How to communicate with Idefix
==============================

Whatever you want from Idefix, you have to address your message to
the pseudo-user "Areafix", and put your session password in the
subject field.

If you should forget to put your password in the subject field,
or put a wrong one there, Idefix will reply that it had to deny
access for you. However, if you do not address the message to
"Areafix" at all, you will never get any answer...


How to order an area
====================

In order to attach your system to an area, you have to send the
requested area's name to Idefix. If you order several areas, put
one area per line. Example:

TEST.STEPOUT
AMIGA.GER
AMIGA.EUR

For symmetry reasons with detaching from an area, you may also put a
plus sign (+) right in front of the desired area, but be careful not
to put a whitespace in between. Example:

+TEST.STEPOUT
+AMIGA.GER
+AMIGA.EUR

That's just as good as the first example.


How to cancel an area
=====================

In order to detach your system from an area, act as described for
ordering, but now put a minus sign (-) right in front of the area's
name. Here, too, there may be no whitespace in between. Example:

-AMIGA.EUR

Also, if you want to detach from several areas at once, list one
area per line.


But what areas are there??
==========================

Good question! In order to find out what areas there are (and in fact
what areas you have access to), just put the command

%LIST

on one line. Idefix will in return send you a list of all available
areas, together with a short description of what they are about.

For historic reasons, you may also put a "-L" after the password in the
subject field.


Got confused by all those areas?
================================

If you don't know what areas are attached to your system and what aren't,
there's an easy way to find out: Let Idefix send you a list of only
those areas that are active for you! You can simply do that by putting
a

%QUERY

on one line.

If, on the other hand, you would like to have a list of areas that you
are not currently attached to, write

%UNLINKED

on one line of your message.

For the same historic reasons mentioned above, you may also use a "-Q"
or "-U" resp. after the password in the subject field.


General conventions
===================

There isn't much to remember, only perhaps that you can state only
one command per line. If more than one word is found on a line, only
the first one will be processed, while the rest of the line will be
simply ignored. This comes in quite handy, if you activate or
inactivate areas by simply forwarding Idefix's own replies.

Area names and command names are all case-insensitive, i.e. you don't
have to worry about the caps lock key... Furthermore, you can put
as many commands in one message as you desire, there is no limit.
(However, commands like %LIST and %QUERY are only processed and replied
once per message, not matter how many times you stated them.)


What if you forget these commands?
==================================

If once you don't remember one or the other command, and you don't
have or find this help text anymore, you can always order another
one from Idefix. Simply send a

%HELP

and you will be sent a new copy of this text (or an updated one).

Again, for historic reasons, this can also be achieved by a "-H"
after the password in the subject field.


What else?
==========

Nothing. That's all. For the moment, that is. ;-)