(An HTML version of this document is available at
 http://www.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu/pilot/TGpostman/ )

 From the producers of Top Gun Telnet and Top Gun ssh...

    _________________________________________________________________

  [INLINE] [INLINE] [INLINE] [INLINE]

                             Top Gun Postman

                             Version 1.2 beta


  [ Introduction | What's New | Installation | Configuration | Composing
   Mail | Sending Mail | Receiving Mail | FAQ | Terms, Conditions, and
                               Disclaimer ]

    _________________________________________________________________

Introduction

  Top Gun Postman is a POP3/APOP3 and SMTP capable mail dispatcher that
  runs on the Palm Pilot Professional. Top Gun Postman enables you to
  send mail messages that you have composed offline, and retrieve mail
  messages that are waiting for you in your POP3/APOP3 accessible mail
  spool. Top Gun Postman is not a complete mail package - it relies on
  the built-in Mail program that is distributed with the Palm Pilot Pro
  for the composition and viewing of messages.

  This release is a beta version of the program, which means that
  although we believe we've eliminated most of the bugs, you may still
  run across a few. If so, please report them.

  Feedback is encouraged; you can reach the developers at
  <[email protected]>.

What's New

  Version 1.2 beta incorporates the following new features and
  bug-fixes:
    * The progress bar no longer jumps to the top of the screen if the
      Pilot is tapped during a download.
    * The Pilot no longer times out and turns itself off during long
      downloads.
    * Sometimes the "Send Mail" button used to act like the "Both"
      button - this is fixed.
    * Many people reported weird crashes; we traced this to the Pilot
      function FrmCustomAlert(), which is supposed to bring up an error
      dialog box. Unfortunately, it seems to be buggy and will often
      crash the Pilot instead. We removed the call to this routine and
      replaced it with our own error dialog box.
    * Top Gun Postman now correctly redials your modem if it had tried
      before and failed. The recommended way to disconnect PPP is still
      to push the green button.
    * Added an option to paste extra headers at the bottom of each
      message. The old options to paste them at the top, or not at all,
      are still present.
    * Added To: and Cc: headers to the query dialog, so you can see
      (for example) to which mailing list the message was sent.
    * Added the standard Edit menu to the Preferences screens.
    * Added an option to select message truncation size. The "Mem"
      choice means to download as much as will fit in a memory record;
      other choices limit the message to between .5 KB and 16 KB.
    * Added an option to delete messages from the server only if they
      were completely downloaded (not truncated).

  Version 1.1 beta incorporated the following new features and
  bug-fixes:
    * Top Gun Postman now handles the downloading of large messages more
      gracefully. If a message is too large, the entire messaage will be
      downloaded, but only as much of the message as can be put in an
      Inbox record is saved. This is usually between 20-24KB worth of
      data, but sometimes as large as 32KB. You will notice a "message
      truncated" status indicator in the download progress screen if
      this occurs.
    * A new button has been added to the main screen that sends SMTP
      mail and receives POP mail in one fell swoop.
    * Top Gun Postman notices and obeys "Status:" headers. If you select
      "Save only unread messages" in the POP preferences screen, and if
      a downloaded message contains a Status header with the "R" flag
      set (i.e. the message has been read before), the message will not
      be saved in your Inbox.
    * A potential memory leak was plugged. This memory leak would only
      be tickled if the server does not understand TOP, you have
      selected "Paste extra headers", and you have selected "Query for
      each message". (Bet you're wondering how we figured that one out,
      eh?)
    * Your POP password is no longer displayed in the POP preferences
      form.
    * "X-Mailer:" and "X-URL:" headers are added to outgoing messages.
    * Graffiti state indicators were added to the preferences forms.

Downloading and Installing Top Gun Postman

   1. Download TGpostman-1.2.zip and unzip the archive.
   2. Install TGpostman.prc on your Pilot (using Pilot Desktop on your
      Windows machine or pilot-xfer on your Unix machine).

  You are now ready to configure Top Gun Postman.

Configuring Top Gun Postman

   1. Ensure that your Network and Modem preferences on your Pilot are
      set correctly to establish a PPP connection.
   2. Open the TG Postman application. You should see a screen that
      looks like this:

                                 [INLINE]
   3. Tap on the Menu button to bring up the menus.
   4. Tap on the About menu, and select About.... Enjoy our cool
      attribution and the 1 bit photo of ourselves.
   5. Tap on the Menu button, and select the SMTP Prefs... item
      under the Options menu. You should see a screen that looks like
      this:

                                 [INLINE]
   6. Enter the hostname or IP address of your SMTP server in the first
      field.
   7. Enter your email address in the second field.
   8. Enter your real name in the third field.
   9. Tap on the Save button.
  10. Select the Pop Prefs... item under the Options menu. You
      should see a screen that looks like this:

                                 [INLINE]
  11. Enter the hostname or IP address of your POP3 server in the first
      field.
  12. Enter your POP3 username in the second field.
  13. Tap on the Tap to enter box to bring up the password box, which
      looks like this:

                                 [INLINE]
  14. Enter your POP3 password in the field, and tap on OK.
  15. If you are using APOP, tap on the checkbox next to Use APOP.
  16. If you want to see headers other than To:, From:, Cc:, and
      Subject:, pop up the list next to Paste extra headers, and
      select either "Top" or "Bottom". These extra headers will appear
      at the beginning of the message if you select "Top", or at the end
      of the message if you select "Bottom". Selecting "No" will
      suppress the extra headers.
  17. If you want incoming messages to be truncated automatically at a
      certain size, select that size from the popup list next to
      Truncate messages at. If you want as much of incoming messages
      as possible to be stored, select the "Mem" option from the list;
      this will cause Top Gun Postman to truncate the message only when
      it cannot allocate any more memory for it. This memory limit is
      usually around 20-24K, but sometimes is as large as 32K or more.
  18. If you want to automatically delete messages from the server after
      downloading them, select "Yes" from the popup list next to Delete
      from server. If you select "No", messages will stay on the server
      after you download them. If you select "If complete", messages
      will be deleted from the server only if they were not truncated
      during download.
  19. If you want Top Gun Postman to not save any messages that you have
      read before, tap on the checkbox next to Save only unread
      messages. This is useful in case you have lots of previously
      viewed messages in your POP3 mailspool that you don't want
      cluttering up your inbox. Top Gun Postman detects previously read
      messages by noting that the R status flag is set in a Status:
      header.
  20. If you want Top Gun Postman to query you for what to do before
      downloading each message (giving you the opportunity to view the
      headers for a message before downloading it), tap on the checkbox
      next to Query for each message. This is useful in case people
      like sending you postscript or large MIME inclusions by email. If
      this option is selected as well as Save only unread messages,
      you will NOT be queried regarding previously read messages.
  21. Tap on the Save button.

  You are now ready to use Top Gun Postman.

Using Top Gun Postman

 Composing Mail

  To compose mail, use the Mail application that is built into the
  Palm Pilot Professional. Your composed mail will be filed in your
  Outbox, which is where Top Gun Postman will look for messages to
  send. If the very first line of your mail message is ## (on a line by
  itself), then all subsequent lines until a completely blank line are
  treated as additional headers.

 Sending Mail

  To send previously composed mail, launch TG Postman and tap on the
  Send mail button. Top Gun Postman will attempt to start a PPP
  session (if one hasn't already been started), and then will connect to
  the configured SMTP server and send your mail. All successfully sent
  mail messages will be refiled in the Filed folder.

 Receiving Mail

  In order to receive new mail messages, launch TG Postman and tap on
  the Get mail button. Top Gun Postman will start a PPP session (if
  necessary), and then will connect to the POP server. Once
  authentication has succeeded, Top Gun Postman will begin downloading
  messages. You should notice a dialog box that looks like the following
  while messages are being downloaded:

                                 [INLINE]

  The "Retrieving message X of Y" indicator tells you how many messages
  are in your POP mail spool, and the status bar below this indicates
  the download progress of the current message.

  If you have indicated that you want Top Gun Postman to query you for
  each message, a dialog box will pop up after the header of each
  message is downloaded; this dialog box contains two buttons and a
  checkbox as well as the message headers and size, and should look like
  this:

                                 [INLINE]

  If your POP3 server does not support the "TOP" command, you won't be
  able to preview the message headers, and will only see the message
  size. Select an entry from the Delete from server popup list if you
  want to change the default delete behavior for this message; the
  entries have the same meanings as in the POP Preferences screen. Then,
  tap on either the Get Message or the Skip Message button depending
  on whether you want the message to be retrieved or not. Note: if you
  tap on Skip Message, but have Delete from server set to "Yes", the
  message will not be downloaded but will be deleted from the server.

  All downloaded messages will be automatically filed in your Inbox.
  If you hit the Cancel button in the middle of a POP3 mail transfer,
  any already downloaded messages will be preserved on your Pilot, but
  no messages will be deleted from the POP3 server.

  Note: to send your outgoing messages and download your POP mail all at
  once, you can tap the Both button at the bottom of the main title
  screen.

Frequently Asked Questions

   1. Why can't Top Gun Postman drop my PPP connection when I'm done
      downloading/sending mail?
      Top Gun Postman doesn't control PPP - Palm OS automatically forges
      the default PPP connection when the network library is accessed. A
      useful trick, however, is to simply turn off the Pilot by pressing
      the green button instead of going to the Network preferences
      screen to manually disconnect PPP. Turning off the Pilot causes an
      open PPP connection to be gracefully shut down.
   2. What is the maximum message size that Top Gun Postman handles?
      Mail Inbox records are limited to roughly 32KB in size by Palm OS,
      so we cannot store mail messages larger than this. We do
      gracefully handle large messages by truncating them as needed.
   3. Can Top Gun Postman handle file attachments?
      Nope. Maybe in the future, but no promises.

Credits, Terms, Restrictions, and Disclaimers

  Top Gun Postman (aka TG Postman) was written by Ian Goldberg and Steve
  Gribble. If you feel so inclined, you may send money, postcards,
  t-shirts, or anything else you think we'd like to:

    Ian Goldberg and Steve Gribble
    Soda Hall #1776, UC Berkeley Campus
    Berkeley, CA 94720-1776
    USA

  Comments, bug reports, success and failure stories are welcome; send
  them to the pilot-unix list or to the developers at
  <[email protected]>.

  Back to the ISAAC Group's Pilot page
    _________________________________________________________________

  This software is copyrighted by the Regents of the University of
  California. The following terms apply to all files associated with the
  software unless explicitly disclaimed in individual files.

  The authors hereby grant permission to use, copy, modify, distribute,
  and license this software and its documentation for any purpose,
  provided that existing copyright notices are retained in all copies
  and that this notice is included verbatim in any distributions. No
  written agreement, license, or royalty fee is required for any of the
  authorized uses. Modifications to this software may be copyrighted by
  their authors and need not follow the licensing terms described here,
  provided that the new terms are clearly indicated on the first page of
  each file where they apply.

  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR DISTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY
  FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
  ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, ITS DOCUMENTATION, OR ANY
  DERIVATIVES THEREOF, EVEN IF THE AUTHORS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE
  POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

  THE AUTHORS AND DISTRIBUTORS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTIES,
  INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
  MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND
  NON-INFRINGEMENT. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, AND
  THE AUTHORS AND DISTRIBUTORS HAVE NO OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE
  MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT, UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR MODIFICATIONS.
    _________________________________________________________________


   Ian Goldberg / [email protected]


   Steve Gribble / [email protected]

  Last modified: Mon Jul 7 14:09:15 1997

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