 
 Under the Hood"I've Been SLiMeRed!"by Michael Hahn
 

        With a QWK packet in your hot little hands (figuratively 
    speaking), you're ready to read it, right?  Not quite.  You need 
    an offline mail reader that'll handle the QWK format.  You're in 
    luck--there are many.  They range from simple to complex, free to 
    relatively inexpensive.  They have names like Speed, Jabber, 
    Offline, KingQWK, PowerQWK, OLX, and SLMR.  For the sake of 
    simplicity, I'll deal with the last two.
        SLMR (Silly Little Mail Reader) and OLX (OffLine eXpress) are 
    first cousins.  The author of SLMR (affectionately known as 
    Slimer), Greg Hewgill, had his services and his product purchased 
    by Mustang Software Inc., the makers of the WildCat! BBS package.  
    SLMR got a facelift and a new name, and was released by Mustang as 
    OLX 2.1 in January of 1992.  The last version of the shareware 
    product SLMR, 2.1a, is functionally indistinguishable from 
    Mustang's commercial OLX 2.1.  The differences between the two are 
    minor, mostly a matter of whimsy.  SLMR's exploding piglets and 
    twit list are replaced in OLX by exploding windows and skip list.
        So much for history.  Check the files directory of your 
    favorite BBS for SLMR21A.ZIP or OLX21TD.ZIP--these archives 
    contain the programs and documentation for SLMR and OLX.  (OLX is 
    a Test Drive, hence the TD, because Mustang has subsequently 
    released an OLX 3.0 . . . but it's a whole 'nother kettle of 
    fish.)
          For the sake of discussion, let's use SLMR.  (It's what I 
    started with.)  Create a new directory on your hard disk called 
    \SLMR or \READER, or even \ANTWERP, and unpack the archive into 
    it.  The important parts are the two executables, SLMR.EXE and 
    SLME.EXE.  The first is the reader program; the second is a very 
    simple text editor for creating replies.  Type SLMR and hit 
    `enter'.  A screen will ask you to hit a random function key--this 
    is the shareware program's only "nag".  This is bypassed in the 
    registered version, which brings us to a "bad news/good news" 
    situation.  SLMR can no longer be registered.  That's the bad 
    news.  The good news is there's a text file detailing a patch to 
    bypass the `Fn to continue' screen.  Listen to your conscience--if 
    the F-key isn't much of a problem, forget it.  If it drives you 
    bonkers, find a friend with a registered version who's willing to 
    part with his SLMR.ID file, or find the SLMRFIX.ZIP.
        Once past the opening screen, hit Alt-C to bring up the 
    configuration menus.  Most of them are self-explanatory, and the 
    whimsical documentation for SLMR is worth a read even if you don't 
    need it.  The executables for SLMR and SLME, the text editor, can 
    be safely compressed with an executable compressor like PKLITE or 
    LZE.  With the programs compressed, I've run SLMR on everything 
    from a 360K floppy in a two-floppy XT, to the hard disk of a 
    Compaq 486.
        SLMR is easy to use, and there are many SLMR users out there 
    in BBSland, so help is easy to find if you get stuck.  I do have a 
    couple of tips, though.  SLMR will handle packets only as large as 
    available conventional memory.  This amounts to about 200K, or 
    about 700 messages.  Most mail doors will allow you to limit the 
    number of messages in each packet.  Unpacking to a RAMdisk will 
    greatly speed up the operation of the reader, but you must make 
    sure the RAMdisk is large enough to accomodate the unpacked files.  
    The expanded messages are roughly four times the size of the 
    compressed packet.  The configuration file for SLMR is called 
    CONFIG.MR, can be found in the same directory as SLMR.EXE, and can 
    be edited with any ASCII editor.  This is a useful thing to know 
    in case you mis-configure SLMR in such a fashion that it won't 
    start up.
        SLME is not necessarily the best editor for answering mail, 
    and there are a lot of accessory programs available to "enhance" 
    your replies.  In the next installment, I'll talk about 
    configuring alternate editors and using accessory programs.

                                  -end-
                       Copyright (c) 1993 Michael Hahn
