NAME

vmh - visual front-end to MH

SYNOPSIS

vmh [-prompt string] [-vmhproc program] [-novmhproc] [switches for vmhproc] [-help]

DESCRIPTION

vmh is a program which implements the server side of the MH window management protocol and uses curses (3) routines to maintain a split-screen interface to any program which implements the client side of the protocol. This latter program, called the vmhproc, is specified using the `-vmhproc program' switch.

The upshot of all this is that one can run msh on a display terminal and get a nice visual interface. To do this, for example, just add the line

mshproc: vmh

to your .mh_profile. (This takes advantage of the fact that msh is the default vmhproc for vmh.)

In order to facilitate things, if the `-novmhproc' switch is given, and vmh can't run on the user's terminal, the vmhproc is run directly without the window management protocol.

After initializing the protocol, vmh prompts the user for a command to be given to the client. Usually, this results in output being sent to one or more windows. If a output to a window would cause it to scroll, vmh prompts the user for instructions, roughly permitting the capabilities of less or more (e.g., the ability to scroll backwards and forwards):




SPACE		advance to the next windowful
RETURN	*	advance to the next line
y	*	retreat to the previous line
d	*	advance to the next ten lines
u	*	retreat to the previous ten lines
g	*	go to an arbitrary line
		(preceed g with the line number)
G	*	go to the end of the window
		(if a line number is given, this acts like `g')
CTRL-L		refresh the entire screen
h		print a help message
q		abort the window

(A `*' indicates that a numeric prefix is meaningful for this command.)

Note that if a command resulted in more than one window's worth of information being displayed, and you allow the command which is generating information for the window to gracefully finish (i.e., you don't use the `q' command to abort information being sent to the window), then vmh will give you one last change to peruse the window. This is useful for scrolling back and forth. Just type `q' when you're done.

To abnormally terminate vmh (without core dump), use <QUIT> (usually CTRL-\). For instance, this does the "right" thing with bbc and msh.

FILES

$HOME/.mh_profile	The user profile

PROFILE COMPONENTS

Path:	To determine the user's MH directory

DEFAULTS

`-prompt (vmh) '


`-vmhproc msh'

CONTEXT

None

BUGS

The argument to the `-prompt' switch must be interpreted as a single token by the shell that invokes vmh. Therefore, one must usually place the argument to this switch inside double-quotes.

At present, there is no way to pass signals (e.g., interrupt, quit) to the client. However, generating QUIT when vmh is reading a command from the terminal is sufficient to tell the client to go away quickly.

Acts strangely (loses peer or botches window management protocol with peer) on random occasions.