[Indigo]<DMS>Laurel>6>Manual>Laurel6-5.bravo!1

Laurel obtains certain configuration information and options from your Laurel profile, contained in the file Laurel.Profile (or in User.cm) on your Alto disk. A standard Laurel profile is installed when you obtain Laurel using the LaurelNewUser.cm command file (section 1.3). The only thing in the Laurel profile you are likely to want to change immediately is the name of your printing server. For completeness, however, nearly all possible options are documented here. The only mandatory field in the profile is "Registry" (see below).

If there is no Laurel.profile file on your Alto disk, then Laurel will look in your User.cm file for a subsection beginning with [Laurel]. All options listed below may be listed in this subsection of User.cm if you prefer. In addition, if the normal profile options are read from User.cm, then Laurel will use the printer name listed in the [Hardcopy] subsection of User.cm in the Press: PrinterName entry for your default print server name and the name listed in the PrintedBy: Name entry of that subsection as the name to appear on your hardcopy output. As the Laurel profile may be contained in either Laurel.profile or in User.cm, this manual refers merely to the Laurel profile, letting you decide which actual file it is in.

Laurel configures itself automatically according to the Laurel profile when Laurel starts up, if it perceives that there have been changes in your Laurel profile or in several other files, e.g., Fonts.widths. No explicit installation is ever required. If you have edited your Laurel profile using Laurel, you must Quit and restart Laurel before the changes will take effect. During startup, if Laurel does reconfigures itself, it will display a "coffee cup" cursor, indicating that startup may take slightly longer than usual.

The name must start with the first character on a line, and is terminated by the first colon. Do not precede the colon by blanks; otherwise the name will not be recognized. The value may be preceded by any number of blanks and begins at the first non-blank character. Subsequent characters may be blank and are included in the value. The value is terminated by the CR at the end of the parameter line.

This example leaves out many possible parameter lines. Parameters that are missing from the Laurel profile are given default values by Laurel. Parameter names may be spelled in any combination of upper and lower case letters.

The name of the registry in which you are a registered mail system user. This field is required in your profile; it cannot be defaulted. This is the only required profile field.

Controls the video presentation. color may be either the word black (white letters on black background) or the word white (black letters on white background).

(Meaningful only if Editor: Modeless is also present in the Laurel profile.) If the value is TRUE, then when making text selection extensions with the BLUE mouse button, the resulting selection becomes a replace selection (section 4.2.12). If enabled, a simple way to select an item with replace selection is to select it with RED or YELLOW, then immediately re-select it with BLUE.

The Boundary entries specify how the Laurel screen is to be configured when the 0, 1, 2, ... , 9 (COM-0, COM-1, COM-2, ... COM-9) commands are given (see section 4.4.17). The four parts of the value (all numbers) are separated by commas, and all parts must be present.

The BoundaryCommandNumber must be in the range from 0 through 9, and it identifies for which boundary adjustment command the following numbers apply. The TocLines, DMLines, CMLines numbers specify the relative sizes for the table-of-contents region, the message display region and the message composition region respectively. Examples:

(Defaults:
Boundary: 0, 12, 19, 16
Boundary: 1, 1, 0, 0
Boundary: 2, 0, 1, 0
Boundary: 3, 0, 0, 1
all others (Boundary 4 through 9) same as Boundary 0)

This entry, along with BracketTimeOut:, controls the speed at which {brackets} arguments cycle through filenames when the RED mouse button is held down over the associated screen command (see section 2.1.3). The value is the number of milliseconds that Laurel will pause between finishing displaying one filename in {brackets} to beginning to search for the next filename.

This entry, along with BracketDelay:, controls the speed at which {brackets} arguments cycle through filenames when the RED mouse button is held down over the associated screen command (see section 2.1.3). The value is the number of milliseconds that Laurel will wait from the time that RED is held down until beginning to search for the first filename. If the value is 0, then the bracket filename search feature is disabled.

This entry is the timeout that Laurel uses to determine whether a mouse click has been performed soon enough after the previous mouse click to be considered a multiple click for the purposes of selection expansion (see section 4.2.9). The value is a number expressed in milliseconds. If the value is 0, then the multiple click selection expansion feature is disabled.

This entry specifies the default number of copies to be printed by the Hardcopy command (see section 3.3.3). This default may be overridden by explicit use of the Copies command in the hardcopy submenu. The value must be a number in the range 1 through 99.

For those people who prefer to send messages with a c: header field rather than a cc: header field, this entry may be used. If the value is the letter c, then a c: field is provided in all default message forms. Any other value results in a cc: field provided in the default forms. Caution: Arpanet message systems in general do not support the use of a c: field.

This entry specifies the default hardcopy form on which messages are printed by the Hardcopy command (see section 3.3.2). This default may be overridden by explicit use of the Form command in the hardcopy submenu. Caution: do not use this entry with a value of InternalMemo unless you have a valid reason for doing so (see section 6, Hardcopy forms).

If the value is TRUE or YES, then whenever the Delete or Move to commands are invoked, the next message in the mail file will be displayed in the message display region as long as:
a) Only one message is deleted or moved,
b) That message is the one currently displayed,
c) A subsequent message exists in the mail file, and
d) That subsequent message is marked with a "?".

If the value is the word LaurelX, then some feedback region prompts are phrased slightly differently (in the LaurelX style). These prompts also name the modeless editor key names, i.e., DO rather than ESC, etc.

Font entries define the specific printer fonts to be used when hardcopying messages. The four parts of the value of a Font: entry are separated by spaces. The Number must be present and must be in the range from 0 through 9. This Number identifies the font as referenced in hardcopy forms (see Appendix C). The FamilyName and PointSize must be present; the Face is optional. If the Face is missing, then regular is assumed. Examples:

The standard InternalMemo form built into Laurel uses Font 1 for header field names, Font 2 for the herald line, Font 3 for the company logo, and Font 0 for everything else (including the text).

The right edge of the From: field display in the table-of-contents region may be set by using this entry. The value is a number in units of Alto resolution screen dots from the left margin of the Laurel screen. See also the SubjectField: and SubjectFieldExtension: profile entries. Note: the fixed left edge of the From: field is 110.

There may be many of these entries in the Laurel profile. Each entry specifies a format in which messages are printed by the Hardcopy command. If a HardcopyForm value specifies a form with the same name as one of the built-in hardcopy forms, then the form mentioned in the Laurel profile replaces the standard form. Building hardcopy forms is complicated--see Appendix C for details.

The CTRL-select feature in the modeless editor behaves quite differently than does CTRL-select in the Tools Environment. If you use that system, and you find the differences in CTRL-select bothersome, then use this entry to declare yourself a Tools user by setting the value to TRUE or Yes. If you do so, then the CTRL-select feature is disabled in the Laurel editor.

If the value is TRUE or YES, then whenever the Deliver command completes successfully, the text in the message composition region is replaced by a new skeleton form just as if the New form command had been invoked. U (CANCEL) will undo this replacement if you wish to retain the delivered text. This option has been found useful by users who sometimes forget whether the text in the composition region has been sent.

A line of text that will be printed on hardcopy break pages to identify the person making the hardcopy. Any $ characters will be expanded to your logged-in name at the time you generate the hardcopy.

The default name or network address of the hardcopy server machine to which all hardcopies will be sent. This PrinterName can be overriden using the Printer comand in the hardcopy submenu.

This entry specifies the default of the Private option used by the Hardcopy command (see section 3.3.5). This default may be overridden by explicit use of the Private command in the hardcopy submenu. The value may be either Yes or TRUE to set this parameter to Yes. All other values are equivalent to No. Caution: printing with Private set to Yes involves complicated interaction at the printing server. Don’t use this option unless you have a valid reason for doing so and you understand how to operate the print server in password protected mode.

This entry is ignored if your registry is implemented by Grapevine servers. Unless your local network maintainer informs you otherwise, do not use this entry.

If you are in an MTP registry and your mailbox is located on a server other than the default server for that registry, then use this entry to specify the name or network address of that server. (The default server for such registries has the registry name as a synonym for its more widely used name.)

The string given as the value will be used as a prefix for a remote file when the Run command as asked to run a program that is not on your local disk (see section 3.6). This entry should be filled in with the server and directory prefix that you normally use to retrieve Laurel software, e.g., for PARC this would be

This entry, along with ScrollTimeOut:, controls the speed at which lines are scrolled up or down when the RED or BLUE mouse button is held down in the scroll bar (see section 2.2.1). The value is the number of milliseconds that Laurel will pause between successive single line scroll actions. Note: there is a threshold below which lower values for this parameter have no effect, as you reach the maximum speed your hardware and software can handle.

This entry sets the amount of time that the RED or BLUE mouse button must be held down in the scroll bar before continuous scrolling occurs (see section 2.2.1). The value is the number of milliseconds that Laurel will wait from the time that RED or BLUE is held down until beginning to scroll continuously. If the value is 0, then the continuous scrolling feature is disabled. Note: this parameter should be chosen with care--high enough to avoid entering continuous scroll mode too quickly, but low enough to keep from having an excessive delay when you want continuous scrolling. Our testing has shown that users have a very wide range of preferences for this setting. The default has been deliberately chosen to be on the slow side of this range.

This entry is ignored if you are using Grapevine mail sending protocols. Unless your local network maintainer informs you otherwise, do not use this entry.

The Hostname is the name or network address of the MTP maildrop server machine to which you will send all outgoing mail. Any mail system server can be used for sending mail by any user. Network address constants of the form number#number# must be used at sites where there is no gateway providing name lookup services.

Do not use this entry unless specifically instructed to do so by your local network administrator. In almost all cases, Laurel will figure out the correct value for this parameter automatically.

The only legal values are: Auto, MTP, or GV. This entry, if MTP or GV, will force Laurel to use that protocol when delivering messages. If the value is Auto, then Laurel will use its own algorithm to figure out the correct protocol to use.

The left edge of the first line of the Subject: field display in the table-of-contents region may be set by using this entry. The value is a number in units of Alto resolution screen dots from the left margin of the Laurel screen. See also the FromField: and SubjectFieldExtension: profile entries. Note: the fixed right edge of the Subject: field is 480.

The left edge of the second and third lines of the Subject: field display in the table-of-contents region may be set by using this entry. The value is a number in units of Alto resolution screen dots from the left margin of the Laurel screen. See also the FromField: and SubjectField: profile entries. Note: the fixed right edge of the Subject: field is 480.

This entry is the timeout that Laurel uses to determine whether a CTRL-SHIFT tap has been performed fast enough to be considered a DEL command (see section 4.4.4, D (DEL, COM-D)). The value is a number expressed in milliseconds. If the value is 0, then the CTRL-SHIFT tap feature is disabled.

This entry specifies the default of the Two sided option used by the Hardcopy command (see section 3.3.4). This default may be overridden by explicit use of the Two sided command in the hardcopy submenu. The value may be either Yes or TRUE to set this parameter to Yes. All other values are equivalent to No.

As you can see, the Laurel profile can be simple or as complicated as you want. There are several possibilities for error, so Laurel has a mechanism for reporting these errors to you. Should Laurel detect an error in your Laurel profile, it will ignore any command line switches, and instead will read a mail file named InstallErrors.mail in which Laurel has placed descriptions of all profile errors that it detected. Most error messages are simple to understand, and the corrections necessary should be straightforward. Error messages referring to user defined hardcopy forms fall significantly short of this standard.

Even if you have installation errors, Laurel will still operate. You should read through the message displayed, use the Get command to read your Laurel profile, make the appropriate changes, and use the Put command to rewrite that file. At this point, you should use the Quit command to return to the Alto Executive, and then restart Laurel.

Although Laurel continues to operate, when profile errors are detected, several of the entries may not take effect. This is particularly noticeable when the Editor: modeless entry is not accepted by Laurel, and you find yourself having to edit the profile in a modal manner.

You may notice that the one message in the InstallErrors.mail file is marked for deletion. When you Quit from Laurel, that file will be deleted, as is any mail file in which all messages are marked for deletion.