** 0.5 page ideas feature / 451 words **

Suggestive remarks!

Mike Kerslake kicks off a new series designed to stir programmers into action...

How many times have you wished there was an easy-to-use GEM utility to help you with a particular task? The aim of this series is to encourage programmers to develop ideas into fully-working programs. As part of its ongoing commitment to promote the Atari platform the ACG is interested in finding suitable projects to support and develop.

Here's a few features programs must include:
** bulleted list **
* GEM interface
* Compatible with both single and multi-tasking OS's
* Resolution independent - from ST high upwards
* Colour depth independent - from mono to at least 256 colours
** end list **

Software may be programs, desktop accessories or CPXs, whatever is most suitable for the job.

The first idea is for an intelligent email address notebook. Most on-liners write lots of emails and for people we keep in regular contact with we usually have a recent email posting handy which can be used as a 'reply to' template. However, when trawling through Usenet postings, websites, printed magazines and so on there's no easy way to keep track of these and most on-liners I know end up with loads of scribbled Post-It notes and the resulting desktop chaos.

It would be nice to have an address book which can be used to jot down email addresses, along with a name and maybe a few extra details and then be able to manipulate these details into useful lists. For example, alphabetical by name, or by Internet Service Provider (ISP), or even by type of address *.com, *.co.uk, *.edu and so on. Naturally options to output the lists onto paper for easy reference and to send them electronically to the correct fields in applications would be desirable.

Email addresses are built up in stages and routines to analyse and sort addresses using the '@' and '.'(dot) separator symbols could be developed to sort them into lists in any desired format. Here's the general idea:

Mike Kerslake - publish@zetnet.co.uk
Atari Computing - ataricomputing@cix.co.uk
Titan Designs Ltd - 100345.2350@compuserve.com
Roy Goring - rgoring@zetnet.co.uk

By ISP order
ataricomputing@cix.co.uk
100345.2350@compuserve.com
publish@zetnet.co.uk
rgoring@zetnet.co.uk

By real name order
Atari Computing - ataricomputing@cix.co.uk
Mike Kerslake - publish@zetnet.co.uk
Roy Goring - rgoring@zetnet.co.uk
Titan Designs Ltd - 100345.2350@compuserve.com

Okay programmers, that's the idea now take it away, send us the goodies and we'll take a look.

If you have an idea for a program and can't understand why it hasn't been developed already please send it to us as (ASCII files on disk preferred) and we'll either be able to point you towards an existing program or maybe print it here...

** Captions **
** LNC.GIF **
Look 'n See includes a module to sort text files alphabetically - but it doesn't understand email addresses