PoPiT, a Visual Basic POP 3 Kluge  **** B E T A ****

(Read this document with a fixed size font)

Works wherever a VB5 application can run... Hopefully!!!

############################################
Who could find this kluge useful...
############################################

This program  was designed  for those who  read their e-mail  with old
fashioned mail programs that expect the  mail to stay on a local file,
or to replace Emacs pop3.el when it freezes your marvel for too a long
time because your e-mail link is slow.

This program is  useful when you work with VB5 (or  later) or other VB
applications, so they  share the runtime. Other users  could find that
it wants too much resources...

############################################
Description...
############################################

The  program starts,  asks  POP server  logname  and password,  checks
immediately the POP server for new  mail to download and then begin an
endless  loop where it  sleeps for  some minutes  and then  checks the
server for new mail to download.

It  display an  Xbiff like  window without  title and  widgets  with a
mailbox that "raise its flag" when the program dowloaded some e-mail.

Other icons displaied in place of the maibox : 

      A light signal, showing the connection state

	      red			just connected
	      yellow			USER command issued
	      green			PASS command issued

      An animated moon during downloads

Furthermore  some dot on  the bottom  of the  window show  the minutes
remaining before the next download.

############################################
Installation ...
############################################

Source Only  : 

You have visual basic, all you  need is to unpack the source somewhere
and compile  it.  Add a popit.ini  file in your  windows directory and
create it as shown below.

Full distribution : 

Unpack  the  two zip  files  in  a directory  on  your  HD  on on  two
disks. Then run  setup.exe, it is the standard  microsoft Visual Basic
setup and uninstall. After installation reboot the system (if prompted
to do so)  and then edit the popit.ini file  in your windows directory
(see below).  Warning : if you uninstall PoPiT you have to delete this
file manually.

############################################
Configuration ...
############################################

Open the  popit.ini file  that is in  the Windows directory  with your
favourite editor (Emacs recommended, vi is supported, use notepad only
in emergency cases).

The file  looks like this  (you can cut  and paste these lines  if you
need to create it):

-------------------------------------------------------
[DATA]
HOST = 127.0.0.1
INBOX = c:\inbox
WAIT = 6
-------------------------------------------------------

HOST is the  address of your POP server. I used  an IP here (loopback)
just to put something in.

INBOX is the file file where your mail is stored once downloaded.

WAIT is the  time between fetchings. time is  in minutes, valid values
go from 1 to 6 minutes.

		       No checking is performed
	       This program is  in beta version and  at
		    this time is not  meant to be
		    used by a computer illiterate.

		     So enter a correct value!!!!

############################################
Emacs specific configuration ...
############################################

If you where using Emacs own pop services as explained in NTEmacs WWW
pages you have to comment out the lines 

(setenv "MAILHOST" "pop.server.internet.address")
(setq rmail-primary-inbox-list '("po:pop-account") 
      rmail-pop-password-required t)

Emacs will  then revert  to the original  "take e-mail from  the $MAIL
file"  behaviour.   So you  need  to add  the  MAIL  variable to  your
environment.  Right  click on the  "Computer Resources" icon  (is that
opening the window with  disk units, control pane, printers folder...)
choose Properties and then choose  the Environment tab -ach, I have an
Italian speaking NT... I hope  my words are clear enough-. Choose your
own variables,  then enter a new  variable called MAIL  whose value is
the same string you used for the INBOX key in your ini file.

That's all...

Suggestions, comments, bug reports are welcome...

					Gian Uberto Lauri
					lauri@eng.it

