GUS === ARGUS ===== Syntax: GUS [] GUS is a GEM based shell for mail and news reading and writing. The user interface is somewhat based on RN, NN and ELM for UN*X. GUS can be controlled with either the keyboard or the mouse. GUS, being a GEM program, needs GUS.RSC. It searches for this file on the path. If you don't specify a username, you will be prompted for one. This is the idea behing GUS: You can, and should, double-click it from the desktop. GUS lets you set some options in the options dialog (keyboard shortcut '?'), among them: An editor to be used instead of the standard editor as named in CONFIG.SYS. Thus, you can use a GEM-based editor under GUS and a TOS-based editor otherwise. A cite prefix. "> " is customary but a bit dull. Sort order for news articles. GUS can sort the articles by subject or by article number. The "Default" buttons recall the default settings for the option to the left of the button. The bottom "Default" button resets all options, not just one, to the default settings. Options are saved in the file GUS.OPT in your home directory if you so choose. The viewer supports ROT13 for dirty jokes. You [de]activate ROT13 mode with the TAB key. If you save a file from the viewer, it as always saved as you see it, ROTted or not, with converted special characters and tabs. Same goes for printing. All windows can be closed with the UNDO key. The viewer (!) can be used to reply to news articles or mail. So you can save a mail message to a file, and later view that file and reply to the message. If you want to write a reply or follow-up, you can include the original message if you press 'R' or 'F', or use the mouse. If you press 'r' or 'f', the original message will not be included. To write mail, use 'm'. To write news, use 't'. This is for "tell the world". The newsreader is activated with 'n', and the mail reader with 'o' (for "open mailbox"). You can only use one reader at any one time (i e you have to close the newsreader before you can read mail and vice versa). You will see a selector menu from which you can choose a line with the cursor and return keys (or the mouse). You can also use the space bar to go the next unread message or news group, thus spending all day pressing the space bar and reading (the space bar pages the viewer, closing it at end-of-file too). You can open other mailbox files with 'b'. If GUS tells you that a mailbox file is locked, and you know for sure that no other program that has it open is running, reset the "read-only" attribute of that file. GUS lets you use several mailbox files. To append a mail from your regular mailbox to any mailbox file, activate the "Append to mailbox" function. Do NOT use the "Append to file" function because that appends the text as a user-domain text while you want a network-domain text. You do not need to view the mail in order to append it to a mailbox. In fact, doing so is counterproductive (because memory is wasted: it is copied to memory twice) and therefore discouraged. In much the same way, you can append news articles to mailbox files. In this case, a dummy "From " line is inserted (to make the article look like a mail message). You can also use this function to copy mail messages or news articles to a file without conversion to the user domain. 'j' ("junk") marks a message as read, 'm' ("mark unread") does the opposite. The newsreader can 'u' ("unsubsribe") news groups. To subscribe to a previously unsubscribed group, select and open it. This is also the way to undelete mail messages that you deleted with 'e' ("erase"). The mail messages will not be erased before you leave the mail reader. The viewer can extract ('x') files from messages. That means to copy just the body, between the header and the signature. The signature must be separated from the mail body with a line beginning with "-- ". You can save a file (as is, with headers and all) with 'c' ("copy to file") or 'a' ("append to file"). If you append to a non-existing or copy to an existing file, you will be asked what you want to do. In analogy to 'x', there is 'y' and 'z'. 'y' extracts and uudecodes, 'z' extracts and atob'es. 'y' askes you only for a directory because uuencoded files have an embedded file name whereas btoa'ed files do not. You can edit any file with the '*' shortcut. You can push a shell with '!' or call one with 's'. The difference is that after return from a called shell, mail/news readers and viewers remain closed, but after return from a pushed shell, they reopen. This leaves less memory for the shell. When you open a newsgroup, and many new articles have come in since you last opened it (or indeed if you open it for the first time), it will take a while for GUS to update its article database. If you want to update all groups at once, rather than each one as you open it, pick "Update all groups" from the News menu, or press '_', after you have opened the newsreader. This will possibly take a LONG time, so you can relax and have lunch will GUS is working. There is a "clipboard" integrated with the GUS viewer. It is rather rudimentary as of now, letting you clip just one rectangular blocks of text from any view window. You can then view the clipboard, and since that is a regular view window, save it to a file, reply to it, etc. The clipboard has two special functions. If you clip just one line of text and activate the "Find string" function, GUS will copy that line of text into the search string edit field if it is short enough. That also happens to the "Other" field of the "Send reply" dialog if you activate that function. Each marked line is copied only once in this way. 'l', finally, lets you login as a different user.