Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site gladys.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!gladys!dalton
From: dalton@gladys.UUCP (David Dalton)
Newsgroups: net.micro.att
Subject: UNIX PC 7300: Invoking user agent with a command
Message-ID: <254@gladys.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Feb-86 16:11:03 EST
Article-I.D.: gladys.254
Posted: Fri Feb 14 16:11:03 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 16-Feb-86 03:57:07 EST
Organization: SFWN at Tobaccoville, NC
Lines: 84

I already received a couple of inquiries, so I decided to go ahead and post
this instead of using mail.


USING BVI.C TO GET INVOKE THE USER AGENT AS A COMMAND

Here's the bvi.c program. Its intended use is to create a new
default editor for the user agent -- bvi. The program opens a full 80x24
window (install of the smaller window that the user agent normally uses) and
runs vi in it.

The bvi.c program can also be used for other purposes. It will open an
80x24 window for ANY program, then restore the screen when you exit. If, for
example, you change /usr/bin/vi (it appears twice in the program) to
/usr/bin/ua, you can call the user agent from a non-user-agent login. The
program will open a full-screen "window," then run the user agent. When you log
out of the user agent, you'll be back in shell with your screen restored.
You'll have quick access to the user agent, even though you prefer using the
7300 as a plain UNIX machine. Remember: Shift-F2 will invoke the call screen
anyway, without the help of the bvi.c program. Repertory dialing also works
fine from a non-user-agent login.

You will get a black background, not a dotted background. This is normal.
If you're using the 2.0 system software, you may want to clear the screen
before you invoke the user agent. The initial Office window may not clear the
background.

A WARNING: If you are using the Korn shell, it keeps a history file --
.history in $HOME. This is the same file name that the user agent uses for
your telephone call history. If the Korn shell clobbers your .history file, it
will be fatal to the phone daemon if you invoke the history function, since
apparently no checking is done for corruption of .history. 

The cure is easy: In your .profile, change the Korn shell's HISTFILE default
to something else, like .khistory, and be sure to export it. That will keep the
two files from corrupting each other.

ANOTHER WARNING: Michael Eldridge wrote a nice enhancement for bvi.c which may
not work if you want to use it to invoke the user agent from shell. His
modifications check to see if you're already in a window. If you're not, it
doesn't bother to open a window. The version of bvi.c that appears below is
the one I use.

Here's a copy of the bvi.c program, which moved on the net a while back, in
case some of you can't find it:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

/*
 * BVI -- On an AT&T Unix-PC, run vi in a new 24x80 borderless window.
 *
 * This program will open a borderless (80 column) window on top of all
 * your other windows and run vi in it.  When vi exits, the window
 * will be removed, revealing the window in which you typed bvi unchanged.
 *
 * Usage:   bvi args-to-vi
 *
 * Author:  Corey Satten, fluke!corey Sept 1985
 *
 * This software is hereby officially introduced into the public domain.
 */
main(ac,av,ep)
    int ac;
    char *av[], *ep[];
    {
    int fd, i;
    char *termcap;

    fd = open("/dev/window",2);
    close(0); dup(fd);
    close(1); dup(fd);
    close(2); dup(fd);
    av[0] = "/usr/bin/vi";
    for (i=0; ep[i]; ++i) {
	if (!strncmp(ep[i],"TERMCAP=",8)) {
	    ep[i] = "TERMCAP=/etc/termcap";
	    }
	if (!strncmp(ep[i],"TERM=",5)) {
	    ep[i] = "TERM=s4";
	    }
	}
    av[0] = "/usr/bin/vi";
    execve("/usr/bin/vi", av, ep);
    }