
pointer to the blank box provided and type. Sub-
folders are created by specifying the parent folder,
a slash, and the subfolder name. For example, to
create a folder named ``xmh'' which is a subfolder
of an existing folder named ``clients'', type
``clients/xmh''. Click on the Okay button when fin-
ished, or just type Return; click on Cancel to can-
cel this operation. The action corresponding to
Create Folder is XmhCreateFolder().
Delete Folder
Destroy the selected folder. You will be asked to
confirm this action (see CONFIRMATION WINDOWS).
Destroying a folder will also destroy any subfolders
of that folder. The corresponding action is
XmhDeleteFolder().
Close Window
Exits xmh, after first confirming that you won't
lose any changes; or, if selected from any addi-
tional xmh window, simply closes that window. The
corresponding action is XmhClose().
HIGHLIGHTED MESSAGES, SELECTED MESSAGES
AND THE CURRENT MESSAGE
It is possible to highlight a set of adjacent messages in
the area of the Table of Contents. To highlight a message,
click on it with pointer button 1. To highlight a range of
messages, click on the first one with pointer button 1 and
on the last one with pointer button 3; or press pointer but-
ton 1, drag, and release. To extend a range of selected
messages, use pointer button 3. To highlight all messages in
the table of contents, click rapidly three times with
pointer button 1. To cancel any selection in the table of
contents, click rapidly twice.
The selected messages are the same as the highlighted mes-
sages, if any. If no messages are highlighted, then the
selected messages are considered the same as the current
message.
The current message is indicated by a '+' next to the mes-
sage number. It usually corresponds to the message
currently being viewed. When a message is viewed, the title
bar above the view will identify the message.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS COMMANDS
The Table of Contents command menu contains commands which
operate on the open, or viewed folder.
Incorporate New Mail
Add any new mail received to your inbox
folder, and set the current message to be
the first new message. (This command is
selectable only if ``inbox'' is the folder
being viewed.) The corresponding action
is XmhIncorporateNewMail().
Commit Changes Execute all deletions, moves, and copies
that have been marked in this folder. The
corresponding action is XmhCom-
mitChanges().
Pack Folder Renumber the messages in this folder so
they start with 1 and increment by 1. The
corresponding action is XmhPackFolder().
Sort Folder Sort the messages in this folder in chro-
nological order. As a side effect, this
also packs the folder. The corresponding
action is XmhSortFolder().
Rescan Folder Rebuild the list of messages. This can be
used whenever you suspect that xmh's idea
of what messages you have is wrong. (In
particular, this is necessary if you
change things using straight MH commands
without using xmh.) The corresponding
action is XmhForceRescan().
MESSAGE COMMANDS
The Message command menu contains commands which operate on
the selected message(s), or if there are no selected mes-
sages, the current message.
Compose Message Composes a new message. A new window will
be brought up for composition; a descrip-
tion of it is given in the COMPOSITION
WINDOWS section below. This command does
not affect the current message. The
corresponding action is XmhComposeMes-
sage().
View Next Message View the first selected message. If no
messages are highlighted, view the current
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message. If current message is already
being viewed, view the first unmarked mes-
sage after the current message. The
corresponding action is XmhViewNextMes-
sage().
View Previous View the last selected message. If no
messages are highlighted, view the current
message. If current message is already
being viewed, view the first unmarked mes-
sage before the current message. The
corresponding action is XmhViewPrevious().
Mark Deleted Mark the selected messages for deletion.
If no messages are highlighted, then this
mark the current message for deletion and
automatically display the next unmarked
message. The corresponding action is
XmhMarkDeleted().
Mark Move Mark the selected messages to be moved
into the current (selected) folder. (If
the current folder is the same as the
viewed folder, this command will just
beep.) If no messages are highlighted,
this will mark the current message to be
moved and display the next unmarked mes-
sage. The corresponding action is
XmhMarkMove().
Mark Copy Mark the selected messages to be copied
into the current folder. (If the current
folder is the same as the viewed folder,
this command will just beep.) If no mes-
sages are highlighted, mark the current
message to be copied. The corresponding
action is XmhMarkCopy().
Unmark Remove any of the above three marks from
the selected messages, or the current mes-
sage, if none are highlighted. The
corresponding action is XmhUnmark().
View in New Window
Create a new window containing only a view
of the first selected message, or the
current message, if none are highlighted.
The corresponding action is XmhViewIn-
NewWindow().
Reply Create a composition window in reply to
the first selected message, or the current
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message, if none are highlighted. The
corresponding action is XmhReply().
Forward Create a composition window whose body is
initialized to be the contents of the
selected messages, or the current message
if none are highlighted. The correspond-
ing action is XmhForward().
Use as Composition
Create a composition window whose body is
initialized to be the contents of the
first selected message, or the current
message if none are selected. Any changes
you make in the composition will be saved
in a new message in the ``drafts'' folder,
and will not change the original message.
However, this command was designed to be
used within the ``drafts'' folder to com-
pose message drafts, and there is an
exception to this rule. If the message to
be used as composition was selected from
the ``drafts'' folder, the changes will be
reflected in the original message (see
COMPOSITION WINDOWS). The action pro-
cedure corresponding to this command is
XmhUseAsComposition().
Print Print the selected messages, or the
current message if none are selected. xmh
normally prints by invoking the
enscript(1) command, but this can be cus-
tomized with the application-specific
resource PrintCommand. The action pro-
cedure corresponding to this command is
XmhPrint().
SEQUENCE COMMANDS
The Sequence command menu contains commands pertaining to
message sequences (See MESSAGE-SEQUENCES), and a list of the
message-sequences defined for the currently viewed folder.
The selected message-sequence is indicated by a check mark
in its entry in the margin of the menu. To change the
selected message-sequence, select a new message-sequence
from the sequence menu.
Pick Messages Define a new message-sequence. The
corresponding action is XmhPickMessages().
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The following menu entries will be sensitive only if the
current folder has any message-sequences other than the
``all'' message-sequence.
Open Sequence Change the viewed sequence to be the same
as the selected sequence. The correspond-
ing action is XmhOpenSequence().
Add to Sequence Add the selected messages to the selected
sequence. The corresponding action is
XmhAddToSequence().
Remove from Sequence
Remove the selected messages from the
selected sequence. The corresponding
action is XmhRemoveFromSequence().
Delete Sequence Remove the selected sequence entirely.
The messages themselves are not affected;
they simply are no longer grouped together
to define a message-sequence. The
corresponding action is XmhDeleteSe-
quence().
VIEW COMMANDS
Commands in the View menu and in the buttonboxes of view
windows (which result from the Message command ``View In
New'') correspond in functionality to commands of the same
name in the Message menu, but they operate on the viewed
message rather than the selected messages or current mes-
sage.
Close Window When the viewed message is in a separate
view window, this command will close the
view, after confirming the status of any
unsaved edits. The corresponding action
procedure is XmhCloseView().
Reply Create a composition window in reply to
the viewed message. The related action
procedure is XmhViewReply().
Forward Create a composition window whose body is
initialized to be the contents of the
viewed message. The corresponding action
is XmhViewForward().
Use As Composition
Create a composition window whose body is
initialized to be the contents of the
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viewed message. Any changes made in the
composition window will be saved in a new
message in the ``drafts'' folder, and will
not change the original message. An
exception: if the viewed message was
selected from the ``drafts'' folder, the
original message is edited. The action
procedure corresponding to this command is
XmhViewUseAsComposition().
Edit Message This command enables the direct editing of
the viewed message. The action procedure
is XmhEditView().
Save Message This command is insensitive until the mes-
sage has been edited; when activated,
edits will be saved to the original mes-
sage in the view. The corresponding
action is XmhSaveView().
Print Print the viewed message. xmh prints by
invoking the enscript(1) command, but this
can be customized with the application-
specific resource PrintCommand. The
corresponding action procedure is
XmhPrintView().
OPTIONS
The Options menu contains one entry.
Read in Reverse
When selected, a check mark appears in the margin of
this menu entry. Read in Reverse will switch the mean-
ing of the next and previous messages, and will incre-
ment in the opposite direction. This is useful if you
want to read your messages in the order of most recent
first. The option acts as a toggle; select it from the
menu a second time to undo the effect. The check mark
appears when the option is selected.
COMPOSITION WINDOWS
Aside from the normal text editing functions, there are six
command buttons associated with composition windows:
Close Window Close this composition window. If changes
have been made since the most recent Save
or Send, you will be asked to confirm los-
ing them. The corresponding action is
XmhCloseView().
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Send Send this composition. The corresponding
action is XmhSend().
New Headers Replace the current composition with an
empty message. If changes have been made
since the most recent Send or Save, you
will be asked to confirm losing them. The
corresponding action is XmhResetCompose().
Compose Message Bring up another new composition window.
The corresponding action is XmhComposeMes-
sage().
Save Message Save this composition in your drafts
folder. Then you can safely close the
composition. At some future date, you can
continue working on the composition by
opening the drafts folder, selecting the
message, and using the ``Use as Composi-
tion'' command. The corresponding action
is XmhSave().
Insert Insert a related message into the composi-
tion. If the composition window was
created with a ``Reply'' command, the
related message is the message being
replied to, otherwise no related message
is defined and this button is insensitive.
The message may be filtered before being
inserted; see ReplyInsertFilter under
APPLICATION RESOURCES for more informa-
tion. The corresponding action is XmhIn-
sert().
ACCELERATORS
Accelerators are shortcuts. They allow you to invoke com-
mands without using the menus, either from the keyboard or
by using the pointer.
xmh defines pointer accelerators for common actions: To
select and view a message with a single click, use pointer
button 2 on the message's entry in the table of contents.
To select and open a folder or a sequence in a single
action, make the folder or sequence selection with pointer
button 2.
To mark the highlighted messages to be moved in a single
action, or current message if none have been highlighted,
use pointer button 3 to select the target folder. Simi-
larly, selecting a sequence with pointer button 3 will add
the highlighted or current message(s) to that sequence. In
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both of these operations, the selected folder or sequence
and the viewed folder or sequence are not changed.
xmh defines the following keyboard accelerators over the
surface of the main window, except in the view area while
editing a message:
Meta-I Incorporate New Mail
Meta-C Commit Changes
Meta-R Rescan Folder
Meta-P Pack Folder
Meta-S Sort Folder
Meta-space View Next Message
Meta-c Mark Copy
Meta-d Mark Deleted
Meta-f Forward the selected or current message
Meta-m Mark Move
Meta-n View Next Message
Meta-p View Previous Message
Meta-r Reply to the selected or current message
Meta-u Unmark
Ctrl-V Scroll the table of contents forward
Meta-V Scroll the table of contents backward
Ctrl-v Scroll the view forward
Meta-v Scroll the view backward
TEXT EDITING COMMANDS
All of the text editing commands are actually defined by the
Text widget in the Athena Widget Set. The commands may be
bound to different keys than the defaults described below
through the X Toolkit Intrinsics key re-binding mechanisms.
See the X Toolkit Intrinsics and the Athena Widget Set docu-
mentation for more details.
Whenever you are asked to enter any text, you will be using
a standard text editing interface. Various control and meta
keystroke combinations are bound to a somewhat Emacs-like
set of commands. In addition, the pointer buttons may be
used to select a portion of text or to move the insertion
point in the text. Pressing pointer button 1 causes the
insertion point to move to the pointer. Double-clicking
button 1 selects a word, triple-clicking selects a line,
quadruple-clicking selects a paragraph, and clicking rapidly
five times selects everything. Any selection may be
extended in either direction by using pointer button 3.
In the following, a line refers to one displayed row of
characters in the window. A paragraph refers to the text
between carriage returns. Text within a paragraph is broken
into lines for display based on the current width of the
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window. When a message is sent, text is broken into lines
based upon the values of the SendBreakWidth and SendWidth
application-specific resources.
The following keystroke combinations are defined:
Ctrl-a Beginning Of Line Meta-b Backward Word
Ctrl-b Backward Character Meta-f Forward Word
Ctrl-d Delete Next Character Meta-iInsert File
Ctrl-e End Of Line Meta-k Kill To End Of Paragraph
Ctrl-f Forward Character Meta-q Form Paragraph
Ctrl-g Multiply Reset Meta-v Previous Page
Ctrl-h Delete Previous Character Meta-yInsert Current Selection
Ctrl-j Newline And Indent Meta-z Scroll One Line Down
Ctrl-k Kill To End Of Line Meta-d Delete Next Word
Ctrl-l Redraw Display Meta-D Kill Word
Ctrl-m Newline Meta-h Delete Previous Word
Ctrl-n Next Line Meta-H Backward Kill Word
Ctrl-o Newline And Backup Meta-< Beginning Of File
Ctrl-p Previous Line Meta-> End Of File
Ctrl-r Search/Replace Backward Meta-]Forward Paragraph
Ctrl-s Search/Replace Forward Meta-[Backward Paragraph
Ctrl-t Transpose Characters
Ctrl-u Multiply by 4 Meta-Delete Delete Previous Word
Ctrl-v Next Page Meta-Shift DeleteKill Previous Word
Ctrl-w Kill Selection Meta-Backspace Delete Previous Word
Ctrl-y Unkill Meta-Shift BackspaceKill Previous Word
Ctrl-z Scroll One Line Up
In addition, the pointer may be used to cut and paste text:
Button 1 Down Start Selection
Button 1 MotionAdjust Selection
Button 1 Up End Selection (cut)
Button 2 Down Insert Current Selection (paste)
Button 3 Down Extend Current Selection
Button 3 MotionAdjust Selection
Button 3 Up End Selection (cut)
CONFIRMATION DIALOG BOXES
Whenever you press a button that may cause you to lose some
work or is otherwise dangerous, a popup dialog box will
appear asking you to confirm the action. This window will
contain an ``Abort'' or ``No'' button and a ``Confirm'' or
``Yes'' button. Pressing the ``No'' button cancels the
operation, and pressing the ``Yes'' will proceed with the
operation.
Some dialog boxes contain messages from MH. Clicking on the
message field will cause the dialog box to resize so that
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you can read the entire message.
MESSAGE-SEQUENCES
An MH message sequence is just a set of messages associated
with some name. They are local to a particular folder; two
different folders can have sequences with the same name. In
all folders, the sequence ``all'' is predefined; it consists
of the set of all messages in that folder. As many as nine
sequences may be defined for each folder, including the
predefined ``all'' sequence. (The sequence ``cur'' is also
usually defined for every folder; it consists of only the
current message. xmh hides ``cur'' from the user, instead
placing a ``+'' by the current message. Also, xmh does not
support the ``unseen'' sequence, so that one is also hidden
from the user.)
The message sequences for a folder (including one for
``all'') are displayed in the ``Sequence'' menu, below the
sequence commands. The table of contents (also known as the
``toc'') is at any one time displaying one message sequence.
This is called the ``viewed sequence'', and its name will be
displayed in the toc title bar just after the folder name.
Also, at any time one of the sequences in the menu will have
a check mark next to it. This is called the ``selected
sequence''. Note that the viewed sequence and the selected
sequence are not necessarily the same. (This all pretty
much corresponds to the way the folders work.)
The Open Sequence, Add to Sequence, Remove from Sequence,
and Delete Sequence commands are active only if the viewed
folder contains message-sequences.
Note that none of the above actually affect whether a mes-
sage is in the folder. Remember that a sequence is a set of
messages within the folder; the above operations just affect
what messages are in that set.
To create a new sequence, select the ``Pick'' menu entry. A
new window will appear, with lots of places to enter text.
Basically, you can describe the sequence's initial set of
messages based on characteristics of the message. Thus, you
can define a sequence to be all the messages that were from
a particular person, or with a particular subject, and so
on. You can also connect things up with boolean operators,
so you can select all things from ``weissman'' with the sub-
ject ``xmh''.
Hopefully, the layout is fairly obvious. The simplest cases
are the easiest: just point to the proper field and type.
If you enter in more than one field, it will only select
messages which match all non-empty fields.
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The more complicated cases arise when you want things that
match one field or another one, but not necessarily both.
That's what all the ``or'' buttons are for. If you want all
things with the subject ``xmh'' or ``xterm'', just press the
``or'' button next to the ``Subject:'' field. Another box
will appear where you can enter another subject.
If you want all things either from ``weissman'' or with sub-
ject ``xmh'', but not necessarily both, select the ``-Or-''
button. This will essentially double the size of the form.
You can then enter ``weissman'' in a from: box on the top
half, and ``xmh'' in a subject: box on the lower part.
If you select the ``Skip'' button, then only those messages
that don't match the fields on that row are included.
Finally, in the bottom part of the window will appear
several more boxes. One is the name of the sequence you're
defining. (It defaults to the name of the selected sequence
when ``Pick'' was pressed, or to ``temp'' if ``all'' was the
selected sequence.) Another box defines which sequence to
look through for potential members of this sequence; it
defaults to the viewed sequence when ``Pick'' was pressed.
Two more boxes define a date range; only messages within
that date range will be considered. These dates must be
entered in 822-style format: each date is of the form ``dd
mmm yy hh:mm:ss zzz'', where dd is a one or two digit day of
the month, mmm is the three-letter abbreviation for a month,
and yy is a year. The remaining fields are optional: hh,
mm, and ss specify a time of day, and zzz selects a time
zone. Note that if the time is left out, it defaults to
midnight; thus if you select a range of ``7 nov 86'' - ``8
nov 86'', you will only get messages from the 7th, as all
messages on the 8th will have arrived after midnight.
``Date field'' specifies which date field in the header to
look at for this date range; it probably won't be useful to
anyone. If the sequence you're defining already exists, you
can optionally merge the old set with the new; that's what
the ``Yes'' and ``No'' buttons are all about. Finally, you
can ``OK'' the whole thing, or ``Cancel'' it.
In general, most people will rarely use these features.
However, it's nice to occasionally use ``Pick'' to find some
messages, look through them, and then hit ``Delete
Sequence'' to put things back in their original state.
WIDGET HIERARCHY
In order to specify resources, it is useful to know the
hierarchy of widgets which compose xmh. In the notation
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below, indentation indicates hierarchical structure. The
widget class name is given first, followed by the widget
instance name. The application class name is Xmh.
The hierarchy of the main toc and view window is identical
for additional toc and view windows, except that a topLevel-
Shell widget is inserted in the hierarchy between the appli-
cation shell and the Paned widget.
Xmh xmh
Paned xmh
SimpleMenu folderMenu
SmeBSB open
SmeBSB openInNew
SmeBSB create
SmeBSB delete
SmeLine line
SmeBSB close
SimpleMenu tocMenu
SmeBSB inc
SmeBSB commit
SmeBSB pack
SmeBSB sort
SmeBSB rescan
SimpleMenu messageMenu
SmeBSB compose
SmeBSB next
SmeBSB prev
SmeBSB delete
SmeBSB move
SmeBSB copy
SmeBSB unmark
SmeBSB viewNew
SmeBSB reply
SmeBSB forward
SmeBSB useAsComp
SmeBSB print
SimpleMenu sequenceMenu
SmeBSB pick
SmeBSB openSeq
SmeBSB addToSeq
SmeBSB removeFromSeq
SmeBSB deleteSeq
SmeLine line
SmeBSB all
SimpleMenu viewMenu
SmeBSB reply
SmeBSB forward
SmeBSB useAsComp
SmeBSB edit
SmeBSB save
SmeBSB print
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XMH(1) USER COMMANDS XMH(1)
SimpleMenu optionMenu
SmeBSB reverse
Viewport.Core menuBox.clip
Box menuBox
MenuButton folderButton
MenuButton tocButton
MenuButton messageButton
MenuButton sequenceButton
MenuButton viewButton
MenuButton optionButton
Grip grip
Label folderTitlebar
Grip grip
Viewport.Core folders.clip
Box folders
MenuButton inbox
MenuButton drafts
SimpleMenu menu
SmeBSB <folder_name>
.
.
.
Grip grip
Label tocTitlebar
Grip grip
Text toc
Scrollbar vScrollbar
Grip grip
Label viewTitlebar
Grip grip
Text view
Scrollbar vScrollbar
Scrollbar hScrollbar
The hierarchy of the Create Folder popup dialog box:
transientShell prompt
Dialog dialog
Label label
Text value
Command okay
Command cancel
The hierarchy of the Notice dialog box, which reports messages from MH:
transientShell notice
Dialog dialog
Label label
Text value
Command confirm
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The hierarchy of the Confirmation dialog box:
transientShell confirm
Dialog dialog
Label label
Command yes
Command no
The hierarchy of the dialog box which reports errors:
transientShell error
Dialog dialog
Label label
Command OK
The hierarchy of the composition window:
topLevelShell xmh
Paned xmh
Label composeTitlebar
Text comp
Viewport.Core compButtons.clip
Box compButtons
Command close
Command send
Command reset
Command compose
Command save
Command insert
The hierarchy of the view window:
topLevelShell xmh
Paned xmh
Label viewTitlebar
Text view
Viewport.Core viewButtons.clip
Box viewButtons
Command close
Command reply
Command forward
Command useAsComp
Command edit
Command save
Command print
The hierarchy of the pick window:
(Unnamed widgets have no name.)
topLevelShell xmh
Paned xmh
Label pickTitlebar
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XMH(1) USER COMMANDS XMH(1)
Viewport.core pick.clip
Form form
Form
The first 6 rows of the pick window have identical structure:
Form
Toggle
Toggle
Label
Text
Command
Form
Toggle
Toggle
Text
Text
Command
Form
Command
Viewport.core pick.clip
Form form
From
Form
Label
Text
Label
Text
Form
Label
Text
Label
Text
Label
Text
Form
Label
Toggle
Toggle
Form
Command
Command
APPLICATION-SPECIFIC RESOURCES
Resource instance names begin with a lower case letter but
are otherwise identical to the class name.
If TocGeometry, ViewGeometry, CompGeometry, or PickGeometry
are not specified, then the value of Geometry is used
instead. If the resulting height is not specified (e.g.,
"", "=500", "+0-0"), then the default height of windows is
calculated from fonts and line counts. If the width is not
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XMH(1) USER COMMANDS XMH(1)
specified (e.g., "", "=x300", "-0+0), then half of the
display width is used. If unspecified, the height of a pick
window defaults to half the height of the display.
Any of these options may also be specified on the command
line by using the X Toolkit Intrinsics resource specifica-
tion mechanism. Thus, to run xmh showing all message
headers,
% xmh -xrm '*HideBoringHeaders:off'
The following resources are defined:
Banner A short string that is the default label of the
folder, Table of Contents, and view. The default is
"xmh MIT X Consortium R4".
BlockEventsOnBusy
Whether to disallow user input and show a busy cur-
sor while xmh is busy processing a command. Default
is true.
BusyCursor
The name of the symbol used to represent the posi-
tion of the pointer, displayed if BlockEventsOnBusy
is true, when xmh is processing a time-consuming
command. The default is "watch".
BusyPointerColor
The foreground color of the busy cursor. Default is
XtDefaultForeground.
CheckFrequency
How often to check for new mail, make checkpoints,
and rescan the Table of Contents, in minutes. If
CheckNewMail is true, xmh checks to see if you have
new mail each interval. If MakeCheckpoints is true,
checkpoints are made every fifth interval. Also
every fifth interval, the Table of Contents is
checked for inconsistencies with the file system,
and rescanned. To prevent all of these checks from
occurring, set CheckFrequency to 0. The default is
1.
CheckNewMail
If true, xmh will check at regular intervals to see
if new mail has arrived for any of the folders. A
visual indication will be given if new mail is wait-
ing to be retrieved. Default is True. (See BUGS).
The interval can be adjusted with the CheckFre-
quency.
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XMH(1) USER COMMANDS XMH(1)
CommandButtonCount
The number of command buttons to create in a button
box in between the toc and the view areas of the
main window. xmh will create these buttons with the
names button1, button2 and so on, in a box with the
name commandBox. The user can specify labels and
actions for the buttons in a private resource file;
see the section on Actions. The default is 0.
CompGeometry
Initial geometry for windows containing composi-
tions.
Cursor The name of the symbol used to represent the
pointer. Default is ``left_ptr''.
DraftsFolder
The folder used for message drafts. Default is
``drafts''.
Geometry
Default geometry to use. Default is none.
HideBoringHeaders
If ``on'', then xmh will attempt to skip uninterest-
ing header lines within messages by scrolling them
off. Default is ``on''.
InitialFolder
Which folder to display on startup. May also be set
with the command-line option -initial. Default is
``inbox''.
InitialIncFile
The file name of your incoming mail drop. xmh tries
to construct a filename for the ``inc -file'' com-
mand, but in some installations (e.g. those using
the Post Office Protocol) no file is appropriate.
In this case, InitialIncFile should be specified as
the empty string, and inc will be invoked without a
-file argument. The default is to use the value of
the environment variable MAIL, or if that is not
set, to append the value of the environment variable
USER to /usr/spool/mail/.
MailPath
The full path prefix for locating your mail folders.
May also be set with the command-line option, -path.
The default is the Path component in
$HOME/.mh_profile, or ``$HOME/Mail'' if none.
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XMH(1) USER COMMANDS XMH(1)
MailWaitingFlag
If true, xmh will attempt to set an indication in
its icon when new mail is waiting to be retrieved.
If this option is true, then CheckNewMail is assumed
to be true as well. The -flag command line option
is a quick way to turn MailWaitingFlag on.
MakeCheckpoints
If true, xmh will attempt to save checkpoints of
volatile information. The frequency of checkpoint-
ing is controlled by the resource CheckFrequency.
MhPath What directory in which to find the MH commands. If
a command isn't found here, then the directories in
the user's path are searched. Default is
``/usr/local/mh6''.
PickGeometry
Initial geometry for pick windows.
PointerColor
The foreground color of the pointer. Default is
XtDefaultForeground.
PrefixWmAndIconName
Whether to prefix the window and icon name with
"xmh: ". Default is true.
PrintCommand
What sh command to execute to print a message. Note
that stdout and stderr must be specifically
redirected! If a message or range of messages is
selected for printing, the full file paths of each
message file is appended to the specified print com-
mand. The default is ``enscript >/dev/null
2>/dev/null''.
ReplyInsertFilter
A shell command to be executed when the Insert but-
ton is activated in a composition window. The full
path and filename of the source message is added to
the end of the command before being passed to sh(1).
The default filter is cat; i.e. it inserts the
entire message into the composition. Interesting
filters are: awk -e '{print " " $0}' or <mh
directory>/lib/mhl -form mhl.body.
ReverseReadOrder
When true, the next message will be the message
prior to the current message in the table of con-
tents, and the previous message will be the message
after the current message in the table of contents.
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XMH(1) USER COMMANDS XMH(1)
The default is false.
SendBreakWidth
When a message is sent from xmh, lines longer than
this value will be split into multiple lines, each
of which is no longer than SendWidth. This value
may be overridden for a single message by inserting
an additional line in the message header of the form
SendBreakWidth: value. This line will be removed
from the header before the message is sent. The
default is 85.
SendWidth
When a message is sent from xmh, lines longer than
SendBreakWidth characters will be split into multi-
ple lines, each of which is no longer than this
value. This value may be overridden for a single
message by inserting an additional line in the mes-
sage header of the form SendWidth: value. This line
will be removed from the header before the message
is sent. The default is 72.
SkipCopied
Whether to skip over messages marked for copying
when using ``View Next Message'' and ``View Previous
Message''. Default is true.
SkipDeleted
Whether to skip over messages marked for deletion
when using ``View Next Message'' and ``View Previous
Message''. Default is true.
SkipMoved
Whether to skip over messages marked for moving to
other folders when using ``View Next Message'' and
``View Previous Message''. Default is true.
StickyMenu
If true, when popup command menus are used, the most
recently selected entry will be under the cursor
when the menu pops up. Default is false. See the
file clients/xmh/Xmh.sample for an example of how to
specify resources for pop up command menus.
TempDir Directory for xmh to store temporary directories.
For privacy, a user might want to change this to a
private directory. Default is ``/tmp''.
TocGeometry
Initial geometry for master xmh windows.
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XMH(1) USER COMMANDS XMH(1)
TocPercentage
The percentage of the main window that is used to
display the Table of Contents. Default is 33.
TocWidth
How many characters to generate for each message in
a folder's table of contents. Default is 100. Use
80 if you plan to use mhl a lot, because it will be
faster, and the extra 20 characters may not be use-
ful.
ViewGeometry
Initial geometry for windows showing only a view of
a message.
ACTIONS
Because xmh provides action procedures which correspond to
command functionality and installs accelerators, users can
customize accelerators in a private resource file. xmh pro-
vides action procedures which correspond to entries in the
command menus; these are given in the sections describing
menu commmands. For examples of specifying customized
resources, see the file clients/xmh/Xmh.sample. Unpredict-
able results can occur if actions are bound to events or
widgets for which they were not designed.
In addition to the actions corresponding to commands, these
action routines are defined:
XmhPushFolder([foldername, ...])
This action pushes each of its argument(s)
onto a stack of foldernames. If no argu-
ments are given, the selected folder is
pushed onto the stack.
XmhPopFolder() This action pops one foldername from the
stack and sets the selected folder.
XmhPopupFolderMenu()
This action should always be taken when
the user selects a folder button. A
folder button represents a folder and zero
or more subfolders. The menu of subfold-
ers is built upon the first reference, by
this routine. If there are no subfolders,
this routine will mark the folder as hav-
ing no subfolders, and no menu will be
built. In that case the menu button emu-
lates a toggle button. When subfolders
exist, the menu will popup, using the menu
button action PopupMenu().
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XMH(1) USER COMMANDS XMH(1)
XmhSetCurrentFolder()
This action allows menu buttons to emulate
toggle buttons in the function of select-
ing a folder. This action is for menu
button widgets only, and sets the selected
folder.
XmhLeaveFolderButton()
This action insures that the menu button
behaves properly when the user moves the
pointer out of the menu button window.
XmhPushSequence([sequencename, ...])
This action pushes each of its arguments
onto the stack of sequence names. If no
arguments are given, the selected sequence
is pushed onto the stack.
XmhPopSequence() This action pops one sequence name from
the stack of sequence names, which then
becomes the selected sequence.
XmhPromptOkayAction()
This action is equivalent to pressing the
okay button in the Create Folder popup.
XmhCancelPick() This action is equivalent to pressing the
cancel button in the pick window.
CUSTOMIZATION USING MH
The initial text displayed in a composition window is gen-
erated by executing the corresponding MH command; i.e. comp,
repl, or forw, and therefore message components may be cus-
tomized as specified for those commands. Comp is executed
only once per invocation of xmh and the message template is
re-used for each successive new composition.
FILES
~/Mail
~/.mh_profile - MH profile
/usr/local/mh6 - MH commands
~/Mail/<folder>/.xmhcache - scan folder
~/Mail/<folder>/.mh_sequences - sequence definitions
/tmp - temporary files
SEE ALSO
X(1), xrdb(1), X Toolkit Intrinsics, Athena Widget Set,
mh(1), enscript(1)
BUGS
- Printing support is minimal.
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XMH(1) USER COMMANDS XMH(1)
- Should handle the ``unseen'' message-sequence.
- Should determine by itself if the user hasn't used MH
before, and offer to create the .mh_profile, instead of
hanging on inc.
- Still a few commands missing (rename folder, remail mes-
sage).
- A bug in MH limits the the number of characters in
.mh_sequences to BUFSIZ. When the limit is reached, the
.mh_sequences file often becomes corrupted, and sequence
definitions may be lost.
- Except for the icon, there isn't an indication that you
have new mail.
- There should be a resource, ShowOnInc, which when true,
would show the current message in the view after incorporat-
ing new mail.
- The CheckFrequency resource should be split into two
separate resources.
- WM_SAVE_YOURSELF protocol is ignored.
- WM_DELETE_WINDOW protocol doesn't work right when request-
ing deletion of the first toc and view, while trying to keep
other xmh windows around.
- Doesn't support annotations when replying to messages.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1988, 1989, Digital Equipment Corporation.
Copyright 1989, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
See X(1) for a full statement of rights and permissions.
AUTHOR
Terry Weissman, Digital Western Research Laboratory
modified by Donna Converse, MIT X Consortium
X Version 11 Last change: Release 4 26