annotate thesis/tex/6-Summary.tex @ 390:b4b06bc05059
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Fri, 06 Feb 2009 21:08:49 +0100 |
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1 \chapter{Summary}
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2
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3 This thesis is a comprehensive analysis of \masqmail. It followed a clear structure from the present to the future, from the general to the special, and from problems to requirements to proposed solutions.
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5 In the beginning, reasons why it is worth to revive the development of \masqmail\ were given and the problems of the program were identified. Then the current and future market for electronic communication and email was analyzed. It was showed that email is future-proof and probable trends were spotted. Afterwards the different types of \MTA{}s were classified and the most important alternatives to \masqmail\ were presented and compared.
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7 In the second half of the thesis, \masqmail\ was in the focus. The goal to reach with further development was defined and the requirements were identified. The existing source code was compared against the requirements to see which ones are already fulfilled. The pending work tasks were ranked by their focus, which depends on the importance of the task and the amount of work it involves.
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9 The possible strategies for controlling further development (improve existing code or redesign and rewrite) were compared against each other on basis of the required work. They were additionally discussed with regard to various other influences. The final decision was a twofold aim: First, improve the existing code to keep it usable for the next time. Second, design a new version of \masqmail\ with respect for the modern goals for \MTA{}s that were identified throughout the thesis.
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11 In the end, more concrete plans for the improvements of the existing code were made and a suggestion for a new design for \masqmail\ was presented. The description of this new design left quite a few questions open, however, it was intended as a discussion with suggested solutions. To cover such a topic throughout, much more information need to be collected and more detailed studies of the situations in other \MTA{}s need to be made. This would take at least a second diploma thesis or a master's thesis.
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14 \subsubsection*{Outlook}
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16 This diploma thesis is intended to be the begin of a long-time effort to revive \masqmail. The next important step is creating a community of people that are interested in reviving \masqmail's development. Then comes implementing the identified tasks together with this group of volunteers, and afterwards, creating the next generation of \masqmail.
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18 Like expected for unmaintained software, there are known bugs in \masqmail. Those need to be fixed.
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20 Documentation and ``marketing'' are also important. Especially end user documentation is needed and people who help to distribute the knowledge of \masqmail's existence and its advantages.
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22 \masqmail\ is software with value. This thesis is a first effort to revive it---it shall not be the last.
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27 %``This is the Unix philosophy: Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together. Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface.'' Doug McIlroy (quoted in Peter H. Salus. A Quarter-Century of Unix. Addison-Wesley. 1994. ISBN 0-201-54777-5.)
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