COMBAT ZONE uses incompatible format for mail when compilations win or lose

[eswenson1]

COMBAT ZONE, with its driver from combat;master >, pulls in combat;privat >, which defines some helper functions. One of these is the function named MALE [sic]. This writes a message to the user's mail file (e.g. ejs;ejs mail) in a format that BABYL doesn't understand. Messages are of the form:

FROM COMBAT  23/3/8  10:18:26
PLAN # 1 (DSK:HELLO;HELLO MUD) WON IN 0.60056000E-1 SECONDS

This is not RFC-822 compatible, and thus not accepted by programs that demand that format. I believe, however, that RMAIL does accept these messages and incorporate them into the RMAIL file, so that, at least, is a good thing.

The implementation of MALE is:

<DEFINE MALE (ME FILE "AUX" (CT 0) OUTCHAN)
        #DECL ((ME) STRING (FILE) STRING (CT) FIX
               (OUTCHAN) <OR FALSE CHANNEL> (VALUE) CHANNEL)
        <PROG ()
          <COND (<SET OUTCHAN <AP-TO-FIL .FILE>>
                 <TERPRI>
                 <PRINC "FROM ">
                 <PRINC .ME>
                 <PDT <DAT> !\/ .OUTCHAN>
                 <PDT <RTIM> !\: .OUTCHAN>
                 <TERPRI>
                 .OUTCHAN)
                (<G? <SET CT <+ .CT 1>> 5> <ERROR .OUTCHAN MALE>)
                (T
                 <SLEEP 7>
                 <AGAIN>)>>>

So it would be trivial to update this code (in COMBAT;PRIVAT >) to make it RFC-compliant.

[larsbrinkhoff]

I'd like the option to have the original version for use with COMSYS (if possible) on a build tailored to mimic DM.

[eswenson1]

I can’t imagine that COMSYS didn’t accept RFC-822-compliant email. In any case, I’m not planning on changing MALE yet. I’ll wait until I have COMSYS working.