LEICHTER-JERRY@YALE.ARPA.UUCP (03/06/87)
In a previous message, I described how to use the MAIL$EDIT logical to cause MAIL to invoke your favorite editor. MAIL$EDIT either points to a command file, in which case that command file is SPAWN'ed, or is of the form CALLABLE_xxx, in which case xxx is mapped in and called. Two comments: - If you have a kept Emacs, you can use it by having your command file simply attach to it. There is no direct way to have MAIL attach to it. - SPAWN'ed editors are subject to some restrictions: You cannot use /LAST with /EDIT, the EDIT command, or READ/EDIT. There may be other commands or combinations that don't work. The problem is that, in all these cases - well, not for EDIT, I'm not sure why that doesn't work - there is no file name that MAIL can pass off to the editor; the data to be edited may exist only within the MAIL file as a couple of records, or in a temporary file that is not in any directory. This is no problem with the callable interface, which allows MAIL to specify callback functions within MAIL itself to read and write to the "file". Fixable, but doesn't work as of V4.5. -- Jerry -------