Category : OS/2 Files
Archive   : ATP07OS2.ZIP
Filename : ATP.DOC

ATP(1) ATP QWK Mail/News Reader ATP(1)


NAME
atp - a program for reading/archiving QWK format mail
packets, and replying to messages therein.

SYNOPSIS
atp [ bbsname | bbsname.qwX ]

where bbsname is the name of the QWK packet with extension
omitted OR the long form "bbsname.qwX" where `X' is any
valid filename character, typically the letter `k' or a
digit in the range 0-9.


DESCRIPTION
ATP is used for reading and replying to messages contained
in QWK mail packets which are available through public
access bulletin boards. ATP evolved from an earlier reader
set forth by Rene Cougnenc which he called `AzerTyuioP'
(the name `AzerTyuioP' is the top row of keys on a French
typewriter). ATP has greatly enhanced and expanded upon
the functionality of its predecessor, and has diverged on
its own path of development. But like its predecessor,
ATP still maintains a a bi-lingual framework so that ATP
may be compiled for French language use also. ATP also
includes the Rich Salz & Simmule Turner emacs-style com-
mand line editor with command history. Note that this is
covered by a separate copyright.

Upon starting ATP, you will be presented with a command
prompt. This prompt will show the current active BBS and
the conference. At any time you may type `help' at the
command prompt to receive a summary of commands. ATP also
functions as a mini-shell allowing you to enter many com-
mon UNIX commands at the prompt.

A BBS will typically carry topical news conferences. By
using an offline mail reader such as ATP, one may dial up
a BBS, start a program known as a mail door, and quickly
gather the current news for reading and replying to
offline by use of a mail reader. There are several formats
for offline mail packets but QWK is the most common. Some
of the more popular QWK mail doors which produce these
packets are Qmail, Markmail, Jimmer, and TQM. ATP can han-
dle QWK packets produced by any of these doors so there is
no need to worry which one to use.


FEATURES
In addition to reading and replying to mail, ATP maintains
archives of past messages. These can be reviewed at any
time. As new QWK packets are loaded, they are immediately
added to the archives. Pointers to the last read messages
are maintained. Loading a new mail packet will not reset
these pointers. Reading will resume with the last read



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message in each conference. By entering a number at the
command line, the pointer will move to that message num-
ber. In this way you can move backward and forward among
the messages at will. Typing 'reset' resets the the cur-
rent message as the last message read. The 'clean' command
provides a means of maintaining and pruning message bases.

ATP will support 8192 conferences per BBS and message size
of up to 180,000 bytes. This is roughly 3000 typical lines
of message text. Note that these limits are somewhat arti-
ficial, and are easily changed should the need arise. The
8192 conferences per board is a limit set for backward
compatibility with some older mail doors. Your tagline
file can hold many thousands of taglines, essentially no
limit for most purposes. Taglines are stored in a plain
text file.

Other features include the ability to scan message head-
ers, a tagline management system, support for FIDO or reg-
ular style taglines, personal mail notification and per-
sonal mail conference, the ability to search messages for
strings, a separate conference for replies, kill and
change security on replies, tagline selection by random,
automatic, or direct means, hooks for a spelling checker,
powerful command line editing with history recall.


COPYING AND NO WARRANTY
ATP is copyrighted free software provided WITHOUT warranty
of any kind, NOT EVEN the implied warranty of mer-
chantablilty or fitness for any particular purpose. Use at
your own risk. ATP may be used in any way you wish so
long as you comply with the provisions of the Free Soft-
ware Foundation GNU General Public License. Essentially
this means that you *MUST* provide the source code along
with any source code which you have derived when you pass
on binaries. You can not withhold the rights which you
yourself have been granted. Please type `show terms' from
ATP's command line for a display of warranty disclaimer
and pointers to pertinent documents. This software should
have come with a copy of the GNU General Public License.
You may obtain a copy of this license by writing to:


Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
675 Mass Ave,
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.


ENVIRONMENT
ATP looks for certain environment variables: SHELL, HOME,
and ATP. The SHELL environment variable must properly
reflect the path to your shell. The HOME environment vari-
able reflects your home directory path. Normally your



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command processor shell will automatically set the SHELL
and HOME variables for you. The ATP environment variable
is optional, but it is highly suggested that you use it
nonetheless. You may set this to a directory path differ-
ent than your home directory if you wish, and ATP will set
up shop there. Generally you would want the ATP environ-
ment variable to be a path to a subdirectory off of your
home directory. Use a descriptive name such as `atpmail'
or `qwkmail' for this directory.


SHELL SYSTEM COMMANDS
When at the ATP command prompt, you will be able to exe-
cute many common Unix commands directly: cat, cd, cp,
echo, df, du, less, ln, lpr, ls, man, mkdir, more, mv,
pwd, cwd, rm, rmdir, set, sort, sync.

Under the MS-DOS version the following commands are avail-
able: cd, chkdsk, copy, del, dir, md, mem, more, mkdir,
print, rd, rmdir, set, sort, type, xcopy.


CONFIGURATION
Before using ATP for the first time, you will have to edit
its configuration file which you may call either `atprc'
or `.atprc' . This file contains a list of information
which tells ATP where to find your mail packets, what edi-
tor to invoke for entering messages, how many lines your
screen has. Below is a typical configuration file. IMPOR-
TANT! A space must reside on either side of the `=' sign
for correct parsing to take place. After you have edited
your 'atprc' configuration file, don't forget to put it in
the same directory as pointed to by the ATP environment
variable, or your home directory.
-------------------------------------------------------
user = PAUL DRAKE
editor = vile
reply = /usr/spool
mail = /usr/spool
archiver = zip -jk
unarchiver = unzip -xjo
speller = ispell
ansi = on
bell = on
color = on
graphics = on
charset = latin1
screenlen = 25
screencol = 80
qlist = ls -lt *.qw? | cut -c 34- | less
blist = ls -lt blt* | cut -c 34- | less
tagstyle = fido
tagline = Why buy a cow when the milk is free?
autotag = on



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workpath = /tmp
truncate = 50
pcb = on
header = off
------------------------------------------------------


user
Your name goes here. It must be spelled exactly as it
appears on the bulletin boards where you are regis-
tered.

editor
The name of the editor which you will use to edit
your replies.

reply
This is the path to your directory where you keep
reply packets for uploading.

mail
This is the path to your directory where downloaded
message packets are kept.

archiver
This is the name of the program used to prepare your
reply packet for uploading. Normally this is zip.
When using Info-Zip, the switches `-jk' tell zip to
create zips without pathnames and to emulate PKzip.
These switches aren't absolutely needed put could be
helpful in certain situations. Please acquire the
most recent versions of zip and unzip for your system
which is compatible with the BBSs you frequent. The
Info-Zip package is highly recommended.

unarchiver
This is the name of the program used to extract the
data files from your QWK mail packets. Normally this
would be unzip. When using Info-Zip, the switches
`-xjo' tell unzip to extract files while junking path
names, and to overwrite existing files without
prompting. These switches may not always be necessary
but may be helpful in certain situations. Use appro-
priate switches for the brand of archiver you are
using.

speller
This line defines the name of the spelling checker
you wish to use to check the spelling of your
replies. Ispell is recommended because of its inter-
active design. It is available in source code form at
or Brodmann's Place BBS via ftp from
prep.ai.edu:/pub/gnu. See end of document for Brod-
mann's BBS phone number.



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ansi This configuration switch can be set to either `on'
or `off'. It defaults to `off' but most users should
set this to `on'. This controls the placing of the
cursor on the screen and other screen attributes.
Note that if 'ansi' is set 'on' you must have a ter-
minal capable of handling ANSI sequences. DOS users
will want to add DEVICE=ANSI.SYS to their config.sys
in order to use this. Many common terminals support
ANSI such as the popular VT102 and VT220 terminals.
The Linux console also supports ANSI, as do many
other PC unixes, and OS/2. So if you fall into any of
these categories, please set 'ansi' to 'on'.

bell This configuration switch can be set to either `on'
or `off'. It determines if ATP will use the terminal
bell. If you desire silent operation, set bell to
'off'.

color
ATP will support color on ANSI terminals. Setting
color 'on' will enable ANSI color. You must also have
the ATP 'ansi' variable set to 'on' also. If you
have a monochrome terminal you may find that setting
color to 'off' gives a more readable screen. Experi-
ment and see.

graphics
When graphics is set to 'on' ATP will use vt100 line
graphics characters to emulate the DOS line graphic
character set. Linux users will want to set this
'on'. If your terminal or system console is unable to
display the vt100 line graphics set then set this
'off'. If you want to see if your terminal is capa-
ble of displaying vt100 graphics, type the command
'graphics' at the ATP command line. It will toggle
this mode on and off, displaying a boxed message. If
you toggle graphics 'on' and instead of a pretty
graphics box on a reverse field you view an ugly box
composed of q's and a's then you may safely assume
that your terminal will not support vt100 line graph-
ics. Note: not all vt100 class terminals have the
line graphics option. Note too that line graphics is
independent of which character set you choose. If
your terminal uses the msdos character set and dis-
plays it correctly, there is little point in choosing
this option. However, just because your operating
system is running on a PC, DO NOT assume that is uses
the MS-DOS character set.

charset
Most QWK packets use the MS-DOS character set to rep-
resent foreign language and graphics characters. How-
ever most Unix systems do not recognize the MS-DOS
character set mappings. If your system does then you



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should set charset equal 'msdos' and 'graphics' to
'off'. If your terminal or console uses ISO standard
LATIN1 character set (e.g. Linux) then you will want
to set charset equal to 'latin1'. If your system is
unable to display any 8 bit characters you will want
to set this to '7bit' (8 bit characters will then be
mapped to their closest 7 bit counterpart). Please
see the file "atprc" for more details. Here are some
suggested settings:


Table 1. Character Set Options for atprc Variables
---------------------------------------------------
system | charset | graphics
| |
Linux | latin1 | on
| |
386bsd | msdos | off
| |
VT100 | 7bit | on
| |
generic | 7bit | off
| |
MS-DOS | msdos | off
| |
--------------------------------------------------


screenlen
This configuration setting tells ATP how many lines
your screen uses. This depends on the type of video
card which you are using and also on the type of ter-
minal emulation which you have selected. Valid
entries are in the range of 3 to 300. If ATP is
unable to automatically detect your screen size, it
will fallback to these values.

screencol
This configuration setting tells ATP how many columns
your screen uses. This depends on the type of video
card which you are using and also on the type of ter-
minal emulation which you have selected. Typical
entries are 80 columns. Some terminals will support
132 columns too. If ATP is unable to automatically
detect your screen size, it will fallback to the
value you specify here.

qlist
Used for listing QWK packets. This configuration
entry is a command line which will be executed any-
time you type `qlist' at the ATP prompt. ATP will
change to your mail path directory and execute this
command line. The example here when invoked will list
all the quick packets in your mail directory sorted



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by time and only displaying the size, date, and name
of the packets. It is piped into `less' which is the
GNU version of `more'. You may delete this entry or
modify it if it doesn't do what you want. A simple
default entry is already set internal to ATP.

blist
ATP can display bulletins delivered with the mail
packet. The 'blt' command uses the string specified
here, passing it to the shell to list your bulletins.
You will want to modify this entry depending on your
operating system. After you have viewed the list of
available bulletins, view a bulletin by typing its
name at the command line.

tagstyle
This switch sets the default style used in your mes-
sage taglines. It defaults to normal. By setting
this to `tagstyle = fido' atp will start up using
FIDOnet style taglines. See later section on taglines
for more information.

tagline
This is used to set your persistent tagline which can
always be called back immediately from the command
line. See section on taglines for details.

autotag
By default, ATP will randomly select taglines for
your replies. The taglines are stored in the text
file taglines.atp in the same directory as your
atprc. Automatic selection of taglines may be turned
off from the command line or by setting autotag to
"off".

workpath
This option is not usually needed. However, if you
need the ATP work directory to be on some particular
path or drive specify it here. Dos/Os2/Windows users
can specify a disk drive by specifing the drive let-
ter. See example in `atprc'.

truncate
Under ATP there is a "clean" command that will put
you into maintenance mode for your message bases. One
of the options is to truncate a message base to the
most recent messages. This option sets the default
truncation length. This truncate option can be
changed during the maintenance process if the need
should arise.

pcb The BBS known as PCBoard supports long subject lines
as of PCB 15. If you would like to have long subject
lines then set this option on. Note that not all QWK



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readers will be able to read your entire subject line
because most readers are limited to 25 characters.
But generally there should be no problem. Note that
if you use the RIME network that you should not use a
long subject line when entering a routed message,
i.e. a message where the first line must read some-
thing like ->156<-. If this option is enabled and you
enter a reply subject line less than 25 characters in
length, behavior defaults to normal QWK conventions.

header
When replying to a message, ATP generates a reply
header which mentions the author of the message being
responded to. If you wish to have no headers then set
the header option off in your `atprc'.


COMMAND LINE EDITOR
ATP uses the Rich Salz and Simmule Turner command-line
editor. This provides a simple but powerful emacs-like
command-line editing interface to its users. Previous
commands may be recalled by scrolling through the command
history with the arrow keys. A line may be edited before
it is sent by typing either control characters or escape
sequences. A control character, shown as a caret followed
by a letter, is typed by holding down the ``control'' key
while the letter is typed. For example, ``^A'' is a con-
trol-A. An escape sequence is entered by typing the
``escape'' key followed by one or more characters. The
escape key is abbreviated as ``ESC.'' Note that unlike
control keys, case matters in escape sequences; ``ESC F''
is not the same as ``ESC f''.

An editing command may be typed anywhere on the line, not
just at the beginning. In addition, a return may also be
typed anywhere on the line, not just at the end.

Most editing commands may be given a repeat count, n,
where n is a number. To enter a repeat count, type the
escape key, the number, and then the command to execute.
For example, ``ESC 4 ^f'' moves forward four characters.
If a command may be given a repeat count then the text
``[n]'' is given at the end of its description.

Please see the man page editline.3 for more details. The
following are a list of the basic control characters and
commands:

^A Move to the beginning of the line
^B Move left (backwards) [n]
^D Delete character [n]
^E Move to end of line
^F Move right (forwards) [n]
^G Ring the bell



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^H Delete character before cursor (backspace key) [n]
^I Complete filename (tab key); see below
^J Done with line (return key)
^K Kill to end of line (or column [n])
^L Redisplay line
^M Done with line (alternate return key)
^N Get next line from history [n]
^P Get previous line from history [n]
^R Search backward (forward if [n]) through history for text
must start line if text begins with an uparrow
^T Transpose characters
^V Insert next character, even if it is an edit command
^W Wipe to the mark
^X^X Exchange current location and mark
^Y Yank back last killed text
ESC start an escape sequence (escape key)
^]c Move forward to next character ``c''
^? Delete character before cursor (delete key) [n]

Note: use the up/down arrow keys to recall previous commands.


COMMANDS SUMMARY
What follows is a summary of the commands available inside
ATP. The most important are: `load', `review',
`j',`n',`r', `e', and `scan'. These will be presented
first. Remember that you may always type `help' for a
brief summary of commands.

help The `help' command will display a brief summary of
available commands.

load [ bbsname | bbsname.qwX ]
This command is used to get a QWK packet from your
spool directory and load it into the reader for view-
ing. It takes one argument, the name of the BBS or
the explicit name of the mail packet. If you just
give the name of the BBS it will search for the
packet names `bbsname.qwk'. You may also name the
packet explicitly. In the above example the `X' rep-
resent the letter `k' or typically the digits 0-9,
although any printable character is valid. NOTE: If
you want to load a QWK packet with other than the
extension `.qwk' you must enter it explicitly. Exam-
ple: load zer0g.qw4

review bbsname
The review command is used for reviewing the BBS
archives previously loaded into the reader. It takes
one argument, the name of the BBS without any exten-
sion. DO NOT add the `qwk' file extension with this
command. The short form of this command is `rev'.
Example;




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review brodmann

rev running


A carriage return alone will read the next message.

j [conf. name | conf. number ]
The `j' command stands for `join' and it is used for
changing conferences. It must be followed by either
the conference name or the conference number.

n The `n' command will join the next active conference.

a The `a' command will display the current message
again.

+ The `+' command will go forward one message.

- The `-' command will go backward one message.

r The `r' command is used to enter a reply to the cur-
rent message. Be sure you have chosen your tagline
before entering `r'. You will be prompted allowing
you to change the reply information. When prompted
for security you may answer `n' or `r' which respec-
tively stand for `none' and `receiver only' (private
message) security.

c The `c' command is used to enter changes to a previ-
ous reply. This command Is valid only in the replies
conference. It will re-invoke the editor for the cur-
rent message. The old message is killed along with
its tagline. The tagline active at the time this com-
mand was invoked will be the new tagline for the
edited reply. Note that that in the context of the
reply conference, the `e' command has the same effect
as the `c' command--change reply.

p The `p' command is used to toggle message security
between "private" and "public" for your reply mes-
sages. When a message is private, a warning to this
affect will be highlighted in the bottom right of the
message header.

e [(no argument) | conf. number | conf. name]
The `e' command with no arguments will enter a mes-
sage in the current conference. Again, choose your
tagline before entering your message. The `e' com-
mand may be followed optionally by the name or number
of the conference where you'd like to enter your mes-
sage. Upon invoking `e' you will be presented some
choice as to subject, addressee, and message secu-
rity.



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Note that this command behaves differently if the
current conference is either the REPLY or PERSONAL
conference. If you are in the PERSONAL message con-
ference, this command is completely disabled because
it makes no sense to enter a message in the personal
conference (you CAN reply to messages though--use the
`r' command). If you are in the REPLY conference,
this command will re-edit the current message. It
does not enter a new message.

head The `head' command will toggle the automatic reply
header on and off. The reply header is a sentence at
the top of a quoted reply message which will mention
the name of the author of the quoted message, who it
was written to, and on what date it was written. If
you don't want this style in your replies then you
may turn it off with the head command or just edit it
out when composing your reply.

reset
The `reset' command is used to set the conference
message pointer to the highest message which you have
read. It looks at the value of the current message
and resets the highest read pointer to that value.
This is useful if you wish to quit in the middle of
re-reading a conference but would like to save your
place marker.

scan Will scan forward from the current message displaying
message headers. You will be prompted after each
screen whether you wish to continue scanning.

qscan
Quick scan is the same as scan except it will only
display a single line abbreviated header.

conf The conf command will display a list of all available
conferences on a particular BBS.

ts The `ts' is text search command, an alias for `find',
see below.

find The `find' command will search the current conference
for any text that follows it. It is not case sensi-
tive. For example:

find paul drake

will display messages containing the text "Paul
Drake" or "PaUl dRakE" and so on. After finding some
text, use the `next' command to repeat the search.
Note that any spaces after the first one following
`find' are significant.
Thus,



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find paul drake

is NOT the same as

find paul drake

next The `next' command is used to repeat the search ini-
tiated by the `find' command. If your version of ATP
supports function keys, pressing F10 is equivalent to
typing this command.

qlist
The qlist command will display a list of all QWK
packets in your mail directory. See the configuration
section for details.

clean
The clean command will allow you to do maintenance on
your message bases. You will be able to delete,
truncate, or purge messages marked as killed. Use
the 'k' command while reading messages to mark a mes-
sage as killed. Set the default truncation length
for maintenance in your atprc. This number is change-
able from inside the clean command should you need
that flexibility.

! [options]
This command will shell you out of the program into
the system. Type `exit' to return. You may follow
this command with any valid command line which your
operating system will recognize.

cls Will clear the screen display

pcb Will toggle support for PCBoard long subject lines.

time Will display the current date and time.

date Will display the current date and time

fido The `fido' command will toggle the current tagline
style. See section on taglines for more information.

last The `last' command will display the end message in a
conference.

news The `news' command will display the current news file
from the BBS.

welcome
The `welcome' command will display the current
board's welcome message.





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files
The `files' command will display the new files list
from the current BBS.

blt The `blt' command will display a list of available
bulletins from the current BBS. To display a particu-
lar bulletin just enter its file name.

hello
The `hello' command will display the BBS Welcome mes-
sage.

goodbye
The `goodbye' command will display the BBS goodbye
message.

door The `door' command will display the BBS door id and
version (if it was included in the mail packet).

m The `m' command will toggle the ansi mode on and off.

g The `g' command will quit ATP.

q The `q' command will quit ATP. It is the same as the
`g' command.

s [filename]
The `s' command will save the current message to a
specified text file. If the file exists, the message
will be appended to the end.

tag The `tag' command is used to set tagline options. See
the section below on taglines for details.


TAGLINES
ATP supports either FIDO or regular style taglines. In
addition ATP uses three types of taglines: persistent,
run-time, list. You have 1 persistent and 1 run-time
tagline. Your list taglines must be kept in the file
"taglines.atp" which should be in the same directory as
your atprc. The purpose of the persistent tagline is that
it is always there for you to recall and use. You may
choose to use other taglines but the persistent tagline
will still be there when you want it. The run-time tagline
is one you yourself enter at the command line. Should a
bit of whimsy strike you, you can use it right away with-
out editing the tagline file. At any one time there is
only one active tagline which may be viewed by typing the
command `tag ?'. Before entering your message choose your
active tagline. You may pick from the list, use your per-
sistent tagline, or type a run-time defined tagline at the
prompt. You also have the choice of toggling FIDO or regu-
lar style tagline by typing the command `fido' at the



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command line. Here is a summary:

persistent
Defined after the `tagline =' statement in the con-
figuration file. This tagline is stored in a stack
with the run-time tagline. Typing `tag swap' will
copy the stack into the current active tagline. Typ-
ing `tag swap' twice in a row will roll the stack.
The persistent tagline is good for a tagline which
you regularly use such as one containing place of
message origin.

run-time
Defined at the ATP command line. If you feel like
adding an impromptu tagline just type `tag' followed
by your text.
Example:

tag Laurel and Hardy fan club

This will change the active tagline to:

...
* ATP/Linux 1.4 * Laurel and Hardy fan club.


list A list type tagline is just a tagline stored in the
plain text file "taglines.atp". If you have selected
the auto tagline feature, ATP will choose a tagline
at random from your "taglines.atp" file every time
you enter a reply. You may also type `tag random' at
the tagline to re-select at any time. Taglines may be
selected directly by typing `tag list' to view your
list of taglines, and then typing `tag N' to choose a
numbered tagline directly (`N' would be the number of
the tagline in the list as it is viewed). If you wish
to add or delete taglines from "taglines.atp" you
should use your favorite text editor.


TAGLINE COMMAND
The `tag' command is the basic command for setting and
changing taglines. ATP echoes any changes in tagline to
the screen so you may be certain as to what the current
tagline is. If in doubt, just type `tag ?'. Here are the
possible variations on `tag':


tag help
The `tag help' command will display the special help
menu for taglines.

tag swap
The `tag swap' command will swap move either the



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persistent or the run-time defined tagline into the
current tagline buffer. Any list defined tagline will
be removed from the buffer. Alternately typing `tag
swap' will toggle the current tagline between persis-
tent and run-time defined.

tag list
The `tag list' command will display a list of all
available taglines.

tag n
The `tag n' command will set the current tagline to
the tagline in the list designated by the number `n'.

tag ?
The `tag ?' command will display the current tagline.

tag auto
The `tag auto' command will toggle automatic tagline
selection ON or OFF.

tag random
The `tag random' will choose a random tagline for
you. It may be used with either automatic selection
disabled or enabled. The auto tagline mode itself
uses this command after every reply to regenerate a
new tagline. Try it out a few times to familiarize
yourself with it.

fido This is a command which toggles the tagline style
between FIDO style taglines and regular style. This
is provided because FIDOnet has specific rules about
tear lines and high ascii characters. Here is an
example of a regular tagline followed by an example
of a FIDO style tagline:

---
# ATP/Linux 0.3 # This is a regular style tagline.

...
* ATP/Linux 0.3 * This is a FIDO style tagline.



SPECIAL KEYS
With release 1.4 some support for special keys have been
added. This is still being developed and may change. If
you would like to try the special keys here are the map-
pings. Note: support now is only for vt100, Linux, and MS-
DOS consoles.

key command
-------------------------------------------------------------
help



ATP 1.42 04 Sept 1993 15





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tagline help
view taglines
list available quick packets
show terms of license
'next' for text search.
goto first message in conference [keypad upper left]
goto last message in conference [keypad lower left]
view messages in reverse order [keypad upper right]
view messages in forward order [keypad lower right]
'N' either 'next' or 'no' (depends on context)
recall previous command in history
recall next command in history













































ATP 1.42 04 Sept 1993 16





ATP(1) ATP QWK Mail/News Reader ATP(1)


HISTORY
Version 1.42 September 4, 1993 -- third release of ATP

This release sports improved `find' and `clean' com-
mands. The `clean' command now allows selective purg-
ing of messages that have been marked killed with the
'K' key. It also allows truncation of message bases
to the last 'n' messages. All in all a much nicer way
to maintain message bases. Derric Scott
([email protected]) provided the patches for
the improved `find' command which highlights found
text in reverse video. ATP supports messages up to
180,000 bytes in size (more than 3000 lines). The ATP
command line is now 8 bit clean and will accept the
so called "high ascii" and foreign language charac-
ters.

PCBoard long subject lines are now supported but this
is still experimental. Users may toggle this feature
with the `pcb' command from the command line. The
`blt' command displays a list of available bulletins,
then type the bulletin name that you wish to view. An
unknown individual provided patches for SCO which
also added the `qscan' command for a quick scan of
abbreviated message headers. Many bugs have been
fixed and efforts to greater portability have contin-
ued. OS/2 is now supported. Jim Gomes provided Win-
dows and MSC support. It has been reported that ATP
runs under the AMIGA but no patches were submitted
for inclusion in this release 🙁 Thanks to David Fox
for his bug reports and ideas.

Version 1.41 Spring 1993 -- beta testing release of ATP

Closed beta testing with interested individuals.

Version 1.4 November 1992 -- second release of ATP

Now ATP includes a separate conference for replies.
Replies may be killed with the `k' command or secu-
rity toggled with the `p' command. The `find' com-
mand and `next' command were added for text search.
The Rich Salz and Simmule Turner line editing library
is now included. This gives powerful Emacs style com-
mand line editing and history recall. Please check
the separate copyright notice regarding this library.
Three character sets are now supported: ISO Latin1,
7bit, and MS-DOS. On terminals which support vt100
line graphics, MS-DOS line graphics are translated
appropriately. In addition, for some terminals, spe-
cial function keys are now supported.

Limits on number of conferences per BBS is now set at
8192 with dynamic memory allocation for supporting



ATP 1.42 04 Sept 1993 17





ATP(1) ATP QWK Mail/News Reader ATP(1)


data structures. Message size limit has been
increased from 32K bytes to 150K bytes, roughly 3000
lines of typical message text. Limits on the number
of taglines have been removed. Taglines are now
stored in a separate tagline file "taglines.atp".
Taglines may now be selected randomly (automatically
or manually) as well as directly. Bug fixes and gen-
eral code cleanup also were done. Code has been
brought into stricter compliance with ANSI and POSIX
standards. Sorry K&R. No matter what your system GNU
GCC is recommended for compiling ATP.

ATP has been compiled and tested on a number of sys-
tems for this release including Esix, Linux, Sys5r4,
386bsd, and MS-DOS. For MS-DOS it is recommended that
D.J. Delore's port of GNU GCC be used. This is a very
nice compiler and it will compile Unix source code
very nicely. It requires a 386 or better computer.
ATP will also compile under the large model of Bor-
land's Turbo C but the limits are smaller.

Version 1.3 July 1992 -- first release of ATP

McWilliams. Character set translation DOS/Linux,
Linux/DOS. Personal mail alarm. Personal mail confer-
ence. Real reply headers, real time and conf. num-
bers. Command line processing. Improved command pars-
ing. Rewrite fget() to handle pathological con-
trol.dat files. Taglines and tagline management.
Ansi editing of entries. Replies queries: save,
abort, edit. Message header scanning. Bug fixes.
Improved message quoting. Correction of conference
Autojoin(); Tested under Linux 0.96c and Esix R.4.0.

Version 1.2 April 1992 -- first Unix/Linux port of Azer-
TyuioP.

Salazar. Unix-izing Dosisms. Conversion of path
names. Writing new string comparison functions.
Reworking system.c and system.h modules for portabil-
ity. First version to unarc packets and read them.
Improved handling of control.dat parsing. Introduc-
tion of array to track real conference numbers versus
conference ordinal numbers.

Version 1.1 November 1990 -- Cougnenc releases AzerTyuioP
code.

Cougnenc. Code to experimental QWK reader AzerTyuioP
is released for MS-DOS. Primarily useful as tool for
studying QWK packets. Cougnenc had no documentation
on the layout so this work was empirical in nature.
Includes both French and English capabilities, set-
able at compile time. Reader creates archives of



ATP 1.42 04 Sept 1993 18





ATP(1) ATP QWK Mail/News Reader ATP(1)


received messages.


THANKS
Many thanks to Rene Cougnenc for his AzerTyuioP from which
much of ATP is derived. Also thanks must be given to Mark
Salazar who provided the first quasi-functional Unix ver-
sion of AzerTyuioP which was able to un-archive packets
and read mail. A big thanks to all who have provided
patches particularly Derric Scott and Jim Gomes. Also
thanks to Dane Beko, Patrick Lee, Ron Smith, and David Fox
who have provided useful suggestions and bug-reports.
David has been particularly instrumental in testing ATP.


BUG REPORTS AND PATCHES
Bug reports, suggestions, and code contributions are wel-
come. Please report bugs and fixes. If you have ported
ATP to another system, please submit the patches (or com-
plete code if that is easier) so that they might be incor-
porated into the next release.

You may contact me through the RIME (RelayNet) Unix Con-
ference, the RIME (RelayNet) Offline Conference. RIME mail
via Postlink can be routed to me at ->2<- (Running Board
BBS). Fido netmail may be sent to me at 1:109/615 and I am
reachable via the Internet at:

[email protected]

You may leave a personal message for me directly at Brod-
mann's Place BBS (301) 843-5732 or MAC's Place BBS (919)
891-1111. I also follow the Usenet groups comp.os.linux.*

Thomas McWilliams (KI4N)
P.O. Box 7545
Arlington, VA 22207

September 4, 1993 ATP release level 1.42


















ATP 1.42 04 Sept 1993 19