.TH PROMPTER 1 "3 August 1983"
.UC 4
.SH NAME
prompter \- prompting editor front end
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B prompter
[ \-erase chr ] [ \-kill chr ] [ \-help ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
This program is not called directly but takes the place
of an editor and acts as an editor front end.
\fIPrompter\fR is an editor which allows rapid composition of
messages.
It is particularly useful to network and low-speed
(less than 2400 baud) users of MH.
It is an MH program in that
it can have its own profile entry with switches, but it can't
be invoked directly as all other MH commands can; it is an editor
in that it is invoked by an \*(lq\-editor prompter\*(rq switch or by the
profile entry \*(lqEditor: prompter\*(rq, but functionally it is merely
a text-collector and not a true editor.
.PP
\fIPrompter\fR expects to be called from \fIcomp\fR, \fIrepl\fR, \fIdist\fR, or
\fIforw\fR, with a draft file as an argument.
For example, \*(lqcomp
\-editor prompter\*(rq will call \fIprompter\fR with the file \*(lqdraft\*(rq already set
up with blank components.
For each blank component it finds in
the draft, it prompts the user and accepts a response.
A <RETURN> will cause the whole component to be left out.
A \*(lq\\\*(rq
preceding a <RETURN> will continue the response on the next line,
allowing for multiline components.
.PP
Any component that is non-blank will be copied and echoed to the
terminal.
.PP
The start of the message body is prompted by a line of
dashes.
If the body is non-blank, the prompt is
\*(lq--------Enter additional text\*(rq.
Message-body typing is terminated with
a <CTRL-D> (or <OPEN>).
Control is returned to the calling
program, where the user is asked \*(lqWhat now?\*(rq.
See \fIcomp\fR for
the valid options.
.PP
The line editing characters for kill and erase may be
specified by the user via the arguments \*(lq\-kill chr\*(rq and \*(lq\-erase
chr\*(rq, where chr may be a character; or \*(lq\\nnn\*(rq, where nnn is the
octal value for the character.
(Again, these may come from the
default switches specified in the user's profile.)
.PP
A <DEL> during message-body typing is equivalent to
<CTRL-D> for compatibility with NED.
A <DEL> during
component typing will abort the command that invoked
\fIprompter\fR.
.SH "PROFILE COMPONENTS"
.nf
.ta \w'prompter-next:    'u
prompter-next:	editor to be used on exit from \fIprompter\fR
.fi