Paul, at 18:34 on Jul 25 1995, you wrote to Bill Grimsley...

PE> I forgot that there was 2 ways of exiting, when I moved the exiting
PE> from the message view to the area view.  I have since remedied that
PE> problem (but in the process, hardcoded Alt-X as the way to do it).

Thanks for the f/a, and I'm using it right now for the first time, but it
appears to be exactly the same.  Alt-A still doesn't work at all, and Alt-X
still brings up the area list, same as before.  I can still only exit by
bringing up the area list then pressing Escape.  Very retrograde IMO.

BG> readkey 0x0061 areas   ; a = bring up Areas list (3.1)

PE> Anyway, change it to "readkey 0x0061 quit" and it MIGHT work. 

BG> What will happen then is that pressing "a" will quit the
program, which is 
BG> not what I had in mind.  I want it to bring up the area-list, as before.

PE> Are you making this statement because you TRIED it and KNOW it
PE> to be true, or did you just make it up? 

No, I didn't try it, because it's NOT what I wanted.  I don't care if I can
exit the program a thousand different ways, but what I do care about is the
fact that I cannot bring up the area list with the "area"
keyword.  After 3 years of using Msged, the keystrokes are automatic now,
and it really irks me that I have to actually stop and think before
bringing up the area list with Escape (and if accidentally pressed twice,
the program exits completely!).

PE> As the person who PROGRAMMED the thing, I *don't* know whether it will have 
PE> the desired effect or not, so I sure as hell hope you don't presume to.

No presumption here at all, Paul.  I have actually tried to reprogram
various key combinations to bring up the area list, but none of them work
now, which is why I've assumed that the "area" keyword has been
disabled (whether it was done accidentally or intentionally is your
problem, not mine).

Read and absorb this:  I don't mind you making the area list the main
focus, indeed, I think it's a good idea, but I do NOT like the use of
Escape to bring up said screen, when Escape also exits Msged from that
screen.  It's far too easy to accidentally double-press the key and find
yourself back in the WPS.  

Had you retained Alt-A and the "area" keyword, it would have been
OK, but to remove these functions, then change Alt-X (which used to exit
Msged) so that it brings up the area list instead, was not particularly
clever at all, IMO.

BG> Perhaps, but I've never seen YYYY-MM-DD used anywhere.  Not at all.

PE> That's because you've only ever dealt with English speaking 
PE> countries, not one of which uses that format.  Half of Europe
PE> uses the format, so does China.

What a pity that nobody here uses fidonet to communicate with any of these
non English speaking countries then, wouldn't you say?  I wasn't aware that
Msged was capable of handling Chinese script characters...

BG> Yeah, it appears to be no less stable than 3.1 so far.

PE> The actual code changes haven't been as great as say between
PE> 3.05 and 3.1, but the vast psychological change with the
PE> area as front-focus warranted a definitive warning!

Not to mention the loss of Alt-A, Alt-X (to exit), and the "area"
keyword.  Dunno what else has changed, but these are certainly the most
obvious, and the ones which have already bitten me on the arse so far.

Regards, Bill
@EOT:

--- Msgedsq/2 3.20 alpha 6