The following docs are for the *FormLetter command that is part of
the menu.  They're a good deal rougher than the rest of the ProteoFido
documentation because this routine's not really part of ProteoFido, but
since it's in the default script, I figured I'd include it.


*FormLetter command
-------------------

When you choose this command you will have to pick a file from those
in the BBS:FormLetters directory (you can list those files at this
point if you like).  The files there should be formatted as follows:

---------------------------------------------------------------
FromName
ToName
Subject
Flags
Body
---------------------------------------------------------------

where:

  FromName is the name of the person the message is from (duh!)

  ToName   I wonder if you can guess?  :)

  Subject  (Why am I writing up docs for this stuff anyway?)

  Flags    is a string which can contain the following characters and
           thus turn on the following flags:
              P   Private
           (so far that's the only one implemented--are there more that
           you think would be useful?  If so let me know)
           If it contains none, just leave the line blank.

  Body     can be as long as you like; it's the rest of the file.

  Dashes   aren't really there, they're just used to show the edges of
           the file above, don't enter them into the file


All strings (except Flags) can include two special things:

 [ProteoVariables] which will be replaced as usual, such as [Name]
    or [CurrMsgArea] or whatever

 Query-variables which as you can see are surrounded with  (I
    get these with alt-9 and alt-0).  Whatever's between them will
    be displayed to the user as a question, they type a string in
    reply, and the string is dropped in in place of the whole phrase.
    Kinda like those Mad-Libs paper games you used to do.  The whole
    question has to fit onto one line.

NOTE: Query-variables are dealt with BEFORE [ProteoVariables], so that
means in response to a Query you could actually type a string containing
one or more [ProteoVariables] and they would still get interpreted!  Why?
I don't know.  He's on third, and I don't give a darn.  If that's not
enough, note that you can even reply to a Query-Var with a string which
contains one or more Query-vars as well as [ProteoVariables] and all
will still be interpreted.  This is almost certainly never going to be
useful--why would you answer a question by entering something that just
tells the computer to ask you another question?  By the way, you can't
nest Query-Vars and attempting to do so will cause you to get an error
message, weird results, and a nasty rash on the backs of your knees.

By the way, as usual, \[ and \] insert brackets.  I have no character to
insert  or  because they're 8-bit and you shouldn't probably be using
them anyway.  Even if you allow 8-bit characters in messages, you're not
likely to need THESE characters in a FORM LETTER and if you do, feel free
to change the scripts.


For instance:

---------------------------------------------------------------
[Name]
To whom?
Poor participation ratio warning
P
It appears your participation ratio is getting very low.  According
to the system records you have written [MsgsPosted] messages,
read [MsgsRead] messages, uploaded [BytesUploaded] bytes, and
downloaded [BytesDownloaded] bytes.  If you don't improve your
participation ratio, I will have to What will we do to this twit? you.
---------------------------------------------------------------

(NOTE: this is absurd, as those [ProteoVariables] would refer to the
person WRITING the message, who is after all the person loaded when
this happened, rather than the addressee, but I'm just trying to make
a point here, all right?  Good?  Then sit back down.)

If this were run, the screen might look like this:

+-----------------------------------------------+
| Form letter file (? to list): ParticipWarning |
|                                               |
| To whom? J. Random Luser                      |
| What will we do to this twit? shoot           |
|                                               |
| Form letter sent.                             |
+-----------------------------------------------+

and the resulting message would look like this:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Frank Perricone
  To: J. Random Luser
Subj: Poor participation ratio warning
When: 18:29:05 24 Mar 1993             Priv
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
It appears your participation ratio is getting very low.  According
to the system records you have written 2 messages,
read 4 messages, uploaded 753 bytes, and
downloaded 146983201 bytes.  If you don't improve your
participation ratio, I will have to shoot you.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Disclaimer: improperly formatted formletter files will probably cause
the script to puke.  That's because I can trust myself to write the
files right.  If users could do this, I'd make it bulletproof, because
users are beings that (by definition) constantly exude bullets.

