TEACH MAIL                                         Aaron Sloman Oct 1982

=== READING MESSAGES AND SENDING MESSAGES TO OTHER USERS ===============

Sometimes when you log in you will see on the screen that you have
received a message. You can read your messages using the DCL $MAIL
command, as described below. You can also use $MAIL to send messages to
other people.

For practice try sending a message to yourself, as follows (after reading
down to the row of asterisks):

    PRESS ENTER
    type:   $MAIL
    Press RETURN

You will then find that the cursor goes to the bottom of the screen and
you are given the prompt

    MAIL>

Type SEND and press RETURN

MAIL will prompt you with a request for the name of the recipient, thus:
    TO :

You should then type your USER NAME and press return.
MAIL will ask you what the subject of the mail is, thus:
    SUBJ:

You can then type, something like TESTING MAIL, and press RETURN.

Finally MAIL tells you to type in your message, and says that when you
have finished you should type CTRL/Z. What that means is Hold down the
CTRL key (on left of Keyboard) and while doing so, press the Z key, once
(don't hold it down).

Type in some silly message to yourself. MAIL will not prompt you while it
is reading in the message. When you've finished type CTRL/Z, as above. The
computer will acknowledge receiving that by putting "^Z" on the screen.

You'll then be told that you have received some mail from yourself!
MAIL will again prompt you

    MAIL>

You can then type CTRL/Z again, to leave MAIL.

You can then press RETURN to get back here.

The interaction will look something like this:

    MAIL> send
    TO: your-name
    SUBJ: testing mail
        Enter your message... finish with CTRL/Z
        <your message>
    ^Z
    New mail from <your-name>
    MAIL> ^Z
    VED HERE: PRESS RETURN TO CONTINUE

Try all that, making sure you've got all the steps, including how to leave
MAIL after typing in your message.

-- READING YOUR MESSAGES ------------------------------------------------

MAIL can also be invoked to read messages you have received. To do that, give
the ENTER $MAIL command again, to get the prompt

    MAIL>

This time, instead of typing SEND, just press the RETURN key. Your message
will be displayed. If it is too long to fit on the screen, only part will
be displayed and you'll have to press RETURN to get the rest. After the
message has all been printed out, you'll get the prompt

    MAIL>

Unless you definitely want to read the message again some other time you
should now type

    D

and press return, to delete the message from your mail file (otherwise it
will take up valuable space on the disk, making it more likely that you
will one day run out of space).

After that press RETURN again. If you have any more messages the next one
will be printed out. Repeat the procedure, i.e. pressing RETURN and giving
the D command after reading each message. Eventually you will be told you
have no more new messages. If you press RETURN again, it will print out
any old messages which you have not yet deleted, and you can cycle
throught the messages again.

When you have finished reading your messages, leave MAIL exactly as before
(i.e. CTRL/Z).

Try that, and press RETURN when you get the 'VED HERE' message.

-- REPLYING TO MAIL -----------------------------------------------

If someone sends you a message and you want to reply, then instead of typing
D to delete the message you can type

    REPLY

After that type in your message, and end with CTRL/Z. When you get back
the MAIL> prompt, press RETURN again, and the message will be
re-displayed. You can then type D to delete it, and press RETURN to go on
reading other messages.

Get a friend to send you a message and try using REPLY to respond.

-- INVOKING MAIL FROM OUTSIDE THE EDITOR ----------------------------------

If you are talking to POP-11 (as indicated by the colon prompt) and want
to use mail, then just give the DCL command

    : $MAIL

(You don't type the colon). When you have finished with mail you'll again
get the colon prompt as a reminder that you have returned to POP-11.

You can use mail to send messages to your tutor about difficulties you are
having. You may get help that way before the next tutorial! Make sure you
know the tutors login name. (See TEACH * TUTORS)

See also HELP * SEND
