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Subj:	MAIL_AT_PATCH_02 - Allow user@node as well as node::user

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Date: Fri, 6 Jul 90 14:02:06 PDT
From: barbe@sdrvx2.sinet.slb.com (Claude Barbe - SDR - 1 203 431 5524)
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To: info-vax@crvax.sri.com
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Subject: MAIL_AT_PATCH_02 - Allow user@node as well as node::user

Hopefully this is good news for all VMS e-mail users.

We have made up a patch (called MAIL_AT_PATCH_02) for VMS MAIL that lets users
answer the To: prompt with  USERNAME@NODENAME in addition to the traditional 
(DEC specific)              NODENAME::USERNAME
In fact it will rewrite the simplest @ syntax into a :: syntax if appropriate.

From DCL, $ MAIL NL: /SUBJ="NONE" "nobody@nowhere" is also supported...

In addition to that, for those having PMDF (and with a logical name, for those
having a product similar to PMDF), if NODENAME contains at least one ".", then
USERNAME@NODENAME is changed into IN%"USERNAME@NODENAME" (unfortunately ! and
some others are banned by MAIL parsing prior to the place of our patch)

If there are " quotes in the original To: address our fix does nothing to the
supplied string and passes it unchanged to MAIL's next parser.

The CC: addresses are processed exactly like the To: addresses.  The published
To: address that the recipient will see is not edited by our patch.

The approach taken, patching a DEC binary with readable MACRO instructions is
not that frequent on Info-Vax, we simply want to encourage similar endeavors.

All instructions are in the fully commented MAILSHR_PATCH_FOR_AT_02.COM patch
which should be applied by $ PATCH @ MAILSHR_PATCH_FOR_AT_02.COM on
SYS$LIBRARY:[SYSLIB]MAILSHR.EXE which needs to be reinstalled.  See comments.
MAILSHR_PATCH_FOR_AT_02.COM is being posted in two parts thanks to VMS_SHARE

To summarize, it makes most address formats identical between VMS and another
4 letter operating system and removes some confusion for our users.  At the
same time, for those having PMDF it makes internal (DECnet) and external
address formats the same with NO prefix required for all the simplest cases.

Claude Barbe - Schlumberger-Doll Research - Ridgefield, CT - barbe@sdr.slb.com