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1 .H0 "Preface" no
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2
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3 .P
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4 I have discovered the mail client \fInmh\fP in September 2009.
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5 At that time I used to use \fImutt\fP, as many advanced Unix users do.
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6 When I read about nmh, its concepts had convinced me at once.
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7 The transition from mutt to nmh was similar to
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8 managing files in the Unix shell when being used to the
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9 \fImidnight commander\fP,
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10 or like editing with vi when being used to modeless editors.
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11 Such a change is not trivial, but in being convinced by the
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12 concepts and by having done similar transitions for file management
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13 and editing already, it was not too difficult.
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14 In contrast, setting up nmh to a convenient state became a tedious task
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15 that took several months.
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16 Once having nmh arranged to a convenient state, I enjoyed using it
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17 because of its conceptional elegance and its scripting capabilities.
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18 On the other hand, nevertheless, it still was
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19 inconvenient for handling attachments, non-ASCII character encodings,
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20 and similar features of modern emailing.
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21 My setup demanded more and more additional configuration and helper scripts
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22 to get nmh behave the way I wanted, although my
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23 expectations were rather common for modern emailing.
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24 In being a computer scientist and programmer,
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25 I wanted to improve the situation.
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26 .P
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27 In Spring 2010, I asked on the \fInmh-workers\fP mailing list for the
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28 possibility to offer a Google Summer of Code project for me.
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29 Participating in the development of nmh this way appeared attractive to me,
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30 because I would have been able to work full time on nmh as the project
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31 could have been part of my official studies at university.
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32 Although the nmh community had been generally positive on the suggestion,
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33 the administrative work for a GSoC project had been to much to have
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34 it realized.
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35 Nontheless, my proposal had activated the nmh community.
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36 In the following weeks, goals for nmh's future were discussed.
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37 In these discussions, I became involved in the
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38 question whether nmh should include mail transfer facilities.
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39 .[
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40 nmh-workers thread mta mua
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41 .]
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42 In this central point, my opinion differed from the opinion of most others.
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43 I argued for the MTA facility of nmh to be removed.
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44 Besides the discussions, hardly any real work was done.
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45 Being unable to work on nmh in a way that would be
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46 accepted as part of my official studies, I needed to choose another project.
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47 .P
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48 Half a year later, starting in August 2010,
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49 I took one semester off to travel through Latin America.
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50 During my time in Argentina, I planned to work on Free Software.
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51 This brought me back to nmh.
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52 Richard Sandelman, an active nmh user, cared for the official basis.
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53 Juan Granda, an argentine Free Software developer,
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54 provided a computer with Internet connection for my work.
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55 Thanks to them, I was able to work on nmh during my three-month
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56 stay in Santiago del Estero in Argentina.
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57 Quickly it became obvious that I wouldn't succeed with my main goal:
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58 improving the character encoding handling within the project.
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59 One of its ramifications is the
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60 missing transfer decoding of quoted text in replies.
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61 As this is one of the most intricate parts of the system, the goal
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62 was simply set too high.
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63 Instead, I improved the code base as I read through it.
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64 I found minor bugs for which I proposed fixes to the community.
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65 In the same go, I improved the documentation in minor ways.
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66 When I started with larger code changes,
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67 I had to discover that the community was reluctant to change.
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68 Its wish for compatibility was much stronger than its
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69 wish for convenient out-of-the-box setups \(en in contrast to my opinion.
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70 This led to long discussions, again.
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71 I came to understand their point of view, but it was different to mine.
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72 At the end of my three-month project, I had become familiar with
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73 nmh's code base and community.
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74 I had improved the project in minor ways,
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75 and I still was convinced that I wanted to go on to do so.
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76 .P
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77 Another half year later, the end of my studies came within reach.
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78 I needed a topic for my master's thesis.
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79 No question, I wanted to work on nmh.
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80 But well, not exactly on nmh, because I had accepted that the
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81 nmh community has different goals than I have.
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82 This would result in much discussion and thus little progress.
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83 After careful thought, I decided to start an experimental version of nmh.
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84 I wanted to implement my own ideas of how an MH-like system should look like.
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85 I wanted to create a usable alternative version to be compared with
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86 the present state of nmh.
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87 Eventually, my work would be proven successful or not.
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88 In any case, the nmh project would profit from my experiences.
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89
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90 .U2 "Focus of this Document
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91 .P
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92 This document explains the design goals and implementation decisions
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93 for mmh.
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94 It discusses technical, historical, social and philosophical considerations.
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95 On the technical side, this document
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96 explains how an existing project was stream-lined by removing rough edges
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97 and exploiting the central concepts better.
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98 On the historical
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99 side, changes through time in the use cases and the email features,
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100 as well as the reactions to them, are discussed.
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101 Socially, this document describes the effects
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102 and experiences of a newcomer with revolutionary aims entering an old
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103 and matured software project.
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104 Philosophical thoughts on style, mainly based to the Unix
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105 philosophy, are present throughout the discussions.
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106 The document describes the changes to nmh,
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107 but as well, it clarifies my personal perception of the
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108 concepts of MH and Unix, and explain my therefrom resulting point of view.
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109 .P
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110 This document is written for the community around MH-like mail systems,
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111 including developers and users.
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112 Despite the focus on MH-like systems, this document is may be precious
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113 to anyone interested in the Unix philosophy and anyone in contact to
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114 old software projects, be it code or community-related.
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115 .P
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116 The reader is expected to be well familiar with Unix, C and emailing.
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117 Good Unix shell knowledge is required, because MH relies fundamentally
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118 on the shell. Without the power of the shell, MH becomes a motorbike
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119 without winding roads: boring.
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120 Introductions to Unix and its shell can be found in ``The UNIX Programming
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121 Environment'' by Kernighan and Pike
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122 .[
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123 kernighan pike unix prog env
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124 .]
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125 or ``The UNIX System'' by Bourne.
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126 .[
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127 bourne unix system
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128 .]
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129 The reader is assumed to be a C programmer,
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130 but the document should be understandable otherwise, too.
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131 The definitive guide to C is Kernighan and Ritchie's
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132 ``The C Programming Language''.
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133 .[
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134 kernighan ritchie c prog lang
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135 .]
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136 Some book about system-level C programming can be helpful
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137 additional literature. Rochkind and Curry have written such books.
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138 .[
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139 rochkind advanced unix prog
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140 .]
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141 .[
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142 curry system prog
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143 .]
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144 As large parts of the source code are old,
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145 old books are likely more helpful for understanding.
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146 The reader is expected to know the format of email messages and
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147 the structure of email transfer systems, at least on a basic level.
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148 It's advisable to have cross-read the RFCs 821 and 822.
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149 Further more, basic understanding of MIME is good to have.
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150 The Wikipedia provides good introduction-level information to email.
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151 .P
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152 Frequent references to the Unix philosophy will be made.
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153 Gancarz has tried to sum it up in his book
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154 ``The UNIX Philosophy''.
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155 .[
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156 gancarz unix phil
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157 .]
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158 Even better, though less concrete, are ``The UNIX Programming Environment''
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159 .[
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160 kernighan pike unix prog env
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161 .]
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162 and ``The Practice of Programming''
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163 .[
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164 kernighan pike practice of prog
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165 .]
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166 by Kernighan and Pike.
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167 The term paper ``Why the Unix Philosophy still matters''
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168 .[
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169 why unix phil still matters schnalke
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170 .]
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171 by myself
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172 provides an overview on the philosophy, including a case study of MH.
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173 .P
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174 Although a brief introduction to MH is provided in Chapter 1, the reader
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175 is encouraged to have a look at the \fIMH Book\fP
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176 ``MH & nmh: Email for Users & Programmers'' by Jerry Peek.
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177 .[
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178 peek mh
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179 .]
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180 The current version is available freely on the Internet.
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181 It is the definitive guide to MH and nmh.
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182 .P
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183 This document is neither a user's tutorial to mmh nor an introduction
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184 to any of the topics covered.
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185 The technical discussions are on an advanced level.
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186 Nevertheless, as knowledge of the fundamental concepts is the most valuable
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187 information a user can acquire about some program or software system,
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188 this document may be worth a read for non-developers as well.
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189
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190
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191 .U2 "Organization
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192 .P
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193 Which font for what use.
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194 Meaning of `foo(1)'.
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195 RFCs.
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196 .P
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197 References to source code repository commits are printed as
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198 .Ci 1a2b3c4 .
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199 They can be looked up with
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200 .Cl "git show XXX
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201 on the command line or
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202 online at
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203 .CW "http://git.marmaro.de/?p=mmh;a=commitdiff;h=XXX" ,
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204 replacing `\f(CWXXX\fP' with the hash value.
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205 In this example:
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206 .Cl "git show 1a2b3c4
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207 or
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208 .CW "http://git.marmaro.de/?p=mmh;a=commitdiff;h=1a2b3cd" .
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209 Whereas the code repository will probably be available on the Internet
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210 forever, a website URL is always at risk to change.
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211 .P
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212 This thesis is divided into XXX chapters, ...
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213 .P
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214 .I Chapter 1
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215 introduces ...
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216 .P
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217 .I Chapter 2
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218 describes ...
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219 .P
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220 .I Chapter 3
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221 covers ...
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222
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223
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224 .U2 "Acknowledgments
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225 .P
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226 To be written at the very end.
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