PBM Trivia Question

[Carl Miller]

This goes way back as I'm having a hard time finding anything in any older code that defines what it is...

There's an attribute defined for an email address called "alert". It used to be defined such that it could be changed within the address book and such. I don't know what it is, what it did, what it stood for other than it is called alert. I believe it offered choices from a list. That's the best I can figure from what I have.

Anyone remember this thing and what it was for?

Carl

[Bill Wild Willy Kredentser]

> ** Reply to message from Carl Miller <carlp...@gmail.com> on Sat, 17 Aug 2019 11:52:08 -0700 (PDT)

My best guess, which is to say it's a wild-ass guess, is it has something to do with PGP or the
Bayesian filtering, neither feature I have ever used. I did go into the PolarBar.Jar file,
unzipped the doc directory so I could edit each file in my text editor, & searched for the word
"alert" in each file. It does not occur anywhere in the documentation. I'm as baffled as you are.

WW
GO HABS GO!
Configuration: Windows 7 64-bit, Open JDK build 11.0.1+28 (2019/3/1), pbm1.26dev/2324

[Carl Miller]

I went further back than that and I certainly searched all files in older folders where I have older copies of source. I was thinking it was something related to making a noise or something along those lines. e.g, "alert" me when I get an email from this particular address. That was my guess. But truly a guess as I have no clue what it is for certainty.

It would take too long for me to resurrect a much older version of PBM so I'm not going to worry too much about this, but as I go through various things testing features to make sure they work, I ran into this issue w/address book and in digging deeper I ran across this "alert" string that was part of any address in an address book. It caught my curiosity and thus the question.

Carl

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[dgh]

Alert allows you to choose a different sound file to play when you receive an email that matches that address book entry.

[Bill Wild Willy Kredentser]

> ** Reply to message from dgh <jsd.s...@gmail.com> on Thu, 22 Aug 2019 09:02:37 -0700 (PDT)

> Alert allows you to choose a different sound file to play when you receive
> an email that matches that address book entry.

I don't dispute that but I don't see where you would set such a thing. I don't see any place in an
address book entry for identifying the sound to play when that address has sent me an E-mail. I've
also looked in the general Settings dialog. The only place I see any mention of sound is on the
Retrieving page, where it appears to be related to the Popper. But there does not appear to be any
place to associate a selected sound file with a specific address book entry. The Popper Message
Retrieval Center doesn't appear to have anything about sound in it either, although I must confess
I've never used the Popper. Is this something that used to be available but got de-implemented?
Or something that was partially implemented & then abandoned? Something that was planned & never
implemented? Or is this one of those settings that you have to manually edit the Account.Settings
file, sort of like about:config in Firefox? Which is to say, you need such deep insider
information on an undocumented feature that only an expert should attempt it.

[Carl Miller]

OK, I forgot about the local NAS (nothing gets deleted around here, not even my old OS/2 disk drives)...I went waaaaaaayyyyyy back, so far back that PBM was still called JStreet Mailer!!! 1999-vintage code and I find the "alert" field *still* commented out in that code base! Unreal. I believe Davids' account that it is meant to be used to make noise for a particular address. It's not visible anywhere in any screen because the code is all commented out.

What still perplexes me however is that I don't know what "fed" the choice list that is associated with the alert field. Meaning, the alert field was rendered as a list of (I'm presuming at this point) sound files and the user would select the sound they'd want for that particular address. It all makes sense at that level, but there is no trace of any backing code that populated the list in the first place so that's where a lot of confusion sets in. And I'm also not finding anything that would provide a "path" to sound/tune files.

I even found references to something called the "tune file", which still exists in the Retrieving panel of settings. Also, you can setup a filter that lets one play a sound and I'm thinking that's another path to customize a particular address to a particular sound file.

And maybe that's where things were and never completed? e.g., filters supported the feature but a lot more clumsy to get to (and complex in managing filters by person) so maybe this "alert" thing was a means to have PBM automatically make noise based on email address? Just guessing at this point. Maybe I'll add it as a feature enhancement request...

Carl

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[Bill Wild Willy Kredentser]

> ** Reply to message from Carl Miller <carlp...@gmail.com> on Thu, 22 Aug 2019 14:15:04 -0400

> Maybe I'll add it as a feature enhancement request...

If I get to vote, I vote to not bother. Once upon a time, I had my system making all manner of
sounds that were kind of fun & funny. It didn't take long, however, before I went to the "no
sound" sound scheme. The system was always launching & terminating little tasks whose purpose I
never bothered to figure out, which meant my system was almost constantly playing sounds.. And
once I started doing things like streaming TV shows & downloading videos to play, I had to turn
system sounds off anyway.so they wouldn't interrupt whatever I'm watching. So I vote against one
more source of system noise pollution.

[Carl Miller]

Dang, and here I was cataloging all the sound files I have that I can distribute with PBM as pre-defined DEFAULT sounds for all kinds of actions PBM performs! LOL

Carl

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[Bill Wild Willy Kredentser]

> ** Reply to message from Carl Miller <carlp...@gmail.com> on Thu, 22 Aug 2019 21:58:56 -0400

Here. I'll contribute to that.

<OneHandClapping.Wav>

What do you mean you can't download that? I attached it. With one hand tied behind my back.

[dgh]

I can't actually use most of Polarbar's UI (1.26 build 2324), because it locks up on me, so I don't even try to remember which parts sometimes work vs. those that never work, so my reply was based on a vague recollection. After reading WW's reply and then your reply, it's now obvious to me that I used filters to play unique sounds upon email receipt. I'm guessing that what's-their-face who made JSM never implemented alerts, since filters let you do the same thing.

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[Carl Miller]

Well hopefully in the next month or so, 1.27 will become available. It only runs into problems when the FX and AWT event loops tangle with each other. I've been validating all the dialogs and items I can get at and things are getting close.

Carl

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