3 The Mail Reader
The environment includes tools which let you read and send electronic mail. This chapter tells you how to use the mail reader, which is used for reading mail. The mailer, documented in The Mailer, is used to send mail.
You can start a mail reader by selecting
Tools > Rmail
in the podium or
Works > Mail > Read Mail
from any tool. You can also enter
Meta+X Rmail
in any Editor-based window. The mail reader appears as in Figure 3.1 Example mail reader.
The mail reader reads and saves mail files in RMAIL format (as used by the EMACS text editor). When you first start the mail browser, new mail is searched for and placed in the file
~/RMAIL
. See Changing the default RMAIL file if you wish to use an alternative file by default.
Figure 3.1 Example mail reader
The mail reader has six main areas.
-
The
message area
shows the current message.
-
The
filter box
allows you to filter out unwanted messages.
-
The
summary area
shows a summary of all the messages, with the sender and subject of each message shown. The
current message
(that is, the message displayed in the Message area) is the one selected in the Summary area.If a message has been marked for deletion, answered, forwarded, or stored in another file, this is indicated in the Summary area.
To read a particular message, select it in the Summary area.
-
At the bottom of the mail reader window is a row of buttons which let you perform some of the most common mail reading operations easily and quickly.
-
The
echo area
is identical to that found on any Common LispWorks tool; see, for example, the podium, which consists of a menu bar and an echo bar only.
-
The
summary status area
provides you with information about the status of the summary area in the mail reader.
LispWorks for UNIX Supplementary Manual - 11 Apr 2005
