PMail 2.0.2 should be considerably more reliable than 2.0.1; while I have not as yet completely eliminated the System Error 25 problem noted in the file "Important Release Note" supplied in this archive, I have largely worked around it. I now believe it to be related to an optimization problem in ThinkC v5 and am attempting to find a long term fix.
Other additions or changes in this release:
* A message count indicator now appears in mailboxes.
* A new command has been added to the File menu ╤ "Read new mail", which is accelerated by pressing Cmd-R. This command will open the new mail folder, or if the folder is open, it will make it the frontmost window and force it to rescan for new mail.
* PMail/Mac will now recognize system-wide folders and lists: they must be located in the directory named for system-wide address books using "General Setup" in PMail Config. Note that PMail/Mac will simply ignore any entry for another list in a system-wide list if the entry is in PMail/PC format (that is, @filename). To nest lists with PMail/Mac, you should use the long name of the list enclosed in smart quotes. PMail/PC version 2.35 and later will ignore Macintosh list names, so it is safe to include both formats in a system-wide list.
* Reply-to-all: A new option has been added to the reply dialog which allows you to send a reply to everyone who received the original message. PMail does this by creating a distribution list with the name "Temporary list", which will subsequently appear in the distribution list selector, and may be deleted if no longer desired. Note that using reply to all will result in you receiving a copy of the message yourself, since you were one of the original recipients.
* The behaviour of the Shift and Cmd keys has changed in lists: the Shift key now allows disjoint selections, while the Cmd key now does a range selection. This change has been widely requested, although the opposite behaviour is what Apple recommend, and in fact is the default behaviour of the Mac List Manager toolbox routines.
* New keywords in lists: you can use a number of new keywords in distribution lists to control the behaviour of the list. Keywords appear on their own on a line, and always start with a single '\' character at the start of the line. While this mechanism is not very Macintosh-like, I couldn't think of any way of doing it that was... The new keywords are as follows:
\CC all addresses following this line will be placed in the message's CC field
\BCC all addresses following this line will be placed in the message's BCC field
\TO all addresses following this line will be placed in the message's TO field
You can use \CC, \BCC and \TO as many times as you wish in a list - the effect is cumulative.
\READING Y or N - if Y, then the "request confirmation of reading flag in the message is set, otherwise it is cleared.
\DELIVERY Y or N - if Y, then the "request confirmation of delivery" flag in the message is set, otherwise it is cleared.
\URGENT Y or N - if Y, then the urgent flag for the message is set, otherwise it is cleared.
\NOSIG Y or N - if Y, then no signature will be appended to the message, otherwise it will be.
As well, several minor parsing bugs have been fixed, and general performance improved.
Missing from this release:
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I had hoped to implement new mail filtering rules (a la PMail/PC) and forms handling, but pressure of time has made this impossible. The next release of PMail/Mac will be in March or April 1993, and will support the following:
* Forms
* Basic MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) support
* Resizable windows
* User-defined gateway support (a la PMail/PC)
* A built-in POP3 transport for sites with MacTCP
* Newmail filtering rules
* A more attractive user-interface.
Bug reports and suggestions to david@pmail.gen.nz (or from CompuServe, >internet:david@pmail.gen.nz).
