There are many good email programs available for Internet users to chose from. I've tried several, but find that Pegasus Mail for Windows 3.1 or Windows95/NT is the best by far. It is simple to set up, is intuitive to use both by home and professional users, has a rich set of features for advanced users and is free.
(If you are in Europe)
or (If you are in N. America) The file to be downloaded has a name like winpmxxx.exe. This is self-extracting;
for example, the current version of Pegasus Mail for Windows 3.1 (version
2.42a) is contained in wimpm242.exe.
The self-extracting file contains files supporting several extensions
for Pegasus Mail, for example Finger and Ph directory clients, a telephone
message application and other extensions providing mailmerge and a "business
card". In addition to these, 3rd party developers have provided other
extensions (often as Freeware). A prime example is one developed by John
Navas for using PGP to encrypt/decrypt outgoing/incoming messages. All
of these are implemented as Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs) and operate within
Pegasus Mail's framework, using its internal features.
It is also possible to develop stand-alone software which is independent
of Pegasus Mail, but which uses its facilities. An example is a small program
(Ns_PM - formerly Mail2Peg.Exe) I have developed for use with Netscape.
It takes over Netscape's email sending function and transfers it to Pegasus
with its richer features. In addition, it can be used to get Netscape to
search for a http://.../...htm page or download a ftp://.../....zip file
given as a URL reference in email being viewed in Pegasus Mail's Reader
window - or even in some other document.
Most Extensions are developed using the C/C++ language system, but any
system which can create Dynamic Link Library files (DLLs) is suitable.
I prefer to use Delphi and, if you are interested you might like to visit
Developing Extensions in Delphi . This describes
how to do it with an example.
Ns_PM is designed for use with Netscape 1.2/1.22/2.0/3.0 and PMAIL2.3x
and higher. (It has only been tested with Windows 3.1.) The program shows
a small window with 3 buttons, "Go URL", "OnTop" and
"Setup". After selecting (see later) a mailto: URL on a web page
(eg mailto:fred@tennis.net) and clicking the Go URL button, Pegasus Mail's
New Mail dialog appears with "fred@tennis.net" showing in the
To: field ready to go.
Alternatively, if a web page URL is selected (eg http://domain.com/jack.htm)
from, eg, Pegasus Mail's Reader window, and the Go URL button is clicked,
then control is transferred to Netscape. This is primed with the URL and
proceeds to fetch the referenced web page. If a ftp:// URL had been selected,
Netscape proceeds to download the file.
The procedure for Ns-PM's use, is explained in the following paragraphs.
(When the program is first used, press the "Setup" button and
follow the dialog to specify the full path names of Netscape.EXE and WINPMAIL.EXE
in your system.)
1. Start up Netscape. Start up Ns_PM.exe and position its small floating
window in relation to Netscape's window so that both Ns_PM's buttons and
Netscape's window are within reach of the mouse; 2. Use Netscape to select web pages etc in the usual manner. When a
mailto: URL is encountered to which you wish to respond, then:- (a) move the mouse over the URL and RIGHT click. This brings up a
floating menu; (b) LEFT click on the "Save Location" or "Copy this
link location" item. This saves the URL in the clipboard in the form:
"mailto:fred@tennis.net";
(c) LEFT click the mouse on the "Go URL" button in Ns_PM.
This starts up Winpmail.exe if necessary and brings up its New Mail edit
window with the To: field showing "fred@tennis.net";
3. From here onwards, the procedure is exactly as for Netscape's own
mail composing window. But, you get the added advantage of access to Pegasus
Mail's superior features;
1. Highlight the text in Pegasus Mail's Reader window which shows the
URL (eg, http://domain.com/jack.htm or ftp://domain.com/jack.gif). Arrange
it so that the URL appears somewhere in the first 250 characters of the
highlighted text;
2. Hit Ctrl-C which grabs the selected text into the clipboard and
click on Ns_PM's Go URL button. Netscape will then be loaded if necessary,
primed with the URL and proceed to find the sought-for web page or file.
3. If several URLs are contained in the selected (Clipboard) text then
the URL chosen on clicking the Go URL button is the first in the scan order:
http://, ftp://, telnet:, gopher: and mailto:. Thus if the selected text
were:-
"(some stuff) mailto:fred@tennis.net ftp://domain/jack.zip..(other
stuff)"
then clicking Go URL would transfer control to Netscape to fetch jack.zip
since "ftp://" preceeds "mailto:" in the scan order.
The mailto: URL is ignored unless it is the ONLY URL in the selected text.
If, however you have enabled Clickable Links and you Double-click
on the mailto: URL, Pegasus Mail takes over and brings up the New Message
window in the manner in which recent versions of Pegasus have been designed.
When using Ns_PM, it is therefore important not to accidentally Double-click
any text to highlight it.
(These procedures are much quicker and easier to do than describe and
I find they save a lot of drag-dropping or cut-pasting.)
Ns_PM is, in effect, an "external Extension" of Pegasus Mail.
When its Go URL button is clicked, it searches for a http://, ftp://, telnet:,
gopher or mailto: URL tag in the Windows Clipboard - in that order. If
none are found, a message box indicates the fact. If a URL is found, then
either Netscape (if it is a http, ftp, telnet or gopher URL) is primed
or, if it is a mailto: tag, Pegasus Mail's message composing window is
presented with the To: field filled in ready to go.
The notes above describe the use of Ns_PM whilst perusing received mail
or web pages viewed in Netscape. Since hitting Go URL digs out a URL reference
from the contents of the clipboard, it is useful to keep Ns_PM handy when
viewing other documents which might contain URLs. I usually like to keep
a note of interesting URLs (http://, ftp:// and mailto:'s) in a text file
- built-up by copy/paste from all sorts of sources. It is then simple to
open this file in Windows Notebook or Windows Write, select a URL by dragging
the mouse down a line, hitting Ctrl-C and clicking Ns_PM's "Go URL"
button. Et voila'!, either Pegasus or Netscape - whichever is appropriate
- springs to life with no more ado. In these situations it is handy to
have Ns-PM's small window "On Top". This is accomplished by the
On Top button, but be careful to move it out of the way of Pegasus Mail's
Reader window or this won't scroll properly.
Note:- - (a) since Ns_PM's Go URL button operates on the Clipboard's contents,
it doesn't matter how the URL reference had gotten into the clipboard.
- (b) Ns_PM may not work when Pegasus is minimised - it works when
ver. 2.42's tell-tale window is showing, but for previous versions it is
best either to have WINPMAIL's main window showing or for WINPMAIL to be
absent from the desktop.
- (c) Ns_PM will not work with 32 bit versions of Pegasus Mail, but
may be OK with 16 bit versions running on Windows 95 - I have not tested
it and would appreciate feedback.
You can download Ns_PM by clicking on this link: Ns_PM.exe.
(Note that this is an ordinary (http) link and you may have to hold
down the Shift key whilst clicking on it in order to bring up the familiar
file save dialog box.) Ns_PM.EXE should be copied into the same directory
as WINPMAIL.EXE.
Please understand that the use of this program is entirely at your
own risk but you are free to use it as you wish. If you do use it however,
I shall appreciate a short message from you. If you have difficulty in
using the program then I shall endeavour to provide assistance - Within
Limits,
These are useful programs for perusing email messages which contain
a package of messages compiled into a Digest, each message being separated
from its neighbours
by a fixed sequence of characters, which can be recognised by a Digest Reader
program. A decent Digest Reader makes
it much easier for a (human) reader to navigate amongst the Digest's
components - often numbering hundreds. Unfortunately there are several
different conventions defining the Separators between components. In the days
of Arpanet, a popular separator was a line of 30 dashes, but nowadays, the
MIME standard is employed in most digests such as those compiled by LISTSERV.
This standard defines the separator in the Content-Type: header line of the digest
message.
The PMAIL digest compiled by the University of Alabama, managed by
James Ford and Andrew Morrow, follows the MIME standard. Pegasus Mail recognises
MIME Digests and displays the components in a sub-folder. In addition,
various other Digest Readers are available on the Net - notably a Reader made by
David Bergart (bodafu@redactor.com) for Windows 3.1. This
is an elegant program and is both faster and easier to use than Pegasus Mail's
built-in facility. Unfortunately, it does not work with Windws NT4. Nevertheless,
David's program inspired me to write something similar for Win95/Win98/NT4/Win2000
and it comprises his 3 interlinked window pane scheme (Subject, Author and body), which
is similar in appearance, but not function, to that used in Forte's Agent News Reader.
It takes the form of a Pegasus Reader Extension and is available by downloading:- POPULIST is an Extension to Pegasus Mail, which can
interrupt the usual process of downloading all waiting emails from a POP3 host.
The waiting mail items on the host can be inspected, deleted from the host or
selectively downloaded from the host.
Click here to obtain POPULIST.
Pegasus Mail Extensions
Ns-PM
(author: Michael Glover)
Starting Pegasus Mail's New Message window from Netscape
Priming Netscape to search for a URL shown in Pegasus' Reader
Window
How Ns_PM works
Using Ns_PM in practice
Digest Readers
DigRdr: A Pegasus Mail Extension for reading MIME Digests.
This file, dr32.zip, is a ZIP archive containing 3 files:
. These files can be extracted using Winzip
or similar utilities. DigRdr.WRI, a Windows Write file, contains full instructions.
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