Subj : How do you edit msg files
To   : Mindsurfer
From : Digital Man
Date : Tue Oct 21 2025 22:55:44

  Re: How do you edit msg files
  By: Mindsurfer to Digital Man on Wed Oct 22 2025 01:43 am

 >   Re: How do you edit msg files
 >   By: Digital Man to Mindsurfer on Tue Oct 21 2025 15:06:24
 >
 >  >> Currently i am using Moebius for Linux to edit the ANS files. There is
 >  >> IcyDraw, wich can handle MSG files directly (i guess), but it always is
 > no
 >  >> WYSIWYG editing as soon as you want to use @Codes, but guessing,
 > measuring,
 >  >> textediting afterwards.
 >  >> Example: head.msg/head.ans IcyDraw/Moebius https://imgur.com/a/T9anJRs
 >
 >  DM> One thing that helps is insuring that the raw @-code uses the same
 >  DM> number of characters as the fixed/maximum length of the displayed
 >  DM> string using fill characters (e.g. #'s) see
 >  DM> https://wiki.synchro.net/custom:atcodes#formatting for an exmaple.
 >
 > Ok. i am using something like that already, for shortening the Time
 > (AT)TIME-L5(AT) for example. I was reading about the formatting features and
 > will use em. the @CODE|R#######@ could also come in handy for longer
 > strings.
 >
 >  DM> This works so long as the width of the string is less than or equal to
 >  DM> the total length of the raw @-code. If you find an @-code where you'd
 >  DM> prefer a shorter alternative alias, let me know and I'll see what I can
 >  DM> do for ya.
 >
 > Thanks for the alternative short-code offer!
 > I guess editing the ansi WYSIWYG when using @codes can work in some cases
 > but is limited.
 >
 > The only thing that comes to my mind as a workaround, is to use placeholders
 > with the correct length and a script to replace the placeholders with the
 > @codes in the ANS file afterwards. for example ~~~1 ~~~~~~~~2 ~3 as
 > placeholders, to be replaced with the @code-l4@ (~~~1) etc.

So what I was suggesting was that the @-code itself can be the "placeholder" (so long as the @-code is the same length as the expanded string).
-- 
                                            digital man (rob)

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