Chapter 10 Mail Tool
10.7. Retrieving New Mail and Committing Changes
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! To: tim@thinking Subject: spare time Cc: I>other recipients<1
There are three ways that you can be notified of incoming mail.
(1) Outside of Mail Tool, the SunOS operating system will give you the notification You have new mail in the window you're typing in.
(2) When Mail Tool is closed, the icon changes: the flag on the mailbox goes up, and a letter appears in the slot.
(3) When Mail Tool is open, the frame header at the top of Mail Tool will display [New Mail] when you receive a letter.
By using the Defaults Editor, you can make Mail Tool beep and flash the screen when it receives a letter. See Appendix B.
The New Mail button retrieves letters that you've received. Hold down the right mouse button to get the menu associated with the button and to choose from it.
Clicking the left mouse button on a Mail Tool button always selects the topmost menu item for that button.
The New Mail button has two different menus, depending on whether you are currently looking at your mailbox or at a mail file or folder. When you are look-ing at your mailbox, the New Mail button displays the menu at left.
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124 SunOS User's Guide: Getting Started
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Choosing Letters
Looking at the Next (or Previous) Letter
If you push the New Mail button while looking at your mailbox, Mail Tool retrieves new letters without committing changes, which means you can still undelete letters you've deleted. On the other hand, if you choose 'Commit Changes and Retrieve New Mail,' all your deletions become permanent.
Note that if you are looking at a mail file or folder, then the New Mail menu changes. Pushing New Mail always commits changes when you are looking at mail. See Section 10.9 for more on folders .
When you retrieve new mail, Mail Tool displays an updated header list and the current letter. Mail Tool puts that letter in the message window and puts a > in front of its header. (If you have unread letters when you push the New Mail but-ton, Mail Tool will mark them with a u (unread).)
You can do an operation on a letter just by clicking on its header and pushing the appropriate button. You do not have to display the letter first. (The Next button is an exception.)
To read other new mail, you can move through the header list with two buttons, Next and Show.
The Next button moves you to the next letter in the header list. (If you're looking at the last letter in the letter list, pushing the Next button displays the previous letter.)
To look at the letter that comes before the current letter, either hold down the
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key when you push the Next button or choose 'Previous' from the Next menu.To display a letter, move the pointer to its header. Click the left mouse button to choose that header; then push the Show button. The letter will appear in the message window.
The header of a letter can contain a lot of unwanted information. Use the Defaults Editor to suppress the display of unwanted information. (This is explained in Appendix B.)
If you do suppress header information, you can still display it when you want to.
The Show button has a 'Show Full Header' menu item (which you can get by using the I Shift I key on the Show button). Here is a letter, first displayed nor-mally, and then with the 'Show Full Header' option:
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Figure 10-7 A Typical Mail Header
~ From business@busyness Wed Aug 5 17:58:49 1987 From: business@busyness
...
..
To: markets@soma
Subject: Ratcliffe needs
Dear
Susan--I am sending the specifications on the Rat1iffe contract to you by express mail. They should reach you shortly.
In addition to the VXB283 Control Sequence Processor, the Hi-Brite
2BBB Graphics Interface Modulator, and the RomSwap 9B91 Memory
Allocation Enhancer, Ratliffe Corporation is also requesting that we deliver 150 pounds of smoked ham with the release. Frankly, no one knows why. It's in the contract.
Please let me know if you see any delays in filling the order.
Ron
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126 SunOS User's Guide: Getting Started
Received: from busyness.sun.uucp (soma) by soma.sun.uucp (3.2/SMI-3.BDEV3) id AA27B58j Wed, 5 Aug 87 18:86:53 PDT
Received: by busyness.sun.uucp (3.2/SMI-3.0DEV3) id AA27B47j Wed, 5 Aug 87 18:86:48 PDT Date: Wed, 5 Aug 87 18:86:48 PDT
From: business@busyness
Message-Id: (87B8868186.AA27847@busyness.sun.uucp>
To: markets@soma Subject: Ratliffe needs Status: R Allocation Enhancer. Ratliffe Corporation is also requesting that we deliver 158 pounds of smoked ham with the release. Frankly, way you print mail out by using the Defaults Editor to change the pr intmail variable. See Appendix B.)
In addition to composing and reading mail, you will also want to save and retrieve it.
Here's one way of saving a letter (other ways - employing folders - are dis-cussed below):
o In the command panel window note the word F i 1 e :
o After the colon, type the name of the file in which you want the letter held.
o Push the left mouse button on the Save button. Or hold down the right mouse button over the Save button to view the menu options and to select 'Copy.'
Saving deletes the letter from the mailbox and puts it into the file you specified.
Copying leaves the letter visible in the mailbox, while putting a copy into the specified file.
Suppose you're saving a letter about Raymond Chandler's novel The Big Sleep into the file classic_mysteries. If you just type
c1assic_mysteries
after File: Mail Tool will assume that classic_mysteries is located in Revision A, of 27 March 1990