NAME

       prompter - nmh's prompting editor front-end

SYNOPSIS

       prompter [-help] [-version] [-erase chr] [-kill chr] [-prepend | -noprepend] [-rapid |
            -norapid] [-doteof | -nodoteof] file

DESCRIPTION

       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
       “Editor: prompter”, or when given the command edit prompter at the “What now?” 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

            --------Enter additional text

       or (if -prepend was given)

            --------Enter initial text

       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 “What now?”.  See
       whatnow(1) 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 “nnn”
       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.

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 .B 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'
       `-nodoteof'

CONTEXT

       None

HELPFUL HINTS

       The  -rapid  option  is  particularly useful with forw, and -noprepend is useful with comp
       -use.

       The user may  wish  to  link  prompter  under  several  names  (e.g.,  “rapid”)  and  give
       appropriate  switches  in  the  profile entries under these names (e.g., “rapid: -rapid”).
       This facilitates invoking prompter differently for different nmh  commands  (e.g.,  “forw:
       -editor rapid”).

BUGS

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