 |
Index for
Section 1X |
|
 |
Alphabetical
listing for X |
|
 |
Bottom of
page |
|
xmh(1X)
X11R6
NAME
xmh - send and read mail with an X interface to MH
SYNOPSIS
xmh [-path mailpath] [-initial foldername] [-flag] [-toolkitoption...]
OPTIONS
-path directory
This option specifies an alternate collection of mail folders in which
to process mail. The directory is specified as an absolute pathname.
The default mail path is the value of the Path component in the MH
profile, which is determined by the MH environment variable and
defaults to $HOME/.mh_profile. $HOME/Mail will be used as the path if
the MH Path is not given in the profile.
-initial folder
This option specifies an alternate folder which may receive new mail
and is initially opened by xmh. The default initial folder is "inbox".
-flag
This option will cause xmh to change the appearance of appropriate
folder buttons and to request the window manager to change the
appearance of the xmh icon when new mail has arrived. By default, xmh
will change the appearance of the "inbox" folder button when new mail
is waiting. The application-specific resource checkNewMail can be used
to turn off this notification, and the -flag option will still override
it.
These three options have corresponding application-specific resources,
MailPath, InitialFolder, and MailWaitingFlag, which can be specified in a
resource file.
The standard toolkit command line options are given in X(1X).
DESCRIPTION
The xmh program provides a graphical user interface to the MH Message
Handling System. To actually do things with your mail, it makes calls to
the MH package. Electronic mail messages may be composed, sent, received,
replied to, forwarded, sorted, and stored in folders. xmh provides
extensive mechanism for customization of the user interface.
This document introduces many aspects of the Athena Widget Set.
INSTALLATION
xmh requires that the user is already set up to use MH, version 6. To do
so, see if there is a file called .mh_profile in your home directory. If
it exists, check to see if it contains a line that starts with "Current-
Folder". If it does, you've been using version 4 or earlier of MH; to
convert to version 6, you must remove that line. (Failure to do so causes
spurious output to stderr, which can hang xmh depending on your setup.)
If you do not already have a .mh_profile, you can create one (and
everything else you need) by typing "inc" to the shell. You should do this
before using xmh to incorporate new mail.
For more information, refer to the mh(1) documentation.
Much of the user interface of xmh is configured in the Xmh application
class defaults file; if this file was not installed properly a warning
message will appear when xmh is used. xmh is backwards compatible with the
R4 application class defaults file.
The default value of the SendBreakWidth resource has changed since R4.
BASIC SCREEN LAYOUT
xmh starts out with a single window, divided into four major areas:
· Six buttons with pull-down command menus.
· A collection of buttons, one for each top level folder. New users of
MH will have two folders, "drafts" and "inbox".
· A listing, or Table of Contents, of the messages in the open folder.
Initially, this will show the messages in "inbox".
· A view of one of your messages. Initially this is blank.
XMH AND THE ATHENA WIDGET SET
xmh uses the X Toolkit Intrinsics and the Athena Widget Set. Many of the
features described below (scrollbars, buttonboxes, and so forth) are
actually part of the Athena Widget Set, and are described here only for
completeness. For more information, see the Athena Widget Set
documentation.
SCROLLBARS
Some parts of the main window will have a vertical area on the left
containing a grey bar. This area is a scrollbar. They are used whenever
the data in a window takes up more space than can be displayed. The grey
bar indicates what portion of your data is visible. Thus, if the entire
length of the area is grey, then you are looking at all your data. If only
the first half is grey, then you are looking at the top half of your data.
The message viewing area will have a horizontal scrollbar if the text of
the message is wider than the viewing area.
You can use the pointer in the scrollbar to change what part of the data is
visible. If you click with pointer button 2, the top of the grey area will
move to where the pointer is, and the corresponding portion of data will be
displayed. If you hold down pointer button 2, you can drag around the grey
area. This makes it easy to get to the top of the data: just press with
button 2, drag off the top of the scrollbar, and release.
If you click with button 1, then the data to the right of the pointer will
scroll to the top of the window. If you click with pointer button 3, then
the data at the top of the window will scroll down to where the pointer is.
BUTTONBOXES, BUTTONS, AND MENUS
Any area containing many words or short phrases, each enclosed in a
rectangular or rounded boundary, is called a buttonbox. Each rectangle or
rounded area is actually a button that you can press by moving the pointer
onto it and pressing pointer button 1. If a given buttonbox has more
buttons in it than can fit, it will be displayed with a scrollbar, so you
can always scroll to the button you want.
Some buttons have pull-down menus. Pressing the pointer button while the
pointer is over one of these buttons will pull down a menu. Continuing to
hold the button down while moving the pointer over the menu, called
dragging the pointer, will highlight each selectable item on the menu as
the pointer passes over it. To select an item in the menu, release the
pointer button while the item is highlighted.
ADJUSTING THE RELATIVE SIZES OF AREAS
If you're not satisfied with the sizes of the various areas of the main
window, they can easily be changed. Near the right edge of the border
between each region is a black box, called a grip. Simply point to that
grip with the pointer, press a pointer button, drag up or down, and
release. Exactly what happens depends on which pointer button you press.
If you drag with the pointer button 2, then only that border will move.
This mode is simplest to understand, but is the least useful.
If you drag with pointer button 1, then you are adjusting the size of the
window above. xmh will attempt to compensate by adjusting some window
below it.
If you drag with pointer button 3, then you are adjusting the size of the
window below. xmh will attempt to compensate by adjusting some window
above it.
All windows have a minimum and maximum size; you will never be allowed to
move a border past the point where it would make a window have an invalid
size.
PROCESSING YOUR MAIL
This section will define the concepts of the selected folder, current
folder, selected message(s), current message, selected sequence, and
current sequence. Each xmh command is introduced.
For use in customization, action procedures corresponding to each command
are given; these action procedures can be used to customize the user
interface, particularly the keyboard accelerators and the functionality of
the buttons in the optional button box created by the application resource
CommandButtonCount.
FOLDERS AND SEQUENCES
A folder contains a collection of mail messages, or is empty. xmh supports
folders with one level of subfolders.
The selected folder is whichever foldername appears in the bar above the
folder buttons. Note that this is not necessarily the same folder that is
currently being viewed. To change the selected folder, just press on the
desired folder button with pointer button 1; if that folder has subfolders,
select a folder from the pull-down menu.
The Table of Contents, or toc, lists the messages in the viewed folder.
The title bar above the Table of Contents displays the name of the viewed
folder.
The toc title bar also displays the name of the viewed sequence of messages
within the viewed folder. Every folder has an implicit "all" sequence,
which contains all the messages in the folder, and initially the toc title
bar will show "inbox:all".
FOLDER COMMANDS
The Folder command menu contains commands of a global nature:
Open Folder
Display the data in the selected folder. Thus, the selected folder
also becomes the viewed folder. The action procedure corresponding to
this command is XmhOpenFolder( [foldername] ). It takes an optional
argument as the name of a folder to select and open; if no folder is
specified, the selected folder is opened. It may be specified as part
of an event translation from a folder menu button or from a folder
menu, or as a binding of a keyboard accelerator to any widget other
than the folder menu buttons or the folder menus.
Open Folder in New Window
Displays the selected folder in an additional main window. Note,
however, that you cannot reliably display the same folder in more than
one window at a time, although xmh will not prevent you from trying.
The corresponding action is XmhOpenFolderInNewWindow().
Create Folder
Create a new folder. You will be prompted for a name for the new
folder; to enter the name, move the pointer to the blank box provided
and type. Subfolders are created by specifying the parent folder, a
slash, and the subfolder name. For example, to create a folder named
"xmh" which is a subfolder of an existing folder named "clients", type
"clients/xmh". Click on the Okay button when finished, or just type
Return; click on Cancel to cancel this operation. The action
corresponding to Create Folder is XmhCreateFolder().
Delete Folder
Destroy the selected folder. You will be asked to confirm this action
(see CONFIRMATION WINDOWS). Destroying a folder will also destroy any
subfolders of that folder. The corresponding action is
XmhDeleteFolder().
Close Window
Exits xmh, after first confirming that you will not lose any changes;
or, if selected from any additional xmh window, simply closes that
window. The corresponding action is XmhClose().
HIGHLIGHTED MESSAGES, SELECTED MESSAGES AND THE CURRENT MESSAGE
It is possible to highlight a set of adjacent messages in the area of the
Table of Contents. To highlight a message, click on it with pointer button
1. To highlight a range of messages, click on the first one with pointer
button 1 and on the last one with pointer button 3; or press pointer button
1, drag, and release. To extend a range of selected messages, use pointer
button 3. To highlight all messages in the table of contents, click
rapidly three times with pointer button 1. To cancel any selection in the
table of contents, click rapidly twice.
The selected messages are the same as the highlighted messages, if any. If
no messages are highlighted, then the selected messages are considered the
same as the current message.
The current message is indicated by a `+' next to the message number. It
usually corresponds to the message currently being viewed. Upon opening a
new folder, for example, the current message will be different from the
viewed message. When a message is viewed, the title bar above the view will
identify the message.
TABLE OF CONTENTS COMMANDS
The Table of Contents command menu contains commands which operate on the
open, or viewed, folder.
Incorporate New Mail
Add any new mail received to viewed folder, and set the current message
to be the first new message. This command is selectable in the menu
and will execute only if the viewed folder is allowed to receive new
mail. By default, only "inbox" is allowed to incorporate new mail. The
corresponding action is XmhIncorporateNewMail().
Commit Changes
Execute all deletions, moves, and copies that have been marked in this
folder. The corresponding action is XmhCommitChanges().
Pack Folder
Renumber the messages in this folder so they start with 1 and increment
by 1. The corresponding action is XmhPackFolder().
Sort Folder
Sort the messages in this folder in chronological order. (As a side
effect, this may also pack the folder.) The corresponding action is
XmhSortFolder().
Rescan Folder
Rebuild the list of messages. This can be used whenever you suspect
that xmh's idea of what messages you have is wrong. (In particular,
this is necessary if you change things using straight MH commands
without using xmh.) The corresponding action is XmhForceRescan().
MESSAGE COMMANDS
The Message command menu contains commands which operate on the selected
message(s), or if there are no selected messages, the current message.
Compose Message
Composes a new message. A new window will be brought up for
composition; a description of it is given in the COMPOSITION WINDOWS
section below. This command does not affect the current message. The
corresponding action is XmhComposeMessage().
View Next Message
View the first selected message. If no messages are highlighted, view
the current message. If current message is already being viewed, view
the first unmarked message after the current message. The corresponding
action is XmhViewNextMessage().
View Previous
View the last selected message. If no messages are highlighted, view
the current message. If current message is already being viewed, view
the first unmarked message before the current message. The
corresponding action is XmhViewPrevious().
Delete
Mark the selected messages for deletion. If no messages are
highlighted, mark the current message for deletion and automatically
display the next unmarked message. The corresponding action is
XmhMarkDelete().
Move
Mark the selected messages to be moved into the currently selected
folder. (If the selected folder is the same as the viewed folder, this
command will just beep.) If no messages are highlighted, mark the
current message to be moved and display the next unmarked message. The
corresponding action is XmhMarkMove().
Copy as Link
Mark the selected messages to be copied into the selected folder. (If
the selected folder is the same as the viewed folder, this command will
just beep.) If no messages are highlighted, mark the current message
to be copied. Note that messages are actually linked, not copied;
editing a message copied by xmh will affect all copies of the message.
The corresponding action is XmhMarkCopy().
Unmark
Remove any of the above three marks from the selected messages, or the
current message, if none are highlighted. The corresponding action is
XmhUnmark().
View in New
Create a new window containing only a view of the first selected
message, or the current message, if none are highlighted. The
corresponding action is XmhViewInNewWindow().
Reply
Create a composition window in reply to the first selected message, or
the current message, if none are highlighted. The corresponding action
is XmhReply().
Forward
Create a composition window whose body is initialized to contain an
encapsulation of the selected messages, or the current message if none
are highlighted. The corresponding action is XmhForward().
Use as Composition
Create a composition window whose body is initialized to be the
contents of the first selected message, or the current message if none
are selected. Any changes you make in the composition will be saved in
a new message in the "drafts" folder, and will not change the original
message. However, there is an exception to this rule. If the message
to be used as composition was selected from the "drafts" folder, (see
BUGS), the changes will be reflected in the original message (see
COMPOSITION WINDOWS). The action procedure corresponding to this
command is XmhUseAsComposition().
Print
Print the selected messages, or the current message if none are
selected. xmh printing can be customized with the xmh application-
specific resource PrintCommand. The corresponding action is XmhPrint().
SEQUENCE COMMANDS
The Sequence command menu contains commands pertaining to message sequences
(See MESSAGE-SEQUENCES), and a list of the message-sequences defined for
the currently viewed folder. The selected message-sequence is indicated by
a check mark in its entry in the margin of the menu. To change the
selected message-sequence, select a new message-sequence from the sequence
menu.
Pick Messages
Define a new message-sequence. The corresponding action is
XmhPickMessages().
The following menu entries will be sensitive only if the current folder has
any message-sequences other than the "all" message-sequence.
Open Sequence
Change the viewed sequence to be the same as the selected sequence. The
corresponding action is XmhOpenSequence().
Add to Sequence
Add the selected messages to the selected sequence. The corresponding
action is XmhAddToSequence().
Remove from Sequence
Remove the selected messages from the selected sequence. The
corresponding action is XmhRemoveFromSequence().
Delete Sequence
Remove the selected sequence entirely. The messages themselves are not
affected; they simply are no longer grouped together to define a
message-sequence. The corresponding action is XmhDeleteSequence().
VIEW COMMANDS
Commands in the View menu and in the buttonboxes of view windows (which
result from the Message menu command View In New) correspond in
functionality to commands of the same name in the Message menu, but they
operate on the viewed message rather than the selected messages or current
message.
Close Window
When the viewed message is in a separate view window, this command will
close the view, after confirming the status of any unsaved edits. The
corresponding action procedure is XmhCloseView().
Reply
Create a composition window in reply to the viewed message. The
related action procedure is XmhViewReply().
Forward
Create a composition window whose body is initialized contain an
encapsulation of the viewed message. The corresponding action is
XmhViewForward().
Use As Composition
Create a composition window whose body is initialized to be the
contents of the viewed message. Any changes made in the composition
window will be saved in a new message in the "drafts" folder, and will
not change the original message. An exception: if the viewed message
was selected from the "drafts" folder, (see BUGS) the original message
is edited. The action procedure corresponding to this command is
XmhViewUseAsComposition().
Edit Message
This command enables the direct editing of the viewed message. The
action procedure is XmhEditView().
Save Message
This command is insensitive until the message has been edited; when
activated, edits will be saved to the original message in the view. The
corresponding action is XmhSaveView().
Print
Print the viewed message. xmh printing can be customized with the
application-specific resource PrintCommand. The corresponding action
procedure is XmhPrintView().
Delete
Marks the viewed message for deletion. The corresponding action
procedure is XmhViewMarkDelete().
OPTIONS
The Options menu contains one entry.
Read in Reverse
When selected, a check mark appears in the margin of this menu entry.
Read in Reverse will switch the meaning of the next and previous
messages, and will increment to the current message marker in the
opposite direction. This is useful if you want to read your messages
in the order of most recent first. The option acts as a toggle; select
it from the menu a second time to undo the effect. The check mark
appears when the option is selected.
COMPOSITION WINDOWS
Composition windows are created by selecting Compose Message from the
Message command menu, or by selecting Reply or Forward or Use as
Composition from the Message or View command menu. These are used to
compose mail messages. Aside from the normal text editing functions, there
are six command buttons associated with composition windows:
Close Window
Close this composition window. If changes have been made since the
most recent Save or Send, you will be asked to confirm losing them.
The corresponding action is XmhCloseView().
Send
Send this composition. The corresponding action is XmhSend().
New Headers
Replace the current composition with an empty message. If changes have
been made since the most recent Send or Save, you will be asked to
confirm losing them. The corresponding action is XmhResetCompose().
Compose Message
Bring up another new composition window. The corresponding action is
XmhComposeMessage().
Save Message
Save this composition in your drafts folder. Then you can safely close
the composition. At some future date, you can continue working on the
composition by opening the drafts folder, selecting the message, and
using the "Use as Composition" command. The corresponding action is
XmhSave().
Insert
Insert a related message into the composition. If the composition
window was created with a "Reply" command, the related message is the
message being replied to, otherwise no related message is defined and
this button is insensitive. The message may be filtered before being
inserted; see ReplyInsertFilter under APPLICATION RESOURCES for more
information. The corresponding action is XmhInsert().
ACCELERATORS
Accelerators are shortcuts. They allow you to invoke commands without
using the menus, either from the keyboard or by using the pointer.
xmh defines pointer accelerators for common actions: To select and view a
message with a single click, use pointer button 2 on the message's entry in
the table of contents. To select and open a folder or a sequence in a
single action, make the folder or sequence selection with pointer button 2.
To mark the highlighted messages, or current message if none have been
highlighted, to be moved to a folder in a single action, use pointer button
3 to select the target folder and simultaneously mark the messages.
Similarly, selecting a sequence with pointer button 3 will add the
highlighted or current message(s) to that sequence. In both of these
operations, the selected folder or sequence and the viewed folder or
sequence are not changed.
xmh defines the following keyboard accelerators over the surface of the
main window, except in the view area while editing a message:
Meta-I Incorporate New Mail
Meta-C Commit Changes
Meta-R Rescan Folder
Meta-P Pack Folder
Meta-S Sort Folder
Meta-space View Next Message
Meta-c Mark Copy
Meta-d Mark Deleted
Meta-f Forward the selected or current message
Meta-m Mark Move
Meta-n View Next Message
Meta-p View Previous Message
Meta-r Reply to the selected or current message
Meta-u Unmark
Ctrl-V Scroll the table of contents forward
Meta-V Scroll the table of contents backward
Ctrl-v Scroll the view forward
Meta-v Scroll the view backward
TEXT EDITING COMMANDS
All of the text editing commands are actually defined by the Text widget in
the Athena Widget Set. The commands may be bound to different keys than the
defaults described below through the X Toolkit Intrinsics key re-binding
mechanisms. See the X Toolkit Intrinsics and the Athena Widget Set
documentation for more details.
Whenever you are asked to enter any text, you will be using a standard text
editing interface. Various control and meta keystroke combinations are
bound to a somewhat Emacs-like set of commands. In addition, the pointer
buttons may be used to select a portion of text or to move the insertion
point in the text. Pressing pointer button 1 causes the insertion point to
move to the pointer. Double-clicking button 1 selects a word, triple-
clicking selects a line, quadruple-clicking selects a paragraph, and
clicking rapidly five times selects everything. Any selection may be
extended in either direction by using pointer button 3.
In the following, a line refers to one displayed row of characters in the
window. A paragraph refers to the text between carriage returns. Text
within a paragraph is broken into lines for display based on the current
width of the window. When a message is sent, text is broken into lines
based upon the values of the SendBreakWidth and SendWidth application-
specific resources.
The following keystroke combinations are defined:
Ctrl-a Beginning Of Line Meta-b Backward Word
Ctrl-b Backward Character Meta-f Forward Word
Ctrl-d Delete Next Character Meta-i Insert File
Ctrl-e End Of Line Meta-k
Kill To End Of
Paragraph
Ctrl-f Forward Character Meta-q Form Paragraph
Ctrl-g Multiply Reset Meta-v Previous Page
Ctrl-h Meta-y
Delete Previous
Character
Insert Current
Selection
Ctrl-j Newline And Indent Meta-z Scroll One Line Down
Ctrl-k Kill To End Of Line Meta-d Delete Next Word
Ctrl-l Redraw Display Meta-D Kill Word
Ctrl-m Newline Meta-h Delete Previous Word
Ctrl-n Next Line Meta-H Backward Kill Word
Ctrl-o Newline And Backup Meta-< Beginning Of File
Ctrl-p Previous Line Meta-> End Of File
Ctrl-r Search/Replace Backward Meta-] Forward Paragraph
Ctrl-s Search/Replace Forward Meta-[ Backward Paragraph
Ctrl-t Transpose Characters
Ctrl-u Multiply by 4 Meta-Delete Delete Previous Word
Ctrl-v Next Page Kill Previous Word
Meta-Shift
Delete
Ctrl-w Kill Selection Meta-Backspace Delete Previous Word
Ctrl-y Unkill Kill Previous Word
Meta-Shift
Backspace
Ctrl-z Scroll One Line Up
In addition, the pointer may be used to copy and paste text:
Button 1 Down Start Selection
Button 1 Motion Adjust Selection
Button 1 Up End Selection (copy)
Button 2 Down Insert Current Selection (paste)
Button 3 Down Extend Current Selection
Button 3 Motion Adjust Selection
Button 3 Up End Selection (copy)
CONFIRMATION DIALOG BOXES
Whenever you press a button that may cause you to lose some work or is
otherwise dangerous, a popup dialog box will appear asking you to confirm
the action. This window will contain an "Abort" or "No" button and a
"Confirm" or "Yes" button. Pressing the "No" button cancels the operation,
and pressing the "Yes" will proceed with the operation.
Some dialog boxes contain messages from MH. Occasionally when the message
is more than one line long, not all of the text will be visible. Clicking
on the message field will cause the dialog box to resize so that you can
read the entire message.
MESSAGE-SEQUENCES
An MH message sequence is just a set of messages associated with some name.
They are local to a particular folder; two different folders can have
sequences with the same name. The sequence named "all" is predefined in
every folder; it consists of the set of all messages in that folder. As
many as nine sequences may be defined for each folder, including the
predefined "all" sequence. (The sequence "cur" is also usually defined for
every folder; it consists of only the current message. xmh hides "cur"
from the user, instead placing a "+" by the current message. Also, xmh
does not support MH's "unseen" sequence, so that one is also hidden from
the user.)
The message sequences for a folder (including one for "all") are displayed
in the "Sequence" menu, below the sequence commands. The table of contents
(also known as the "toc") is at any one time displaying one message
sequence. This is called the "viewed sequence", and its name will be
displayed in the toc title bar after the folder name. Also, at any time
one of the sequences in the menu will have a check mark next to it. This
is called the "selected sequence". Note that the viewed sequence and the
selected sequence are not necessarily the same. (This all pretty much
corresponds to the way folders work.)
The Open Sequence, Add to Sequence, Remove from Sequence, and Delete
Sequence commands are active only if the viewed folder contains message-
sequences other than "all" sequence.
Note that none of the above actually affect whether a message is in the
folder. Remember that a sequence is a set of messages within the folder;
the above operations just affect what messages are in that set.
To create a new sequence, select the "Pick" menu entry. A new window will
appear, with lots of places to enter text. Basically, you can describe the
sequence's initial set of messages based on characteristics of the message.
Thus, you can define a sequence to be all the messages that were from a
particular person, or with a particular subject, and so on. You can also
connect things up with boolean operators, so you can select all things from
"weissman" with a subject containing "xmh".
The layout should be fairly obvious. The simplest cases are the easiest:
just point to the proper field and type. If you enter in more than one
field, it will only select messages which match all non-empty fields.
The more complicated cases arise when you want things that match one field
or another one, but not necessarily both. That's what all the "or" buttons
are for. If you want all things with subjects that include "xmh" or
"xterm", just press the "or" button next to the "Subject:" field. Another
box will appear where you can enter another subject.
If you want all things either from "weissman" or with subject "xmh", but
not necessarily both, select the "-Or-" button. This will essentially
double the size of the form. You can then enter "weissman" in a from: box
on the top half, and "xmh" in a subject: box on the lower part.
If you select the "Skip" button, then only those messages that do not match
the fields on that row are included.
Finally, in the bottom part of the window will appear several more boxes.
One is the name of the sequence you're defining. (It defaults to the name
of the selected sequence when "Pick" was pressed, or to "temp" if "all" was
the selected sequence.) Another box defines which sequence to look through
for potential members of this sequence; it defaults to the viewed sequence
when "Pick" was pressed.
Two more boxes define a date range; only messages within that date range
will be considered. These dates must be entered in RFC 822-style format:
each date is of the form "dd mmm yy hh:mm:ss zzz", where dd is a one or two
digit day of the month, mmm is the three-letter abbreviation for a month,
and yy is a year. The remaining fields are optional: hh, mm, and ss
specify a time of day, and zzz selects a time zone. Note that if the time
is left out, it defaults to midnight; thus if you select a range of "7 nov
86" - "8 nov 86", you will only get messages from the 7th, as all messages
on the 8th will have arrived after midnight.
"Date field" specifies which field in the header to look at for this date
range; it defaults to "Date". If the sequence you're defining already
exists, you can optionally merge the old set with the new; that's what the
"Yes" and "No" buttons are all about. Finally, you can "OK" the whole
thing, or "Cancel" it.
In general, most people will rarely use these features. However, it's nice
to occasionally use "Pick" to find some messages, look through them, and
then hit "Delete Sequence" to put things back in their original state.
WIDGET HIERARCHY
In order to specify resources, it is useful to know the hierarchy of
widgets which compose xmh. In the notation below, indentation indicates
hierarchical structure. The widget class name is given first, followed by
the widget instance name. The application class name is Xmh.
The hierarchy of the main toc and view window is identical for additional
toc and view windows, except that a TopLevelShell widget is inserted in the
hierarchy between the application shell and the Paned widget.
Xmh xmh
Paned xmh
SimpleMenu folderMenu
SmeBSB open
SmeBSB openInNew
SmeBSB create
SmeBSB delete
SmeLine line
SmeBSB close
SimpleMenu tocMenu
SmeBSB inc
SmeBSB commit
SmeBSB pack
SmeBSB sort
SmeBSB rescan
SimpleMenu messageMenu
SmeBSB compose
SmeBSB next
SmeBSB prev
SmeBSB delete
SmeBSB move
SmeBSB copy
SmeBSB unmark
SmeBSB viewNew
SmeBSB reply
SmeBSB forward
SmeBSB useAsComp
SmeBSB print
SimpleMenu sequenceMenu
SmeBSB pick
SmeBSB openSeq
SmeBSB addToSeq
SmeBSB removeFromSeq
SmeBSB deleteSeq
SmeLine line
SmeBSB all
SimpleMenu viewMenu
SmeBSB reply
SmeBSB forward
SmeBSB useAsComp
SmeBSB edit
SmeBSB save
SmeBSB print
SimpleMenu optionMenu
SmeBSB reverse
Viewport.Core menuBox.clip
Box menuBox
MenuButton folderButton
MenuButton tocButton
MenuButton messageButton
MenuButton sequenceButton
MenuButton viewButton
MenuButton optionButton
Grip grip
Label folderTitlebar
Grip grip
Viewport.Core folders.clip
Box folders
MenuButton inbox
MenuButton drafts
SimpleMenu menu
SmeBSB <folder_name>
.
.
.
Grip grip
Label tocTitlebar
Grip grip
Text toc
Scrollbar vScrollbar
Grip grip
Label viewTitlebar
Grip grip
Text view
Scrollbar vScrollbar
Scrollbar hScrollbar
The hierarchy of the Create Folder popup dialog box:
TransientShell prompt
Dialog dialog
Label label
Text value
Command okay
Command cancel
The hierarchy of the Notice dialog box, which reports
messages from MH:
TransientShell notice
Dialog dialog
Label label
Text value
Command confirm
The hierarchy of the Confirmation dialog box:
TransientShell confirm
Dialog dialog
Label label
Command yes
Command no
The hierarchy of the dialog box which reports errors:
TransientShell error
Dialog dialog
Label label
Command OK
The hierarchy of the composition window:
TopLevelShell xmh
Paned xmh
Label composeTitlebar
Text comp
Viewport.Core compButtons.clip
Box compButtons
Command close
Command send
Command reset
Command compose
Command save
Command insert
The hierarchy of the view window:
TopLevelShell xmh
Paned xmh
Label viewTitlebar
Text view
Viewport.Core viewButtons.clip
Box viewButtons
Command close
Command reply
Command forward
Command useAsComp
Command edit
Command save
Command print
Command delete
The hierarchy of the pick window:
(Unnamed widgets have no name.)
TopLevelShell xmh
Paned xmh
Label pickTitlebar
Viewport.Core pick.clip
Form form
Form groupform
The first 6 rows of the pick window have identical
structure:
Form rowform
Toggle
Toggle
Label
Text
Command
Form rowform
Toggle
Toggle
Text
Text
Command
Form rowform
Command
Viewport.core pick.clip
Form form
From groupform
Form rowform
Label
Text
Label
Text
Form rowform
Label
Text
Label
Text
Label
Text
Form rowform
Label
Toggle
Toggle
Form rowform
Command
Command
APPLICATION-SPECIFIC RESOURCES
The application class name is Xmh. Application-specific resources are
listed below by name. Application-specific resource class names always
begin with an upper case character, but unless noted, are otherwise
identical to the instance names given below.
Any of these options may also be specified on the command line by using the
X Toolkit Intrinsics resource specification mechanism. Thus, to run xmh
showing all message headers,
% xmh -xrm '*HideBoringHeaders:off'
If TocGeometry, ViewGeometry, CompGeometry, or PickGeometry are not
specified, then the value of Geometry is used instead. If the resulting
height is not specified (for example, , "=500", "+0-0"), then the default
height of windows is calculated from fonts and line counts. If the width is
not specified (for example, , "=x300", "-0+0"), then half of the display
width is used. If unspecified, the height of a pick window defaults to
half the height of the display.
The following resources are defined:
banner
A short string that is the default label of the folder, Table of
Contents, and view. The default is "xmh X Consortium R6".
blockEventsOnBusy
Whether to disallow user input and show a busy cursor while xmh is busy
processing a command. Default is true.
busyCursor
The name of the symbol used to represent the position of the pointer,
displayed if LlockEventsOnBusy is true, when xmh is processing a time-
consuming command. The default is "watch".
busyPointerColor
The foreground color of the busy cursor. Default is
XtDefaultForeground.
checkFrequency
How often to check for new mail, make checkpoints, and rescan the Table
of Contents, in minutes. If checkNewMail is true, xmh checks to see if
you have new mail each interval. If makeCheckpoints is true,
checkpoints are made every fifth interval. Also every fifth interval,
the Table of Contents is checked for inconsistencies with the file
system, and rescanned if out of date. To prevent all of these checks
from occurring, set CheckFrequency to 0. The default is 1. This
resource is retained for backward compatibility with user resource
files; see also checkpointInterval, mailInterval, and rescanInterval.
checkNewMail
If true, xmh will check at regular intervals to see if new mail has
arrived for any of the top level folders and any opened subfolders. A
visual indication will be given if new mail is waiting to be
incorporated into a top level folder. Default is true. The interval can
be adjusted with mailInterval.
checkpointInterval (class Interval)
Specifies in minutes how often to make checkpoints of volatile state,
if makeCheckpoints is true. The default is 5 times the value of
checkFrequency.
checkpointNameFormat
Specifies how checkpointed files are to be named. The value of this
resource will be used to compose a file name by inserting the message
number as a string in place of the required single occurrence of `%d'.
If the value of the resource is the empty string, or if no `%d' occurs
in the string, or if "%d" is the value of the resource, the default
will be used instead. The default is "%d.CKP". Checkpointing is done
in the folder of origin unless an absolute pathname is given. xmh does
not assist the user in recovering checkpoints, nor does it provide for
removal of the checkpoint files.
commandButtonCount
The number of command buttons to create in a button box in between the
toc and the view areas of the main window. xmh will create these
buttons with the names button1, button2 and so on, in a box with the
name commandBox. The default is 0. xmh users can specify labels and
actions for the buttons in a private resource file; see the section
ACTIONS AND INTERFACE CUSTOMIZATION.
compGeometry
Initial geometry for windows containing compositions.
cursor
The name of the symbol used to represent the pointer. Default is
"left_ptr".
debug
Whether or not to print information to stderr as xmh runs. Default is
false.
draftsFolder
The folder used for message drafts. Default is "drafts".
geometry
Default geometry to use. Default is none.
hideBoringHeaders
If "on", then xmh will attempt to skip uninteresting header lines
within messages by scrolling them off the top of the view. Default is
"on".
initialFolder
Which folder to display on startup. May also be set with the command-
line option -initial. Default is "inbox".
initialIncFile
The absolute path name of your incoming mail drop file. In some
installations, for example those using the Post Office Protocol, no
file is appropriate. In this case, initialIncFile should not be
specified, or may be specified as the empty string, and inc will be
invoked without a -file argument. By default, this resource has no
value. This resource is ignored if xmh finds an .xmhcheck file; see the
section on multiple mail drops.
mailInterval (class Interval)
Specifies the interval in minutes at which the mail should be checked,
if mailWaitingFlag or checkNewMail is true. The default is the value of
checkFrequency.
mailPath
The full path prefix for locating your mail folders. May also be set
with the command line option, -path. The default is the Path component
in the MH profile, or "$HOME/Mail" if none.
mailWaitingFlag
If true, xmh will attempt to set an indication in its icon when new
mail is waiting to be retrieved. If mailWaitingFlag is true, then
checkNewMail is assumed to be true as well. The -flag command line
option is a quick way to turn on this resource.
makeCheckpoints
If true, xmh will attempt to save checkpoints of volatile edits. The
default is false. The frequency of checkpointing is controlled by the
resource checkpointInterval. For the location of checkpointing, see
checkpointNameFormat.
mhPath
What directory in which to find the MH commands. If a command is not
found in the user's path, then the path specified here is used. Default
is "/usr/local/mh6".
newMailBitmap (class NewMailBitmap)
The bitmap to show in the folder button when a folder has new mail. The
default is "black6".
newMailIconBitmap (class NewMailBitmap)
The bitmap suggested to the window manager for the icon when any folder
has new mail. The default is "flagup".
noMailBitmap (class NoMailBitmap)
The bitmap to show in the folder button when a folder has no new mail.
The default is "box6".
noMailIconBitmap (class NoMailBitmap)
The bitmap suggested to the window manager for the icon when no folders
have new mail. The default is "flagdown".
pickGeometry
Initial geometry for pick windows.
pointerColor
The foreground color of the pointer. Default is XtDefaultForeground.
prefixWmAndIconName
Whether to prefix the window and icon name with "xmh: ". Default is
true.
printCommand
An sh command to execute to print a message. Note that stdout and
stderr must be specifically redirected. If a message or range of
messages is selected for printing, the full file paths of each message
file are appended to the specified print command.
replyInsertFilter
An sh command to be executed when the Insert button is activated in a
composition window. The full path and filename of the source message
is appended to the command before being passed to sh(1). The default
filter is cat; that is, it inserts the entire message into the
composition. Interesting filters are: sed 's/^/> /' or awk -e '{print
" " $0}' or <mh directory>/lib/mhl -form mhl.body.
rescanInterval (class Interval)
How often to check the Table of Contents of currently viewed folders
and of folders with messages currently being viewed, and to update the
Table of Contents if xmh sees inconsistencies with the file system in
these folders. The default is 5 times the value of checkFrequency.
reverseReadOrder
When true, the next message will be the message prior to the current
message in the table of contents, and the previous message will be the
message after the current message in the table of contents. The
default is false.
sendBreakWidth
When a message is sent from xmh, lines longer than this value will be
split into multiple lines, each of which is no longer than SendWidth.
This value may be overridden for a single message by inserting an
additional line in the message header of the form SendBreakWidth:
value. This line will be removed from the header before the message is
sent. The default is 2000 (to allow for sending mail containing source
patches).
sendWidth
When a message is sent from xmh, lines longer than SendBreakWidth
characters will be split into multiple lines, each of which is no
longer than this value. This value may be overridden for a single
message by inserting an additional line in the message header of the
form SendWidth: value. This line will be removed from the header
before the message is sent. The default is 72.
showOnInc
Whether to automatically show the current message after incorporating
new mail. Default is true.
skipCopied
Whether to skip over messages marked for copying when using "View Next
Message" and "View Previous Message". Default is true.
skipDeleted
Whether to skip over messages marked for deletion when using "View Next
Message" and "View Previous Message". Default is true.
skipMoved
Whether to skip over messages marked for moving to other folders when
using "View Next Message" and "View Previous Message". Default is
true.
stickyMenu
If true, when popup command menus are used, the most recently selected
entry will be under the cursor when the menu pops up. Default is
false. See the file clients/xmh/Xmh.sample for an example of how to
specify resources for popup command menus.
tempDir
Directory for xmh to store temporary files. For privacy, a user might
want to change this to a private directory. Default is "/tmp".
tocGeometry
Initial geometry for main xmh toc and view windows.
tocPercentage
The percentage of the main window that is used to display the Table of
Contents. Default is 33.
tocWidth
How many characters to generate for each message in a folder's table of
contents. Default is 100. Use less if the geometry of the main xmh
window results in the listing being clipped at the right hand boundary,
or if you plan to use mhl a lot, because it will be faster, and the
extra characters may not be useful.
viewGeometry
Initial geometry for windows showing a view of a message.
MULTIPLE MAIL DROPS
Users may need to incorporate mail from multiple spool files or mail drops.
If incoming mail is forwarded to the MH slocal program, it can be sorted as
specified by the user into multiple incoming mail drops. Refer to the MH
man page for slocal to learn how to specify forwarding and the automatic
sorting of incoming mail in a .maildelivery file.
To inform xmh about the various mail drops, create a file in your home
directory called .xmhcheck. In this file, a mapping between existing
folder names and mail drops is created by giving a folder name followed by
the absolute pathname of the mail drop site, with some white space
separating them, one mapping per line. xmh will read this file whether or
not resources are set for notification of new mail arrival, and will allow
incorporation of new mail into any folder with a mail drop. xmh will
invoke inc with the -file argument, and if xmh has been requested to check
for new mail, it will check directly, instead of using msgchk.
An example of .xmhcheck file format, for the folders "inbox" and "xpert":
inbox /usr/spool/mail/converse
xpert /users/converse/maildrops/xpert
ACTIONS AND INTERFACE CUSTOMIZATION
Because xmh provides action procedures which correspond to command
functionality and installs accelerators, users can customize accelerators
and new button functionality in a private resource file. For examples of
specifying customized resources, see the file mit/clients/xmh/Xmh.sample.
To understand the syntax, see the Appendix of the X Toolkit Intrinsics
specification on Translation Table Syntax, and any general explanation of
using and specifying X resources. Unpredictable results can occur if
actions are bound to events or widgets for which they were not designed.
Here's an example of how to bind actions to your own xmh buttons, and how
to redefine the default accelerators so that the Meta key is not required,
in case you do not have access to the sample file mentioned above.
To create buttons in the middle of the main window and give them semantics:
Xmh*CommandButtonCount: 5
Xmh*commandBox.button1.label: Inc
Xmh*commandBox.button1.translations: #override\
<Btn1Down>,<Btn1Up>: XmhIncorporateNewMail() unset()
Xmh*commandBox.button2.label: Compose
Xmh*commandBox.button2.translations: #override\
<Btn1Down>,<Btn1Up>: XmhComposeMessage() unset()
Xmh*commandBox.button3.label: Next
Xmh*commandBox.button3.translations: #override\
<Btn1Down>,<Btn1Up>: XmhViewNextMessage() unset()
Xmh*commandBox.button4.label: Delete
Xmh*commandBox.button4.translations: #override\
<Btn1Down>,<Btn1Up>: XmhMarkDelete() unset()
Xmh*commandBox.button5.label: Commit
Xmh*commandBox.button5.translations: #override\
<Btn1Down>,<Btn1Up>: XmhCommitChanges() unset()
To redefine the accelerator bindings to exclude modifier keys, and add your
own keyboard accelerator for Compose Message:
Xmh*tocMenu.accelerators: #override\n\
!:<Key>I: XmhIncorporateNewMail()\n\
!:<Key>C: XmhCommitChanges()\n\
!:<Key>R: XmhForceRescan()\n\
!:<Key>P: XmhPackFolder()\n\
!:<Key>S: XmhSortFolder()\n
Xmh*messageMenu.accelerators: #override\n\
!:<Key>E: XmhComposeMessage()\n\
!<Key>space: XmhViewNextMessage()\n\
!:<Key>c: XmhMarkCopy()\n\
!:<Key>d: XmhMarkDelete()\n\
!:<Key>f: XmhForward()\n\
!:<Key>m: XmhMarkMove()\n\
!:<Key>n: XmhViewNextMessage()\n\
!:<Key>p: XmhViewPreviousMessage()\n\
!:<Key>r: XmhReply()\n\
!:<Key>u: XmhUnmark()\n
xmh provides action procedures which correspond to entries in the command
menus; these are given in the sections describing menu commands, not here.
In addition to the actions corresponding to commands in the menus, these
action routines are defined:
XmhPushFolder( [foldername, ...] )
This action pushes each of its argument(s) onto a stack of foldernames.
If no arguments are given, the selected folder is pushed onto the
stack.
XmhPopFolder()
This action pops one foldername from the stack and sets the selected
folder.
XmhPopupFolderMenu()
This action should always be taken when the user selects a folder
button. A folder button represents a folder and zero or more
subfolders. The menu of subfolders is built upon the first reference,
by this routine. If there are no subfolders, this routine will mark
the folder as having no subfolders, and no menu will be built. In that
case the menu button emulates a toggle button. When subfolders exist,
the menu will popup, using the menu button action PopupMenu().
XmhSetCurrentFolder()
This action allows menu buttons to emulate toggle buttons in the
function of selecting a folder. This action is for menu button widgets
only, and sets the selected folder.
XmhLeaveFolderButton()
This action ensures that the menu button behaves properly when the user
moves the pointer out of the menu button window.
XmhPushSequence( [sequencename, ...] )
This action pushes each of its arguments onto the stack of sequence
names. If no arguments are given, the selected sequence is pushed onto
the stack.
XmhPopSequence()
This action pops one sequence name from the stack of sequence names,
which then becomes the selected sequence.
XmhPromptOkayAction()
This action is equivalent to pressing the okay button in the Create
Folder popup.
XmhReloadSeqLists()
This action rescans the contents of the public MH sequences for the
currently opened folder and updates the sequence menu if necessary.
XmhShellCommand ( parameter [, parameter] )
At least one parameter must be specified. The parameters will be
concatenated with a space character separator, into a single string,
and the list of selected messages, or if no messages are selected, the
current message, will be appended to the string of parameters. The
string will be executed as a shell command. The messages are always
given as absolute pathnames. It is an error to cause this action to
execute when there are no selected messages and no current message.
XmhCheckForNewMail()
This action will check all mail drops known to xmh. If no mail drops
have been specified by the user either through the .xmhcheck file or by
the initialIncFile resource, the MH command msgchk is used to check for
new mail, otherwise, xmh checks directly.
XmhWMProtocols( [wm_delete_window] [wm_save_yourself] )
This action is responsible for participation in window manager
communication protocols. It responds to delete window and save
yourself messages. The user can cause xmh to respond to one or both of
these protocols, exactly as if the window manager had made the request,
by invoking the action with the appropriate parameters. The action is
insensitive to the case of the string parameters. If the event
received is a ClientMessage event and parameters are present, at least
one of the parameters must correspond to the protocol requested by the
event for the request to be honored by xmh.
CUSTOMIZATION USING MH
The initial text displayed in a composition window is generated by
executing the corresponding MH command; that is, comp, repl, or forw, and
therefore message components may be customized as specified for those
commands. comp is executed only once per invocation of xmh and the message
template is re-used for every successive new composition.
xmh uses MH commands, including inc, msgchk, comp, send, repl, forw,
refile, rmm, pick, pack, sort, and scan. Some options for these commands
can be specified in the MH profile; xmh may override them. The application
resource debug can be set to true to see how xmh uses MH commands.
ENVIRONMENT
HOME users's home directory
MH to get the location of the MH profile file
FILES
~/.mh_profile
MH profile, used if the MH environment variable is not set
~/Mail
directory of folders, used if the MH profile cannot be found
~/.xmhcheck
optional, for multiple mail drops in cooperation with slocal
/usr/local/mh6
MH commands, as a last resort, see mhPath
~/Mail/<folder>/.xmhcache
scan output in each folder
~/Mail/<folder>/.mh_sequences
sequence definitions, in each folder
/tmp
temporary files, see tempDir
BUGS
· When the user closes a window, all windows which are transient for
that window should also be closed by xmh.
· When XmhUseAsComposition and XmhViewUseAsComposition operate on
messages in the DraftsFolder, xmh disallows editing of the composition
if the same message is also being viewed in another window.
· Occasionally after committing changes, the table of contents will
appear to be completely blank when there are actually messages
present. When this happens, refreshing the display, or typing
Control-L in the table of contents, will often cause the correct
listing to appear. If this does not work, force a rescan of the
folder.
· Should recognize and use the "unseen" message-sequence.
· Should determine by itself if the user has not used MH before, and
offer to create the .mh_profile, instead of hanging on inc.
· A few commands are missing (rename folder, resend message).
· WM_DELETE_WINDOW protocol does not work right when requesting deletion
of the first toc and view, while trying to keep other xmh windows
around.
· Does not support annotations when replying to messages.
· Does not allow folders to be shared without write permission.
· Does not recognize private sequences.
· MH will report that the .mh_sequences file is poorly formatted if any
sequence definition in a particular folder contains more than BUFSIZ
characters. xmh tries to capture these messages and display them when
they occur, but it cannot correct the problem.
· Message numbers are limited to four digits; xmh cannot handle message
numbers greater than 9999.
SEE ALSO
X(1X), xrdb(1X), mh(1), X Toolkit Intrinsics, AthenaWidgetSet
At least one book has been published about OMH and xmh.
AUTHOR
Terry Weissman, formerly of Digital Western Research Laboratory; Donna
Converse, MIT X Consortium
|
Index for
Section 1X |
|
|
Alphabetical
listing for X |
|
 |
Top of
page |
|