[comp.os.vms] Automating MAIL/EDIT - an answer

CADS_COLE@GALLUA.BITNET ("Kevin Cole at Gallaudet U. Washington DC") (12/20/87)

On 19-Dec-87 <kieffer%Ucnet.UNCA.AdhocNet.CA%UNCAEDU.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Rom Kieffer posted the a query on how to play with his mail a la EDT.
...

>but it seems I cannot tell the command to repeat from begin:end, I can of
>course use 100(I> ^Z nl), but then if there are only 10 lines of text, the
>editor creates another 90. Not quite what I intended....

So go backwards... Move to the end of the file and search in reverse for the
string "^M" replacing it with "^M>".  I've got a special EDTINI.EDT set up to
do that.  (I use MAILEDIT.COM to reference the new ini file.)  Anyway, here it
is for the curious:

SET CURSOR 0:20
SET SCREEN 80
SET WRAP 79
SET SEARCH BEGIN
SET ENTITY WORD '^H^I^J^K^L^M !"#$%&''()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\]^_`{|}~'
SET WORD NODELIMITER
DEFINE KEY GOLD  8 AS "-C-CD+C+CUNDC+C."
DEFINE KEY GOLD 14 AS "5SHL."
DEFINE KEY GOLD 15 AS "5SHR."
DEFINE KEY GOLD D AS "DATE."
C; ER -L 32000(62ASC -2L) ER EX
INC SYS$LOGIN:SIGNATURE.TXT
F BEG
SET MODE CHANGE

The above plays around with what legally delimits a word, creates a transpose
key and a shift screen left and right function.
  Then comes the fun part... the meat of your problem.  We:

force it into temporary change mode (C;)
go to end of file (ER)
backup one line (-L)
repeat the following line LOTS (32000(...))
insert a ">" (62ASC) and back up to the beginning of the previous line (-2L)
go to end of file again (ER) and exit change mode (EX)

Drop in a signature file (INC...) and move to the beginning of the file (F BEG)
and we're ready to roll.

                                        Enjoy!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Cole      <Flatline>              BITNET: KJCOLE@GALLUA.BITNET
Center for Assessment and                               or
Demographic Studies  (CADS)                     CADS_COLE@GALLUA.BITNET
Gallaudet Research Institute  (GRI)     UUCP: ...!psuvax!gallua.bitnet!kjcole
Gallaudet University                    CompuServe: 76167,1406
Washington, D.C.  20002
(202) 651-5575

             "Hey Rocky!  Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!"