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KWQ Mail/2
A 32 Bit Mail Reader For OS/2 Presentation Manager
Version 1.2
Copyright 1992-1993, Kurt Westerfeld
Registration and Information:
Kurt Westerfeld
7935 Tyson Oaks Circle
Vienna, Virgina 22182
June 24th, 1993
Introduction
Congratulations! You've managed to beg, borrow, steal or download
a copy of the new 32 bit QWK mail reader for OS/2 Presentation
Manager. With KWQ Mail/2, you will be able to read mail generated
by many popular electronic bulletin boards while remaining in the
comfort and confines of your own OS/2 2.X system.
KWQ Mail/2 is a shareware package. To those of you who don't know
or have a vague idea what this means, read on. Otherwise, skip to
the next section. Shareware is software you may "share" with your
friends and colleagues. You may use KWQ Mail/2 as much as you wish
for up to 45 days with absolutely no obligation to buy it. But
shareware isn't free. You must pay for KWQ Mail/2 if you decide to
use it past 45 days. The initial charge for KWQ Mail/2 is $25,
which will not include printed documentation and disks initially,
However, registering KWQ Mail/2 will include free upgrades to the
software for up to but not including the next major revision (ie,
1.X to 2.0). Some time at a later date printed documentation may
be available, depending on demand.
Registration is available via the Compuserve software registration
forum. The cost for registering electronically through this
service is $30.
The copy of KWQ Mail/2 you have is not crippled, and hopefully it
isn't "annoyware." However, there are a few features that aren't
provided by the reader unless you buy it. These features that are
left out with the demo version are very minor, and should in no way
hinder your ability to evaluate the product. The first feature
that is not available in the demo version is the disabling of the
"tagline feature." (Taglines are described later on in this
document) When using the demo version of the product, the taglines
will always be enabled. The second difference between the demo and
registered copy is that there is a product information dialog box
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 1
that appears when KWQ Mail/2 is initially run; registering KWQ
Mail/2 removes this screen.
What is a Mail Reader?
You may have received this copy of KWQ Mail/2 because you are
curious, because someone told you about it, because you are looking
into electronic mail, or any of a hundred reasons. However, the
term "Mail Reader" is many times confusing, and it bears mentioning
what exactly is meant by this term.
First of all, KWQ Mail/2 is not a communications program or
terminal emulator. In fact, it knows nothing and cares for even
less about the communications ports on your computer. KWQ Mail/2
is a program written specifically to decode mail files that you
obtain from an electronic service provider, commonly called an
electronic bulletin board (BBS). You generally use another
program, called a terminal emulator, to interact with this BBS,
tell it what kind of mail topics you are interested in, and then
initiate a download sequence to obtain the mail. The result is a
file which KWQ Mail/2 understands how to decode and assemble into a
well-organized set of topics. You can then read the mail after you
have disconnected from the BBS, compose reply messages to mail
topics you are interested in, and later upload a reply mail file to
the BBS.
Mail Readers are actually a little more sophisticated than what was
outlined above, but this is the basic principle: connect to a BBS,
download a mail file, use mail reader to browse mail, compose
replies, and upload a mail reply file to the BBS.
On this Mail Reader
Mail readers are applications that help to allow people to
communicate messages and mail around the world. The author of KWQ
Mail/2, Kurt Westerfeld, wanted to develop an application that
helped to communicate and facilitate the transmission of
information about OS/2, but also to help many people making the
transition from DOS and/or Windows to IBM's newest operating system
offering. To many who use their PCs to communicate, having a
native Presentation Manager mail reader will be important, and this
application is for them.
Restrictions
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 2
You have obtained a copy of a shareware package, which means you
may let your friends and colleagues have a copy if you wish, as
long as you abide by the following restrictions:
1. You do not charge for the transfer of KWQ Mail/2 or any of
its components.
2. You supply the exact files and packaging for the shareware
version of KWQ Mail/2 that you obtained electronically or
other means.
3. You DO NOT share the licensing information provided once
you register KWQ Mail/2.
The author, Kurt Westerfeld, makes no claim as to the viability or
usefulness of the product to suit particular needs. Use the
product initially for no charge, and when the test drive is over,
decide if you like it and register it if you do.
KWQ Mail/2 is copyrighted property developed by Kurt Westerfeld.
Forward
KWQ Mail/2 (referred to as KWQ, the meaning of which we'll get to
later...) will not run under any version of OS/2 earlier than OS/2
2.0. This is because I have decided to use features only provided
by the new 32 bit environment, and these features have only been
available since OS/2 2.0 has been generally available. In
addition, I do not guarantee that KWQ will run with one of the OS/2
2.X betas. I simply don't have the time or desire to load an old
copy of beta code to test any problems that crop up.
Some of the features KWQ has are:
- A fully (who am I kidding?) CUA compliant user interface
with menus, scroll bars, etc.
- Number of conferences, message base size, and replies are
only limited by virtual memory, which under OS/2 is pretty
much your hard disk size.
- The ability to use any editor, be it OS/2 fullscreen,
Presentation Manager, DOS, or Windows as your reply/compose
editor.
- Save messages to files with long names, if system is
configured with High Performance File System. This feature
was a prime motivator for writing this offline reader. The
save dialog remembers the last 10 messages you have saved,
available with a pull down list.
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 3
- The ability to save "bookmarks" to your messages, which
will get saved with your mail packets as a small extended
attribute (typically less than 300 bytes in size). This
feature is useful in saving spots of a message base you're
really interested in returning to, while you swap to
another conference or another part of a conference.
- Background (multi-threaded) searches. Search by the
'From', 'To', 'Subject', or 'Message' portion of a message,
or search with any combination of these. Search for whole
words or simply parts of them, case sensitive or case
insensitive. Search across all the conferences in a mail
packet. Continue to read mail while your search takes
place. Boolean logic will be supported at a later date.
- Use an optional tagline file, choose a random tagline, or
totally turn off the tagline feature, including the KWQ
banner (this option is only available once you register KWQ
Mail/2).
- Support for all major archive formats, including ZIP, ZOO,
LHA, ARC and ARJ.
- Display messages in any font you choose, including Adobe
Type Manager outline fonts (included with OS/2). You may
print with these fonts as well
- Relatively familiar keystrokes. KWQ is inspired by a few
unnamed mail readers for DOS. Where possible, a consistent
user interface is maintained between PM and DOS-style
keystrokes.
- Session saving. KWQ will remember what messages and
conferences you have seen between sessions. KWQ will also
remember the bookmarks you've added to return to at a later
date, as well as remember cosmetic setup such as the
position and size of various windows and dialogs.
- Support for the Workplace Shell. KWQ can be setup as an
association to the file type *.QWK, so that when a packet
file of that type is double clicked on, the packet will be
automatically opened and displayed. Additionally, any file
"dropped" on the KWQ program icon will cause KWQ to run
against that file in a similar manner. In addition to file
launching, KWQ Mail/2 accepts all dropped fonts and colors
and reacts appropriately by changing the window component
dropped on.
- KWQ Mail/2 supports "syntax coloring" found in no other GUI
mail reader. Just like familiar DOS mail readers, KWQ
Mail/2 will show the message text, message quotes, and
message taglines in different colors.
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 4
- An internal editor, with cut, copy, paste, quote and import
functionality.
Hopefully by now I have your interest! If not, go on using one of
those character mode user interfaces you've been using for years,
and let many of us go on to using Presentation Manager and the
Workplace Shell.
KWQ was mainly written with a few goals in mind:
1. Provide the ability to save messages to long file names.
Many times I have saved messages to 8.3 character naming
styles and not known what I was thinking of in a matter of
days after saving the message. Since I'm involved in BBS-
ing for research purposes, I have wanted to have a "message
base" on my hard drive of topics I would like to peruse.
KWQ enhances this much needed functionality.
2. Save bookmarks. Many times I want to return to a spot in
the message pool and go on to look for something else.
3. Provide elaborate searching capabilities. A reader
application should take as complicated a search as possible
and do the search in the background while a user continues
to read. KWQ delivers on this goal, although version 1.X
will not provide Boolean logic. This feature is in the
future for KWQ, because as a BBS-er I want this feature!.
4. Take advantage of OS/2-specific features whenever possible,
including advanced approaches in graphical user interfaces
to reduce the time you spend waiting for something to
complete (multithreaded architecture).
Hopefully, BBS-ers will see the value in providing these features,
as well as providing "traditional" offline reader functionality.
System Requirements
KWQ Mail/2 is a 32 bit application for OS/2 2.X. Therefore to run
this application, you must have at least the minimum requirements
set by IBM for OS/2, which is 4MB of system RAM and a 386 or 486
Intel or Intel-Compatible processor. Realistically, however, many
feel that 6MB of system RAM is needed to run OS/2 2.X properly, and
it strongly suggested that this be a working minimum for your
system to run KWQ Mail/2 as well. KWQ Mail/2 allocates virtual
memory to load each mail packet, so you may experience "swapping"
to disk on systems with lesser amounts of memory or with reading
extremely large mail packets. A future release of KWQ Mail/2 will
allow you to bound the virtual memory needed to run the application
within some user-specified limits.
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 5
KWQ Mail/2 has been tested and verified to work well with versions
2.0 and 2.1 of OS/2, including the 2.0 + Service Pak upgrade..
Terminology
For some people, the terminology used in this document and BBS-ing
in general will seem like a foreign language. We will try to clear
up some of the potential confusion.
A mail reader is an application that looks at mail packets
downloaded from an Electronic Bulletin Board, commonly called a
BBS. A mail reader allows the user to read his/her mail and compose
replies to messages for a later upload. Typically a user will join
a conference or forum on a BBS which will contain messages and
conversations between people on a certain topic. Once the user has
read mail and replied to messages offline, the reply mail is
uploaded and it becomes part of the stream of messages in a forum.
The term QWK refers to a specification for mail packets that is
used for downloading mail from many popular BBSes. Mail packets
obtained from BBSes are usually contained in files with the
extension .QWK. (eg. OS2SHARE.QWK). KWQ is the name of the
software you just obtained.
Quick Installation
Installing KWQ is easy. Unpack KWQ (usually delivered in .ZIP
format) to a subdirectory. You should have the following files:
KWQ.EXE Executable
KWQMAIL.HLP Help resource
KWQMAIL.DOC KWQ Mail/2 Documentation (this file)
README.1ST Last minute information
TAGLINES.KWQ Sample tagline file
TWITFILT.KWQ Sample twit filter file
BUGFIXES.DOC Latest fixes
WHATS.NEW Version history
ORDERKWQ.FRM Registration form
KWQ builds an INI file the first time it is run, so there is no
manual step to editing initialization parameters. Simply type
"KWQ" on the OS/2 command line, or install a "Program Reference"
object into the Workplace Shell and run KWQ Mail/2 from its icon.
If you do create a program reference for KWQ Mail/2, be sure and
supply the current directory where KWQ is installed.
Once you have KWQ running, it will initially open a Product
Information banner, and then follow with a "Open QWK Mail Packet"
dialog. This is the dialog that is used to choose a mail packet to
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 6
open. Chances are, you probably want to setup KWQ first, so press
"Cancel" and click on the "Setup" menu.
Under the Setup menu there are a number of choices for configuring
your mail reader. Changing these options causes KWQ to create an
INI file with your personalized configuration settings. To
configure KWQ Mail/2, choose the menu "Setup->Options..." to view
the KWQ Mail/2 setup notebook. This notebook is comprised of
several pages which divide up the configuration options available
in KWQ Mail/2. To start reading mail immediately, you must change
two options. First, under the "General" notebook page, you must
change the path for "*.QWK File" to point to the directory (and
optionally directory mask) where KWQ Mail/2 will look for QWK Mail
initially. Second, you must configure KWQ Mail/2 to point to the
proper archival utility for packing and unpacking the mail you
receive. The "Archivers" notebook page allows you to specify the
paths and parameters to each archiver utility.
Follow the next few steps for a quick setup of KWQ:
- Enter in the path to the "download" directory your
communications program will put downloaded files. This is
where KWQ will look when asking for .QWK mail packets. Also
enter in the path to the "upload" directory. This will be
where KWQ will place reply packets. Both options are found
in the "General" notebook page.
- If the packets you have downloaded are in ZIP format and you
own PKZIP or a zip-clone, enter the appropriate paths for the
programs for the "Zip Unpacker" and "Zip Packer" options in
the Archiver notebook page. If these programs are in your
default path, don't change anything (KWQ should default to
having these in your Paths dialog). Other archiver formats
are available in the same dialog.
Go ahead and look at the other options in the setup notebook. The
General page contains yes/no choices to many configuration options
you may want, as well as configuration options for your paths on
your hard disk. The Replies page contains options for setting up
how mail replies are treated. The Arhivers page contains
configuration paths for all archival utilities used within KWQ
Mail/2. The Header/Footer page contains options for automatically
adding message portions to the beginning and end of messages when
you create replies. Using the Font and Color pages affect how
messages will be displayed, and setting the "Sort" option displays
how the messages will be sorted in the "messages" dialog (more on
this below).
Upgrading from Version 1.0
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 7
Many new options have been added to KWQ Mail/2 version 1.2 over
that of version 1.0. Some of the options are not stored in the 1.2
INI file in the same way as the previous version, so upgrading may
cause some customization of KWQ Mail/2 to be lost. The font
setting for the message display is likely to be needed attention if
you choose to view in the non-default font. Please see the section
below on how to setup the fonts in version 1.2.
It is a good idea to completely reconfigure KWQ Mail/2 when
upgrading from version 1.0 or 1.0C by deleting the KWQMAIL.INI
file.
Upgrading from Version 1.1
For users of version 1.1 of KWQ Mail/2, upgrading to version 1.2 is
very simple. Simply save a copy of your KWQMAIl.INI file, and copy
the contents of your KWQ Mail/2 distribution file to a directory
and restore the INI file. All your customization settings will be
saved.
Getting Help
KWQ Mail/2 contains an extensive help system. Help is simply a
single keystroke away by pressing F1 in any context in the
application. In addition, there are a few special help screens
available by menu choice. These include the "Help Index",
"General Help", "Help For Keys", "Using Help", and "Registration
Information."
The Toolbar
The KWQ Mail/2 application contains a fast access button toolbar at
the top of the window. There are four groups of buttons visible,
grouped according to functionality. The first group, for file
management, contains the open packet, save message, and print
message buttons. The next group, dialog management, contains two
buttons for opening the messages and conferences dialog,
respectively. The next set buttons is more "miscellaneous", and
provides buttons for search, bookmark, steal tagline, write new
message, and reply/edit reply. The last group of buttons are used
for message browsing, and contain the buttons for next/previous
subject, next/previous message, and page up/page down. The subject
buttons are functional only if KWQ Mail/2 is configured for a
Subject or Thread sort.
If you forget what a toolbar button's function in life is, simply
press mouse button 2 on the toolbar button, and you will see a
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 8
description of the function provided at the bottom of the KWQ
Mail/2 screen.
Opening a Packet
Once KWQ Mail/2 is configured, it is quite easy to open and unpack
a mail packet. Simply choose the "File->Open" menu choice if the
application is running, or by default KWQ Mail/2 prompts you with
the "Open QWK Mail Packet" dialog when it is first run.
The open packet dialog is a modified version of OS/2 2.X's common
dialog. It contains a window replacement for the file list
display, which includes the file and date stamp of the files
listed, as well as the file size in kilobytes (K). In addition to
the file open choice, you may choose to delete a packet listed by
hilighted the file, and then pressing the "Delete" button. You
will be prompted to confirm your request.
Following OS/2 conventions, the file details display in the OS/2
dialog can also be used to rename the listed files. Simply press
your mouse button 1 down on the file you wish to rename while
holding the Alt key down. The file display will turn into an edit
field, and you may rename the file to your liking.
When a QWK file is chosen using the "Open" button, a subdirectory
is created underneath the current directory (called .\KWQMAIL.$$$)
where the packet will be unpacked. When the unpacking is complete,
KWQ Mail/2 reads the "CONTROL.DAT" file and the "MESSAGES.DAT" file
to decode the message data. KWQ does not use the "XXX.NDX" index
files that are in the packet, instead, KWQ reads the entire packet
into memory and re-indexes it at load time. This method has proven
to be much quicker under OS/2 2.X than doing the work to read the
individual index files. The name and configuration of the BBS the
mail was downloaded from is determined from the CONTROL.DAT file,
and the reply path is checked for a file called "BBS.REP". If this
file exists, it too is unpacked and the messages in it are
displayed under the conference "Replies."
Choosing a Conference
After opening a packet, a dialog will appear with a list of
conferences in the mail packet. The conference dialog contains a
number of buttons: "Goto" , "Cancel", "Add" and "Drop". Choosing a
conference in the list and pressing the "Goto" button with the
mouse will make the chosen conference active. Alternatively, The
you may choose to "double-click" an item in the list box with the
mouse, which causes a "Goto" action to occur.
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 9
Each conference shown will display the number of messages in the
conference for the mail packet you are reading. A percentage read
field is shown, so that conferences which you have read messages in
will appear with a non-zero percentage read field. In addition, the
conference ID assigned by the host BBS the mail came from appears
on the far left of each list item.
The conferences dialog can also be used to add or drop a conference
from your BBS mail packet, provided the BBS you dial into supports
Add/Drop.
The conferences dialog may be called up at any time to browse
another conference by choosing the menu "Message->Choose
Conference". If you like keyboard hotkeys you can hotkey to this
dialog by pressing <Ctrl>-C, and use the arrow keys to scroll
through the list of conferences. When you have highlighted the
conference you wish to look at, simply press Enter.
The Messages Dialog
After a conference is chosen, KWQ displays the first message
available in the chosen conference. The message order is chosen
using the "Setup->Sort Order" menu, and the messages dialog
displays messages in a conference by this sort order.
To bring up the messages dialog, choose the menu "Message->Choose
Message", or press the INS hotkey. The dialog displays each
message's number assigned by the BBS or conference, the person who
wrote each message, the person the message is addressed to, and the
subject of each message. Selecting a message and pressing the
"Goto" button will jump to that message. Just as in the
Conferences Dialog, double clicking on an item in the messages list
will cause the "Goto" action to occur.
For message browsing purposes (and for people with a high
resolution monitor) an optional "Keep Dialog Open" selection can be
made. Choosing this option allows a user to jump to a message, but
still keep the message dialog open for continuing a browse. This
may be useful in hardware configurations that allow for a large
screen display, where the messages dialog could reside at the
bottom of the screen, and the main window reside at the top.
Pressing "Cancel" or <Esc> will close the dialog, whether the "Keep
Dialog Open" choice is marked or not.
Mouse Conventions
To speed up access to the messages and conferences list dialogs,
KWQ Mail/2 responds to specific types of mouse actions as
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 10
"accelerator" features. First, pressing Button 2 (usually the
right mouse button) anywhere on the KWQ Mail/2 main window will
open the messages list dialog. Second, by pressing a mouse
"chord", pressing buttons 1 and 2 together, anywhere on the KWQ
Mail/2 window, you will bring up the conferences list. This will
allow you to rapidly browse a set of messages within KWQ Mail/2.
Configuration/Setup Options
KWQ has a host of features that may be saved as part of its INI
file. Most setup options are saved after opening the "Setup-
>Options..." notebook dialog and pressing the "Save" button. If at
any time inside the options notebook you are unsure of what a field
or switch is for, you may press F1 or the Help button within the
dialog to receive context sensitive help.
There are 6 different notebook "pages" within the options notebook,
each having a separate category of setup information. These pages
are: General, Replies, Archiver, Header/Footer, Colors and Fonts.
Each of these pages is described in detail in one of the following
sections.
General Notebook Page
The General notebook page is a combination of "Yes/No" type
configuration toggles and paths setup. These configuration
options include:
General Options
- Beep on My Mail. This causes KWQ Mail/2 to sound an
alarm if a mail message is read and addressed to you.
- Use Twit Filter. When this option is on, KWQ Mail/2
will filter out all messages from or to a given user.
User names appear in a file specified in the "Paths"
dialog, one per line.
- Use Internal Editor. When this option is on, KWQ Mail/2
will not use the external editor defined in the
Files/Paths subsection on the General setup page.
Instead, when creating a new message or replying to a
message KWQ Mail/2 will open its internal editor for you
to write your new message or response.
- Conference Jumping. Configure KWQ Mail/2 to
automatically goto the next conference with messages
when reading the last message in a conference and a
"next page" command is requested.
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 11
- Save Bookmark On Mail Packet. This option applies to
more than bookmarks (discussed below). It also applies
to which messages have been read, what the current
conference is and which message you a currently reading.
- Save Window Settings On Exit. Turning this option on
causes all the windows and dialogs to save their current
size and position. You may want to leave this option on
until you have a setup you like, and then turn it off.
- Always Append On Save. Turning this option on answers
the question "Do you want to append or replace?" for you
without prompting when you save a message to a file that
already exists.
- Strip 'Re:' Subject Prefixes. Remove all 'Re:' type
prefixes from message subject lines for readability.
Note that if this option is turned off, KWQ Mail/2 will
still ignore these prefixes when sorting on the subject
field. This is for cosmetic purposes only.
Files/Paths
This subsection contains configuration options for accessing
tools and files on your hard drive.
- *.QWK Files. This is the path to which KWQ will look
when showing the open packet dialog.
- Replies. This is the path KWQ will place packed reply
mail.
- Save Message To. This is the default file name where
KWQ will save messages.
- Tagline File. This is the full path to a file containing
sample taglines, one per line, in plain ASCII. These will
be used when composing replies.
- Twit Filter File. This file contains twits you'd not like
to hear from.
- External Editor. The name of the external editor you have
installed on your system. Default is E.EXE. Your
external editor may be an OS/2 or DOS batch file (.CMD or
.BAT).
A note on batch files and your external editor. KWQ creates a
subdirectory called ".\KWQMAIL.$$$" underneath the subdirectory
where the KWQ.EXE executable is placed. This is the subdirectory
where KWQ will place the quoted reply file, called "REPLY.MSG,"
when calling the external editor. If you wish to create a batch
file that will call the external editor and perhaps call a spell
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 12
checker afterward, use this path and filename as the input to
your programs. Take care to ensure that the output of the whole
process maintains the "REPLY.MSG" file name.
Replies Notebook Page
The Replies notebook page contains many setup options that
control how messages are handled when creating reply messages.
There are three subcategories in this page: Reply Options, Reply
Quoting, and Taglines.
- Expand Tabs. This option is used to configure KWQ Mail/2
to expand tabs to a certain number of spaces whenever a
messages is created and a real tab character is used.
- Autoformat Replies. This option is useful when when the
editor you use does not automatically line-wrap the text.
The OS/2 system editor, E.EXE, falls into this category,
as well as the internal editor, since they both depend on
the OS/ 2 multiple line editor control. Selecting this
option tells KWQ Mail/2 to make each line fit into the
number of characters specified in the edit field next to
this option. This edit field is labeled "N Characters Per
Line"
- Reformat Lines That Start With A Blank. Turning this
option on will tell KWQ Mail/2 to allow lines it
interprets to start with a blank to be line wrapped if
Auto-Format Replies (see above) is turned on. If this
option is turned off, then you can avoid any formatting by
placing a blank at the beginning of each line you do not
wish to be reformatted.
- Create Case Insensitive Replies (Upper Case). Selecting
the upper case option is useful if the BBS you receive
your mail packets from requires the use of upper case
formatted mail.
Reply Quoting
- Quoting Type. Four types of quoting are supported. The
first type uses the initials of the person quoted with a
greater than symbol. For example, 'KW> '. The second
simply uses the greater than symbol, and the third turns
the quoting feature off. The fourth option allows you to
create custom quote masks, using the keyword "%i" to
allow you to insert the recipient's initials. For
example, you could supply the custom quote mask " [%i]
" which might expand out to be " [KW] ".
Taglines
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 13
- Use Taglines. KWQ will not use taglines if desired.
However, the demo/shareware version of KWQ will always
place taglines with the "KWQ/2" banner at the bottom of
the message. Once you have registered KWQ, you may
choose to turn off this feature.
- Pick Tagline At Random. If this option is chosen, when
a new reply is composed or a message written, the
message information dialog will appear with a tagline
chosen at random with in the multi-choice list box.
The taglines are read from a file that is designated
within the "Paths" dialog.
Archivers
The Archivers notebook page contains configurations
options for accessing archival programs for packing and
unpacking mail packets. Any of the following programs may
be either OS/2, PM, DOS or Windows, and may also be batch
files for either OS/2 or DOS (.CMD or .BAT files). These
configuration options include:
ZIP Unpack/Pack
LHA Unpack/Pack
ZOO Unpack/Pack
ARJ Unpack/Pack
ARC Unpack/Pack
A note on batch files and the unpack process. KWQ creates
a subdirectory called ".\KWQMAIL.$$$" underneath the
subdirectory where the KWQ.EXE executable is placed. This
is the subdirectory where KWQ will look for files that are
unpacked. If you wish to create a batch file that will do
the unpacking and other chores, ensure that the output of
the unpack process places the files in this subdirectory.
Header/Footer Notebook Page
You may choose to add text to the beginning and/or the end of
messages you create with KWQ Mail/2 by configuration a header
or footer in the Header/Footer Notebook page. In this
section, you specify substitution keys that tell KWQ Mail/2 to
pull portions of the message you are replying to into the
message you create.
The substitution keys provided are the following:
Full Name Of Recipient %r
Full Name Of Author %a
First Name Of Recipient %o
First Name Of Author %i
Mail Address Of Author %n
Current Date %c
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 14
Current Weekday %u
Actual Percent Sign %%
Message Subject %s
Message Date (mm/dd/yy) %f
Message Month (mm) %m
Message Day (dd) %d
Message Year (yy) %y
Message Weekday %w
Message Conference %e
Message Number %b
By using one of these substitution keys, you may give the
recipient (or anyone else who may read your message) a better
idea about the past conversation history. For example, by
using the header On %w %f, %a wrote to %r about '%s:', KWQ
Mail/2 could expand this string to: "On Wednesday, 4/28/93,
Kurt Westerfeld wrote to Melanie Kim about 'Love and War'."
Colors Notebook Page
Color can be applied to eight different window components
within KWQ Mail/2. Four of these are specific to the display
of the current message and include:
Message Background The background color of the message
display window
Message Text Normal The color of normal text of a message
Message Text Quote The color of a quoted portion of a
message
Message Text TaglineThe color of a tagline portion of a
message
The remaining components whose color may be changed are the
detail list view portions of the four subdialogs within KWQ
Mail/2:
Message Dialog Background
Bookmark Dialog Background
Findlist Dialog Background
Conference Dialog Background
To change one of the listed colors, simply select its radio
button and choose a color from the 16 shown. If you wish to
use a custom color for one of the listed colors, open an OS/2
Color Palette and drop one of the colors on the large color
example display on lower right of the setup page. Optionally,
you may drop the color you wish to change onto the message
display or any of the listed dialog subcomponents. This will
only change the background color of these components, however.
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 15
Fonts Notebook Page
A number of facilities for changing fonts within KWQ Mail/2
exist. The Fonts notebook page contains a set of radio buttons
and the OS/2 standard font selection dialog which name eleven
different components of KWQ Mail/2. Choosing one of the radio
buttons at the top of the notebook page will cause the lower
half to display the font assigned to that component of KWQ
Mail/2. You can change this component's font by using the
standard font selection dialog.
The components you may change for KWQ Mail/2 you may change
from the Fonts notebook page are:
Main Window Set the font for the entire main
window
Message Text Set the font for just the message
display text
Internal Editor Set the font for the internal editor
Foundlist Dialog Set the font for the found list dialog
window and dialog components
Foundlist Details Set the font for the found list
dialog details view list
Message Dialog Set the font for the message
dialog window and dialog
components
Message Details Set the font for the message
dialog message details view list
Bookmarks
Dialog Set the font for the bookmark
list dialog window and dialog
components
Bookmarks Details Set the font for the bookmark
list dialog details view list
Conferences Dialog Set the font for the conferences
dialog window and dialog
components
Conferences Details Set the font for the conferences
dialog details view list
System default fonts and any outline fonts (Adobe fonts)
loaded into the system will appear in this dialog. Generally,
outline fonts can be supported for any pitch value. Some
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 16
fonts displayed in larger pitch values will cause KWQ to
activate the horizontal scroll bar for the messages window.
You may also change a font selection in KWQ Mail/2 by opening
an OS/2 Font Palette object and dragging and dropping a font
onto the window or subwindow you wish to change.
Message Sort Options
Message sort options (the order in which the messages will be
displayed in the messages dialog) are controlled by choosing
the "Setup->Sort" menu. There are 6 different sort methods:
from, to, subject, date, message, and thread. All of these
should be self-explanatory, except for thread which is a
variation on message sorting. Thread sort attempts to maintain
ordering based on the message number, with a secondary sort
based on the reference number (the numbered message that a
message may refer to).
Packet Component Options
KWQ can be configured to automatically display certain mail
packet components that may be added to your mail by your host
BBS. These configuration options include the automatic display
of the mail welcome, mail news, mail files, and mail good-bye
components. To set these options, choose the "Packet->Show
Automatically" menu choice, and select the components you wish
automatically displayed. Changes to these menu choices will be
saved between sessions.
Print Setup
To setup your default settings, choose the menu choice "File-
>Print Setup...". A dialog will appear listing each printer
object you have defined in your system. To make a printer the
default printer for KWQ Mail/2, simply select it in the list.
You can change the default job settings by pressing the "Job
Properties" button. Another dialog will be displayed, this one
specific to your printer.
Two other options are provided for different print needs. The
first is an option to "Print Raw", which will send the message
text to the printer in a line printer mode with carriage
returns. To use Adobe or other outline fonts to print, choose
"Outline Fonts" and press the "Set Font" button to set the font
for printing.
Finding Text
Support for finding text within the message base is fairly
sophisticated, with more support on the way. Text can be searched
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 17
over the 'From', 'To', or 'Subject' fields, as well as the actual
subject matter. Searching can be done without regard to case
(check 'case insensitive search'), and whole words can be matched
or simply parts of words. You may also choose to search the
current conference or search across all conferences.
To search for text, choose the 'Find->Start Find' menu choice, or
choose the hotkey 'F'. The find dialog will appear. Specify the
text to search for in the "Text" field, and choose the message type
you wish to search over. Other options include checking the "Case
Insensitive Search" box, which causes text to be searched for
without regard to case sensitivity, and checking the "Match Entire
Word" box, which causes a search for the string you specify to be
delimited by a space or punctuation character.
A search is started by pressing the "Find" button or by typing
<Enter>. A status of how many messages found appears in the lower
right hand corner of the KWQ main window. Once all the messages
are searched, KWQ shows a dialog containing a list of all the
messages found by your search criteria. This dialog behaves much
in the way the Messages dialog does (described above). To jump to
one of the listed messages, simply select and item and press
"Goto", or double click one of the listed items.
The "Found List" dialog can be shown at any time by choosing "Find-
>Found List", or by pressing the hotkey combination "<ctrl>F."
If you currently have a found list activated by the find message
utility, you may choose to see the next message found in the found
list by choosing "Find->Next Message", or likewise see the previous
item by choosing "Find->Previous Message." Hotkeys for these two
choices are 'N' and 'P', respectively.
The found list is cleared when the mail packet is closed.
Replying to Messages
Replying to a message you are currently reading is simple. To
start a reply, choose the "Message->New Reply" menu choice, or
press the hotkey "R." If the Paths dialog (described above) is
configured properly for you external editor, KWQ will be able to
create a quoted reply message and start the editor of your choice.
Depending on whether you have KWQ Mail/2 setup to use its internal
editor, an external program may or may not be called up to allow
you to write your message or reply. The internal editor is faster
opening up because it is not a separate program to run, and has
some other nice features specific to writing replies (quoting,
etc).
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 18
After making changes to the message and saving the changes, exit
the message editor. KWQ will bring up a message detail dialog box
if you are configured to use an external editor. If you are using
the internal editor the dialog box for the editor will be
integrated with the message detail dialog box. This dialog box
contains information about the reply you have composed, including
your name ('From'), the person you are replying to ('To'), the
subject you are talking about ('Subject'), the conference the
message is in ('Conference'), and an optional message tagline
('Tagline'). To change any of the fields (except Conference),
simply type over the supplied text. To change the conference the
message will appear in, use the selection box down arrow to see the
other conferences KWQ knows about. Choosing any other conference
within this list changes the conference the reply will appear in.
Tagline support is optional, although with the demo version of KWQ
taglines are always forced on, if only to display the KWQ Mail/2
banner. To choose a tagline click on the "down arrow" of the
selection box. This selection box is filled with taglines that
appear one per line within the file specified in the "Paths"
dialog.
Tagline selection can also be set into a "random" mode via the
"Toggles" setup dialog (described above). Tagline selection can
always be overridden.
Editing A Reply
You may make changes to any message you have composed by choosing
the "Edit Reply" menu. To do so, open the Conferences dialog,
choose the "Replies" conference, and find the message you wish to
change. To change the message, you must have the reply "active"
(you must be reading it). Choose the menu choice "Message->Edit
Reply", or use the hotkey "E" . At this time, your external editor
as defined in the "Paths" dialog will be brought up with your
message. You may then make changes to the message and save them,
at which time KWQ will open the message details dialog as described
above. You may make changes to any field within the message
details dialog, including changing the conference the message will
appear in.
Killing A Reply
If you decide you do not wish a reply to be integrated into the BBS
message stream when you upload a reply packet, you may choose to
remove a reply from the list of replies for a packet. To do so,
open the Conferences dialog, choose the "Replies" conference, and
find the message you wish to remove. To remove a reply, you must
have the reply "active" (you must be reading it). Choose the menu
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 19
choice "Message->Kill Reply", or use the hotkey "K" to remove the
reply.
Writing New Messages
Writing new messages is very similar to the previous section
described for making replies to messages. The only difference is
that no message is initially quoted within your editor, and fewer
fields are filled out in the message details dialog.
Internal Editor
For people who wish to simplify the creation of new messages, KWQ
Mail/2 provides a simple text editor to create messages, called the
"internal editor." To setup and use the internal editor, open the
settings notebook General page, and choose the check box marked "Use
Internal Editor."
The internal editor has three major sections. The first section
starting from the top of the window are a set of buttons which give
quick access to commonly used functions within the editor. The
second section is referred to as the message envelope, which
contains entry fields to allow you to enter the addressee, subject
and conference for the message you are writing. The last section is
the area where you type the body of the text. If you are replying
to a message, this area may be divided into two parts: one for the
original message and one for your reply.
Quick Access Buttons
Save Pressing this button closes the editor and saves
any changes you have made to your message.
Cancel Pressing this button or the escape key will
abort editing your message. Any changes you
have made to the message envelope or message
text will be lost.
Quote When replying to a message, try selecting an
area of the original message and pressing this
button. The text you have selected will be
copied to the message you are editing along
with the quoting style you have selected in the
Replies page of the setup notebook.
Note that if you do not have selected text in
the original message that all of the text is
quoted. This is a change from Version 1.1,
which gave you a Quote and Quote All button.
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 20
Import This button allows you to open a file for
importing into your editing session.
Cut Pressing this button causes any text selection
you have made in the message you are editing to
be removed and placed in the workplace
clipboard.
Copy Pressing this button causes any text selection
you have made in the message you are editing to
be placed in the workplace clipboard.
Paste Pressing this button causes text in the
workplace clipboard to be copied to the message
you are editing.
Message Envelope
The message envelope contains standard entry fields and
pull down lists to aid in creating the information needed
to address a message to someone. If you have the message
sort setup to be Thread or Subject, you can use the pull
down added to the 'To:' field to see a list of people
listed in the current thread when creating a reply.
Message Text
The message text display uses the standard Presentation
Manager text editing facility, which includes the ability
to cut, copy and paste using the keyboard. A list of
keyboard strokes that can be used in the message text
editor are listed below in the section titled "Key
Mappings."
If you are replying to a message, the window for editing
the text is divided into a portion for the original message
and a portion for typing your message. The small border
between the two sections can be used to size the two areas.
Your pointer should change shape to a sizing pointer when
it is placed over this horizontal bar. Clicking and
dragging this border with BUTTON 1 will cause the text
areas to be resized.
Packet Components
Many electronic bulletin boards offer the ability to add extra
files to a mail packet for you to review offline. KWQ Mail/2
offers the ability to detect the presence of these extra files and
display them as requested. In addition, KWQ Mail/2 can be
configured to automatically display components of the mail packet
when you open your mail.
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 21
Each mail packet generator may not generate each packet component
that KWQ Mail/2 can show. Also, some mail packet generators allow
for different components to be included in the mail packet. Your
mileage may vary.
Use the choices on the Packet pull-down to display:
Information
Display information about the mail packet you are viewing.
Information shown in this dialog are the size
(uncompressed) of the mail packet (the sum of the size of
all the messages), the number of messages in the packet,
the number of pending replies for this BBS, the number of
conferences in the packet, and the date and time the packet
was created. In addition, information may be supplied about
the BBS the packet was downloaded from, including the name
of the BBS, the Address, the "Sysop", and the phone number.
Welcome
Display the BBS welcome screen. Some BBS-es will supply a
"welcome" file which will display a logon screen that a
user would see when logging on to the system.
News
Display the BBS news screen. Some BBS-es will supply a
"news" file containing all the latest information about the
BBS.
Bulletins
Display the current BBS bulletins. Bulletins may be
provided by the BBS to show detailed information about
services the BBS is providing, interesting trivia,
statistics, etc.
Files
Display a list of the newest files provided by the BBS.
Many BBS-es contain support files and shareware for
downloading.
Session
Display the host mail session screen. Some mail generation
doors will send a view of the mail session results included
in the mail packet. This screen may contain summary
information about the packet you have downloaded.
Goodbye
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 22
Display the logoff screen. The "Goodbye" screen may have
interesting twists, sayings, statistics about remaining
time available, etc.
Automatically Show
KWQ Mail/2 may be configured to automatically show the
Welcome, News, Files or Goodbye screen. Choose any of
these menu choices as a "toggle:" if the menu choice is
selected, it will automatically display one of the above
screens, if it is deselected, the screens will only be
shown if manually selected.
Changes made to any of the "Automatically Show" settings
will be saved between KWQ Mail/2 sessions.
NOTE: Many of these mail components are provided in ANSI" screen
format, and while KWQ Mail/2 can handle most of these, the
ANSI support used by KWQ is what the base operating system
provides. Some "garbling" may occur of the more fancy
displays.
Bookmarks
When a message or set of messages is deemed important by you, but
you'd like to continue reading elsewhere within the packet or
perhaps close the packet and reread it at another time, a
"bookmark" can be made to the message base for jumping back to a
previous position.
To add a bookmark, choose the "Bookmark->Add" menu choice or press
<Ctrl>A. A message will appear at the bottom of the screen
indicating that the message has been marked.
A list of bookmarks is kept that is similar to the messages dialog
described above. Choosing "Bookmark->List" or pressing <Ctrl>B
will bring up this dialog, and you may return to the previously
saved position in the same manner as the messages dialog.
There is no limit on the number of bookmarks in a message packet,
and the bookmarks are saved along with the packet if KWQ is
configured to do so.
You may choose to save all of the messages in the bookmarks list to
a single file you specify. To save the marked messages, choose the
menu choice "Bookmarks->Save To File...".
Packet Configuration Files
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 23
There may be times you wish to create messages for a particular BBS
and you do not have a packet to open in order to create the BBS.
To get around this problem, you may save a particular BBS
configuration and later open this configuration file to write
messages, create a reply packet, and then upload the packet. BBS
configuration files are stored with the name of the BBS and the
extension ".BBS".
To save a BBS configuration, open a valid QWK packet file, and then
choose the "File->Save Packet Configuration" menu choice. You can
later open this configuration file by choosing "File->Open Packet
Configuration", which will effectively open an empty packet. You
can then choose to write a new message and perform all the
functions of a regular mail packet.
Key Mappings
A summary of the key mappings for KWQ follows:
Open Mail Packet Ctrl-O
Close Mail Packet Ctrl-Q
Pack Replies Ctrl-Z
Save Message Ctrl-S
Quick Exit Alt-X
Write New Message W
Reply To Message R
Edit Reply E
Start Find F
Next Found Item Ctrl-N
Previous Found Item Ctrl-P
Found List Ctrl-F
Next Message <enter> or '+'(plus)
Advance Message <space>
Previous Message <-> (minus)
Next Subject Tab
Previous Subject Shift-Tab
Read Reply Ctrl-R
Drop Bookmark Ctrl-A
Bookmark List Ctrl-B
Steal Tagline Ctrl-T
View Message In ANSI Ctrl-V
Message List <Ins>
Conference List <Del>
Scroll Message Down <down>
Scroll Message up <up>
Scroll Message Right <right>
Scroll Message Left <left>
Page Message Down <pgdn>
Page Message Up <pgup>
Top of Message <home>
End of Message <end>
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 24
Many of the key combinations are intended to be similar to those
made popular by message readers under the "other" operating
system.
The following key mappings exist inside the internal editor:
Save Message Alt-S
Quit Messaage Esc
Quote From Message Alt-Q
Quote Whole Message Alt-T
Cut To Clipboard Alt-C
Copy To Clipboard Alt-O
Paste From Clipboard Alt-P
Delete Line Alt-D
Cut To Clipboard Shift-Del
Copy To Clipboard Ctrl-Ins
Paste From Clipboard Shift-Ins
Select Text Right Shift-Right
Select Text Left Shift-Left
Select To End Of Line Shift-End
Select To Beginning Of Line Shift-Home
Enhancements For Version 1.2.
1 Revovering from a crash is now bullet-proof with respect to
messages you write. Any time you create a message within KWQ,
the file BBS.MSG is created in the .\KWQMAIL.$$$ directory.
This is basically a QWK compatible file that has all the
messages you write. If your system crashes (or God forbid, KWQ
does), you will no longer lose any cruicial work. You have two
options: 1) open KWQ and let it read this file and it will
prompt you if you want to recover it, 2) Zip the file into
BBS.REP and upload it to your Bulletin board.
2 Sped up display of message display dramatically through use of
different drawing APIs.
3. Configuration option to have KWQ ignore "\n " type of lines
during reformatting of reply text.
4. Show message in ANSI viewer.
5. Bulk marking messages to save to a file. Bookmarked messages
can now be saved to one file.
5. Zip replies on demand.
6. Better handling of non-standard, sneaky tagline positioning
when stealing taglines.
7. Allow first name of author, first name of reciepient, current
date, current weekday, current conference, current message
number to be put into message header or footer.
8. Place "All" in the "To:" portion of the message envelope.
9. Saved searches. KWQ now remembers the last 10 searches you did
in a combo box for quick access.
10. Allow user to expand tabs in internal editor to n characters.
11. Page Down/Page Up buttons added to top of KWQ Mail/2 window.
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 25
12. Allow user to insert file to KWQ (text) in the internal editor.
13. Header and Footer are seperate notebook pages in the setup
dialog for purely esthetic reasons.
14. Tagline initialization is now on a thread, since really large
tagline files can cause KWQ to be sluggish when you first open
the application.
15. File Time is now displayed in packet open dialog.
16. Read reply hotkey and menu choice added.
17. "Delete line" key added (Alt-D, for Brief Users) for internal
editor.
18. Option to strip 'Re:' crap from all message subjects.
19. Option to automatically jump to next conference.
20. Option for file name expansion for save. This is a late
breaker. Use any of the header and footer expansion characters
in your save file specification, and KWQ will expand these into
a file name when you save the message. For instance, use %e to
save messages to the current conference name.
21. I don't know why this is critical, but many people asked for
it. KWQ now displays the file name for the packet that is open
in the main title.
Bugs/Anomolies Fixed in Version 1.2
1. Quoting within the internal editor will now ignore previously
quoted text when autowrapping.
2. Page down will now display the right portion of the message
(shows last line of previous page at top).
3. Printing now prompts the user to setup the print font when
doing a print with outline fonts without ever setting up the
outline font to print with.
4. Conference "Ghost" dialog occurs using 9 Lives desktop
expander.
5. Can't use TAB character in MLE for internal editor--you now
have the option to expand tabs (an enhancement, too).
6. Headers/Footers should be available on write new.
7. 0x1a character occassionally showing up at end of file.
8. Handle quoting with names > 2 parts ("Paul von Keep").
9. Inserting very large messages crash KWQ using an external
editor.
10. Saving messages sometimes caused a floating point exception.
11. Saving large messages (like "Frequently Asked Questions) would
sometimes crash KWQ.
12. User bookmarks not saving properly. Saves first item in list
over and over.
13. Information dialog does not have enough space for BBS name with
long title.
14. "D:\" is not a valid path for QWK files or replies files.
15. If spooler is disabled, printing causes KWQ to shutdown.
16. Install program prompts for directory, and then forces the
directory to upper case.
17. Conference rollover not working properly--would not display the
right conference sometimes.
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 26
18. Fix add/drop conferences.
19. Enable keyboard only setup--you can now setup KWQ without
having a rodent to use. To switch from the notebook control
tabs to the internal tabs, use Alt-Up and Alt-Down. Pressing
enter saves the changes, pressing esc aborts.
20. Close box in internal editor does not prompt user to save
changes.
21. Reply packet creation code would fail with paths that contain
trailing blanks.(ie-Path = 'c:\up ' )
22. File open dialog should use file mask that user setup.
23. Fixed crash with paging backwards within a find list very
quickly.
24. Private messages now use proper private marker ('*' instead of
'~').
25. Better handling of current message in message list. KWQ now
goes to great lengths to keep the message you are currently
viewing current within the message display list.
What is KWQ, and What Does KWQ Mean?
Great, by now you've figured out that KWQ is QWK spelled
backwards. The letters KW are the initials of KWQ Mail/2's author,
Kurt Westerfeld. Ergo, KWQ means Kurt Westerfeld's QWK Mail.
KWQ was developed using WorkSet/2, the 32 bit development
environment from IBM (using C Set/2), the Borland C++ Compiler For
OS/2, Q Edit, and GNU RCS.
Registration and Support
At this time there will be no phone support for KWQ Mail/2
offered. If demand requires it, phone support will be added at a
later date.
Registration and support for KWQ Mail/2 is available by contacting
the author directly at one of the following addresses:
U.S. Mail: 7935 Tyson Oaks Circle
Vienna, Virgina 22182
Compuserve: 71501,3175.
Internet: 71501.3175@compuserve.com
Fido Netmail: Kurt Westerfeld, 1:109/347
(Pete Norloff's OS/2 Shareware)
Fido OS/2
Conference: Kurt monitors the OS/2 conference on an
almost-daily schedule, so if you have access
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 27
to this conference, you may post here.
However, this is not recommended or suggested
practice, as the message traffic in this
conference is fairly high. If you can,
please send "Netmail."
Direct BBS: You may post a message to Kurt Westerfeld in
the "Local Area" conference on Pete Norloff's
OS/2 Shareware bulletin board, at (703) 385
4325.
Please see the file "ORDERKWQ.FRM" for information about what to
send in to register KWQ Mail/2. When you register KWQ Mail/2 you
will be provided with a registration number that enables you to
"unlock" the initial Product Information screen, and disable its
automatic action when KWQ Mail/2 starts. A similar registration
number is provided to each registered user; sharing this number is
prohibited and is considered a violation of copyright.
KWQ Mail/2, Version 1.2. Page 28
