req

Configurations

The main configuration can be easily done using BL's install tool! This page contains information of how to setup other programs than YAM. Here is also some info about the ENV variables BL uses and the screenmode requester.

MIME / How to make other programs to display BLs

  
        MIME:          application/x-bl
        Extension:     bl
        Viewer:        bl
        Arguments:     "%f"   (or "%s")

NOTE! Viewer and arguments in many programs are on the same line:

        View_Command:  bl "%s"

Other Mailers

BL uses by default the YAM mailer. If you are using another mailer, you can use an env variable called "BLMAIL". You can set this to your mail command, but you may need to do a bit of scriptwriting. This is what happens when you send a bl from BL's main menu: This shell command is executed:

    $BLMAIL filename.bl application/x-bl

or if sending to a new user (BL included):

    $BLMAIL filename.lha application/x-lha

As an example, I have written a script for YAM (as I don't have any other mailer to test on):

  The script:

    .key name,mime
    .bra {
    .ket }
    rx "address YAM show"
    rx "address YAM screentofront"
    rx "address YAM mailwrite"
    rx "address YAM writeattach '{name}' 'BorayLetter' b64 '{mime}'"

Save this script to S:attach, and set the env variable blmail with the "setenv" command:

    setenv BLMAIL execute S:attach

Then restart BL, and try it out! (with your own script of course)
To make this configuration the default one, copy the env variable to envarc, like this:

    copy env:blmail envarc:

Please note that if you write your own mailing script for YAM (if you for some reason are not satisfied with mine :-), then please note that there is a bug in YAM if you attach very small files and are using b64 encoding. (This bug seems only to appear when attaching from arexx). Then use uuencoding instead. It works.

Other ENV variables

Besides from BLMAIL, there is two other env variables:

  
  BLHIP:  The full path of the hippoplayer program. This can be
          set with BL's install tool.

  BLVIEW: The full path of Multiview. If you like another "multi-
          displayer" better, you can set this variable to it.

Starting BL from Shell

There is a number of arguments you can use from shell. Type "BL ?" to display them.

    BL                  ;Normal start, go to main menu
    BL [filename]       ;Read the file
    BL make             ;Start in make mode
    BL make [filename]  ;Start in make mode and save file
    BL make YAM         ;Start in make mode and send via YAM
    BL install          ;Start in install mode

Note that if you start with "BL make file.bl", BL exits right after saving. This is not the case with "BL make YAM" as YAM needs the temporary file to still exist when sending the email. If you use "BL make YAM" when using another mailer ($BLMAIL), the argument is still the same (make YAM), but your own mailer is used.

Screen Modes

There are nine different screen sizes in BL, ranging from 312x200 to 632x256. Every time a screen of a size you haven't opened before is about to open, a screenmode requester pops up, asking you which display mode to use for this screen size. If you have both PAL and NTSC video drivers installed, then you just have to press OK, as in that case the right display mode is marked by default. If you don't have PAL or NTSC or just want to use another display mode, you should choose a mode that displays all of the screen and preserves the right aspect of the picture. If for example the requester says: "Choose 632x256 display" then the aspect ratio should be as if this 632x256 size was displayed all over the screen. You can change the display mode again from both read and make modes in BL as well as from the main menu. If you want to start all over again, just delete S:BLscreenmodes.config

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