Subj : How do you edit msg files
To : Mindsurfer
From : Digital Man
Date : Tue Oct 21 2025 10:55 pm
Re: How do you edit msg files
By: Mindsurfer to Digital Man on Wed Oct 22 2025 01:43 am
> Re: How do you edit msg files
> By: Digital Man to Mindsurfer on Tue Oct 21 2025 15:06:24
>
> >> Currently i am using Moebius for Linux to edit the ANS files. There is
> >> IcyDraw, wich can handle MSG files directly (i guess), but it always is
> no
> >> WYSIWYG editing as soon as you want to use @Codes, but guessing,
> measuring,
> >> textediting afterwards.
> >> Example: head.msg/head.ans IcyDraw/Moebius
https://imgur.com/a/T9anJRs
>
> DM> One thing that helps is insuring that the raw @-code uses the same
> DM> number of characters as the fixed/maximum length of the displayed
> DM> string using fill characters (e.g. #'s) see
> DM>
https://wiki.synchro.net/custom:atcodes#formatting for an exmaple.
>
> Ok. i am using something like that already, for shortening the Time
> (AT)TIME-L5(AT) for example. I was reading about the formatting features and
> will use em. the @CODE|R#######@ could also come in handy for longer
> strings.
>
> DM> This works so long as the width of the string is less than or equal to
> DM> the total length of the raw @-code. If you find an @-code where you'd
> DM> prefer a shorter alternative alias, let me know and I'll see what I can
> DM> do for ya.
>
> Thanks for the alternative short-code offer!
> I guess editing the ansi WYSIWYG when using @codes can work in some cases
> but is limited.
>
> The only thing that comes to my mind as a workaround, is to use placeholders
> with the correct length and a script to replace the placeholders with the
> @codes in the ANS file afterwards. for example ~~~1 ~~~~~~~~2 ~3 as
> placeholders, to be replaced with the @code-l4@ (~~~1) etc.
So what I was suggesting was that the @-code itself can be the "placeholder" (so long as the @-code is the same length as the expanded string).
--
digital man (rob)
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