Ishmail Resources

This section describes Ishmail resources. It contains resource definitions and a sample file.

In addition to the resources common to X and Motif, there are a number of resources that you can add or change to customize specific features of Ishmail.

The application looks for these resources in the $HOME/.ishmailrc file and the $HOME/app-defaults/Ishmail file.

The $HOME/.ishmailrc file is created when you start Ishmail. At first, it is empty. When you specify any preference in an Ishmail Options menu, the modified resource is written to this file.

In general, resources that govern color, type fonts, and window widget labels within the Ishmail application should be added to your app-defaults/Ishmail file.

Default resources are found in the lib subdirectory of where the Ishmail package was installed. For example, if you use the pkgadd command to install the SPARC64/OS, the resources will be in /opt/ishmail/1.1/lib/Ishmail. If you create a $HOME/app-defaults/Ishmail file it is not necessary (nor desirable) to first copy everything from the default file. The resources you define supplement or override those in the default file.

If you want resource changes to apply to everyone who is using Ishmail, make the changes to the default file.

Default resources are separated into several files, grouped by function. The Ishmail file contains #include statements, which cause the separate files to be read as if they were all part of a single, large file. These resource files are:

Ishmail.lang

Contains all the menu and button labels, and various pop-up messages, that are used in the program. Also, contains definitions for shortcut key sequences. If you wanted to create a non-English language version of Ishmail, this file and the Ishmail.help file are what you would need to change.

Ishmail.colors

Contains the color specifications for windows and menus. There is a related file, Ishmail.colors-mono, intended for use if you have a monochrome monitor. There are two ways to use the monochrome version of this. You can change the Ishmail file to include Ishmail.colors-mono, that will affect everyone, or put this resource in your $HOME/.ishmailrc or $HOME/app-defaults/Ishmail file:

Ishmail*customization:	-mono

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TIP:
Some graphical desktops, for example HP VUE or the CDE Desktop, attempt to control the colors for all programs. Resources in this file can cause conflicts that result in odd looking color schemes, or worse, unreadable color combinations such as white text on a white background. To fix this, comment out (put an exclamation point character, !, at the beginning of the line) the Ishmail.colors line.

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Ishmail.fonts

Contains font definitions for labels, buttons, lists, and text. There is an alternative file, Ishmail.fonts.ow, intended for use on systems using Sun's Open Windows environment.

Ishmail.help

Contains all the quick help messages as well as pointers to the on-line help cards, which are defined in Ishmail.hlp.

Ishmail.hlp

Contains the on-line help cards.

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TIP:
The help cards are read into memory when Ishmail is started. If you are concerned about excessive memory use by the program, and you don't mind loosing the use of the help cards, comment out the following line, found in the Ishmail.help file:

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ishmail.helpcardDbFiles:                Ishmail.hlp

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WARNING:
The help card file contains a table at the end which defines offsets into the file where help cards are located. This table greatly speeds access to the help cards. However, this makes it very difficult to change the wording of the help cards, such as translating them to another language. If you change the length of a help card you will invalidate the offsets in the table, resulting in scrambled help cards when they are used.

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Ishmail.misc

Contains everything not in the other files, such as:

• Name of the external editor command

• Name of the spelling checker command

• Name of the web browser command

• Name of the command used to send mail

• Window geometries

• 3D visual attributes

• Icon definitions

• Margins and spacing control

• etc.

Other default resource files, not directly related to X or Motif, are:

mailcap

Defines the methods used for composing, viewing, and printing various MIME data types. The following section describes this file in more detail.

Edit this file to make changes that will affect all Ishmail users. Or, you can add entries to your $HOME/.mailcap file to specify your own utilities for viewing and printing Ishmail messages that contain MIME content.

mime.types

Defines the default MIME data type for various file name suffixes. For example, a file named xyz.gif is assumed to be a GIF file. This relationship is used when you include or attach a file to a message.

Edit this file to make changes that will affect all Ishmail users. Or, you can add entries to your $MIMETYPES file to specify relationship between file names and data types.

mailrc

Defines e-mail aliases common to all Ishmail users. The format of the alias entries is the same as defined for the sendmail aliases file.

The resource Ishmail*groupAliasFile: can be set to refer to a different alias file.

Edit this file to make changes that will affect all Ishmail users. Or, you can add entries to your $HOME/.mailrc file to specify your own e-mail aliases.

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TIP:
Use the Aliases dialog from the Main window Options menu to make changes to your $HOME/.mailrc file. If you have write permission for the mailrc file, you can use the Group Aliases dialog from the Main window Options menu to make changes to it.

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TIP:
Ishmail can also use e-mail aliases defined for other programs such as elm, pine, and Zmail. For example, to use pine aliases, add this resource to your $HOME/app-defaults/Ishmail file:

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Ishmail*otherAliasFiles: $HOME/.addressbook

XKeysymDB

Contains keyboard mappings.

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TIP:
If you see various warning messages from the X server about problems mapping keys, try commenting out the following line in the ishmail shell script:

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XKEYSYMDB=$ISHLIB/XKeysymDB; export XKEYSYMDB