MultiMail FAQ v1.9
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   Some frequently asked questions about the MultiMail Offline Reader,
   and my answers.

  Topics covered in this FAQ:

    1. How do I set up my spell checker in MultiMail?
    2. Is MultiMail Y2K compliant?
    3. What are the differences between the MS-DOS and Win32 versions?
    4. There are only eight colors to choose from in the color file.
    5. I downloaded MMAIL039.ZIP, but there are no .EXE's in it.
    6. I see by your tear line that you're using version 0.40...
    7. I haven't actually tried MultiMail yet, but I have lots of
       questions
    8. How about adding X feature?
    9. Will you port MultiMail to the XYZ system?
   10. Did you know that "MultiMail" is also the name of a commercial...
   11. I'm a programmer. How can I collaborate with you?
   12. Is there an Internet mailing list for MultiMail?
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    1.1: How do I set up my spell checker in MultiMail? There's no option
    for it in MMAIL.RC.
 
   There won't be a separate option for spell checkers. But there are two
   ways you can handle it:

   Call the spell checker from your text editor. This is what I
   recommend.

   or

   Create a batch file that calls both the editor and the spell-checker,
   and set the "editor:" keyword in mmail.rc to point to this batch file.

   I can't tell you exactly what the batch file should look like, since I
   don't do this myself. (Anyone who uses one of the popular spell
   checkers, feel free to flesh this answer out a bit.) But the general
   idea would be something like this:

 editor %1
 spell %1

   (For Unix, substitute '$' for '%'.)
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    2.1: Is MultiMail Y2K compliant?
 
   By now, most people have stopped asking me this, but oddly enough it's
   still an issue -- not because of MultiMail itself, but because of the
   sometimes-abandoned software it has to interact with: QWK, Blue Wave,
   OMEN and OPX doors, as well as SOUP handlers. And some of them
   definitely have problems, though I can't give you a complete list of
   which do what. (I'll only vouch for the correctness of my own QWK
   door, Valence -- preferably version 1.6 or later.) SOUP is probably
   the least affected.

   One set of programs that have real problems are the Blue Wave doors by
   George Hatchew. These share the problem of misinterpreting the
   "tm_year" field in the standard C "struct tm" as though it were (year
   % 100) -- i.e., the last two digits -- instead of (year - 1900), which
   is the true definition. So, whenever these programs convert the year
   to an ASCII value, they print it as "100". This causes a range of
   problems, from the purely cosmetic, to the corruption of BBS message
   bases.

   Please note, however, that these bugs are due neither to MultiMail,
   nor to any flaw in the Blue Wave format; they're specific to George
   Hatchew's implementations. There are third-party BW doors with no Y2K
   bugs at all, so the format is still viable. There are also workarounds
   for some of Hatchew's programs.

   MultiMail itself contains no date-related bugs. It achieves this, in
   part, by having rather simple-minded date handling. :-) No message
   sorting by date is available, for example.
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    3.1: What are the differences between the MS-DOS and Win32 versions?
    They look the same.
 
   They're quite different internally; but yes, they function nearly
   identically. (So do the other ports.) The MS-DOS version is a 32-bit
   DPMI client, so (depending on your settings) it can read messages and
   packets just as large as the Win32 version. It even understands long
   filenames under Windows 9x. About the only advantages of the Win32
   version are mouse support, better multitasking with other Windows
   apps, and support for long filenames under Windows NT.

   Under Windows 9x, the 32-bit DOS version actually performs a little
   better than the native Win32 port. But for use under NT, I strongly
   recommend the Win32 version.
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    4.1: There are only eight colors to choose from in the color file. Why
    is it so limited?

   No, there are really 16 foreground colors, and 8 background. The high
   bit of the foreground color is set by using the "Bold" attribute in
   the color file. These are all the colors available to you in text mode
   on a standard PC-type display, with the exception of a special mode
   (not supported by MultiMail) which lets you swap the "blinking"
   attribute for 16 colors in the background, too.

    4.2: So why is it called "Bold", anyway?

   That's the ANSI name for it, and also the curses name (A_BOLD). On
   some displays (e.g., an xterm), it actually boldfaces the text,
   instead of (or in addition to) affecting the color.

    4.3: What's the purpose of the "Reverse" attribute? Why not just
    switch the colors around? Isn't that the same?

   On a monochrome terminal, no. The "Reverse" and "Bold" attributes are
   the only way to get highlighting on such a terminal. The color schemes
   I've made (though not the contrib schemes) make use of these
   attributes to ensure that they look OK when the program is run on a
   monochrome screen.
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    5.1: I downloaded MMAIL039.ZIP, but there are no .EXE's in it.

   That's a source code archive. Look under "Binaries" on the web page
   for a pre-compiled version for your platform. (If you're coming in via
   FTP, they're in:

   ftp://multimail.sourceforge.net/pub/multimail/mmail-bin/)
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    6.1: I see by your tear line that you're using version 0.40, but your web
    site only has 0.39. Where can I get 0.40?

   You should always ignore my tear lines. One of the first things I do
   after releasing a new version is to increment the version number; so
   I'm often using a version that's just ahead of the released one. It
   doesn't mean that a new release is imminent, either. My web site will
   always have the most current version.
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    7.1: I haven't actually tried MultiMail yet, but I have lots of
    questions about it.

   Try it first, then get back to me. That goes for individual features,
   too. Don't ask me what will happen if you do something -- find out for
   yourself.
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    8.1: How about adding X feature?

   Please read the TODO file before asking for new features. If X is
   listed there, you need not write me about it. (Otherwise, I don't
   mind.)
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    9.1: Will you port MultiMail to the XYZ system?

   Send me a C++ development system for XYZ, and I'll be happy to try.
   (Note that in this section, I used to use "16-bit MS-DOS" and "BeOS"
   as examples. Both are actually available now, because I was sent a
   development system for 16-bit MS-DOS, and BeOS was released for free
   online.)
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    10.1: Did you know that "MultiMail" is also the name of a commercial
    POP/IMAP/SMTP client for the Palm OS?

   Yes.

    10.2: So, couldn't you get in trouble for that?

   Actually, as far as I can tell, the subject of this FAQ predates the
   Palm OS program. (Version 0.1 came out in January 1996.) There are a
   number of other programs and products which also go by the name.

    10.3: Wow, 1996. Shouldn't you have hit version 1.0 by now?

   Yes. But bear in mind that MultiMail has had four maintainers (in
   three groups), and essentially lain fallow for long periods in
   bewteen. Also, none of us are getting paid for this. :-)
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    11.1: I'm a programmer. How can I collaborate with you?

   Use the source, Luke. Show me some actual code patches, made against
   the last released version, and document them. Then we'll talk.

   Code should look more or less like it was processed with "indent -i8
   -kr", or "-i4" if the output is too wide. No lines over 79 characters,
   please.
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    12.1: Is there an Internet mailing list for MultiMail?

   There's a discussion list, which you can subscribe to via the web at
   http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/multimail-user, or via
   email by sending an empty message with the subject "subscribe" to
   multimail-user-request@lists.sourceforge.net.

   I also have an announce list at
   http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/multimail-announce, email
   multimail-announce-request@lists.sourceforge.net. This is mostly used
   for notices of new versions. I recommend that every MultiMail user at
   least subscribe to the announce list, if possible.

   Please note that announcements are NOT crossposted to the discussion
   list.

    12.2: I'm changing ISPs; here's my new email address.

   Please tell it to the list software, not me. The lists are automated
   now, and I won't manually change a subscriber's address.
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    FAQ by William McBrine <wmcbrine@users.sourceforge.net>.
    Last updated: Apr 13 2001