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meillo@0
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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
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5 .[
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6 nmh website homepage
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7 .]
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8 in fall 2009.
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9 At that time I used \fImutt\fP,
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10 .[
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11 mutt website
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12 .]
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13 as many advanced Unix users do.
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14 When I read about nmh, its concepts convinced me at once.
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15 The transition from mutt to nmh was similar to beginning with
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16 file management in the Unix shell when being used to the
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17 \fImidnight commander\fP,
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18 .[
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19 midnight commander website
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20 .]
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meillo@87
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21 or like starting with vi when being used to modeless editors.
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22 Such a change is not trivial, but, in being convinced by the
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23 concepts and by having done similar transitions for file management
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24 and editing already, it was not too difficult.
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meillo@51
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25 In contrast, setting up nmh to a convenient state became a tedious task
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26 that took several months.
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27 Once having nmh arranged this way, I enjoyed using it
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28 because of its conceptional elegance and its scripting capabilities.
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29 Nevertheless, it was still inconvenient for handling attachments,
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30 non-ASCII character encodings, and similar features of modern emailing.
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meillo@31
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31 My setup demanded more and more additional configuration and helper scripts
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32 to have nmh behave the way I wanted; yet my
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33 expectations were rather common for modern emailing.
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34 As a computer scientist and programmer, I wanted to improve the situation.
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35 .P
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36 In spring 2010, I sent a message
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37 .[
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38 nmh-workers gsoc
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39 .]
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40 to the \fInmh-workers\fP mailing list,
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41 .[
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42 nmh-workers mailing list website
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43 .]
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44 asking for the possibility to offer a Google Summer of Code
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45 .[
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46 google summer of code website
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47 .]
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48 project for me.
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meillo@106
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49 Participating in the development of nmh in this manner appeared attractive
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50 to me, because I would have been able to work full time on nmh.
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51 Although the nmh community had reacted generally positive to the suggestion,
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52 the administrative work for such a project would had been too much.
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53 Nonetheless, my proposal had activated the nmh community.
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meillo@31
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54 In the following weeks, goals for nmh's future were discussed.
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55 In these discussions, I became involved in the
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56 question whether nmh should include mail transfer facilities.
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57 .[
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meillo@34
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58 nmh-workers thread mta mua
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59 .]
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60 I argued for the Mail Transfer Agent of nmh to be removed.
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61 In this fundamental question,
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62 my opinion differed from the opinion of most others.
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63 Sadly, besides the discussions, hardly any real work was done.
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64 Being unable to work on nmh in a way that would be accepted at university
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65 as part of my studies, I needed to choose another project.
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66 .P
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67 Half a year later, starting in August 2010,
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68 I took one semester off to travel through Latin America.
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69 During my time in Argentina, I wanted to work on free software.
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70 This brought me back to nmh.
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meillo@159
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71 Richard Sandelman, an active nmh user, took care of the official basis.
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meillo@173
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72 Juan Granda, an Argentine free software developer,
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73 organized a computer with Internet connection.
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74 Thanks to them, I was able to work on nmh during my three-month
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75 stay in Santiago del Estero, Argentina.
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76 Quickly it became obvious that I would not succeed with my main goal,
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77 to improve the character encoding handling.
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78 (One of its ramifications is the
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79 missing transfer decoding of quoted text in replies.)
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meillo@23
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80 As this is one of the most intricate parts of the system, the goal
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81 was simply set too high.
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82 Instead, I improved the code base as I read through it.
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83 I found minor bugs for which I proposed fixes.
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meillo@171
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84 Additionally, I improved the documentation in minor ways.
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meillo@197
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85 When I started to work on larger code changes,
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meillo@53
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86 I had to discover that the community was reluctant to change.
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meillo@53
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87 Its wish for compatibility was much stronger than its
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88 wish for convenient out-of-the-box setups \(en in contrast to my opinion.
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89 Once again, this led to long discussions.
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meillo@212
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90 I came to understand their point of view, but it is different from mine.
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meillo@23
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91 At the end of my three-month project, I had become familiar with
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92 nmh's code base and community,
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93 I had improved the project in minor ways,
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94 and I still was convinced that I wanted to continue to do so.
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meillo@23
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95 .P
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meillo@53
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96 Another half year later, the end of my studies came within reach.
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97 I needed to choose a topic for my master's thesis.
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98 Without question, I wanted to work on nmh.
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99 But not exactly on nmh, because I had accepted that its
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100 community has different goals than I have.
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101 Working on nmh would result in much discussion and, in consequence,
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102 little progress.
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meillo@23
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103 After careful thought, I decided to start an experimental version of nmh.
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104 I wanted to implement my own ideas of how an MH-like system should
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105 look like.
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meillo@31
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106 I wanted to create a usable alternative version to be compared with
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107 the present state of nmh.
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108 Eventually, my work would be proven successful or not.
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109 In any case, the nmh project would profit from my experiences.
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110
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meillo@30
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111 .U2 "Focus of this Document
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112 .P
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113 This document explains the design goals and implementation decisions
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114 for mmh,
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115 .[
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116 mmh website homepage
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117 .]
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118 an experimental version of nmh.
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119 It discusses technical, historical, social and philosophical considerations.
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meillo@31
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120 On the technical side, this document
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121 explains how an existing project was streamlined by removing rough edges
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122 and better exploitation of the central concepts.
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meillo@106
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123 On the historical side, changes through time are discussed,
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124 regarding the use cases and the email features,
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125 as well as the reactions to them.
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126 Socially, this document describes the effects
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127 and experiences of a newcomer with revolutionary aims entering an old
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128 and matured software project.
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129 Philosophical thoughts on style, mainly based on the Unix
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130 philosophy, are present throughout the discussions.
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131 The document describes the changes to nmh,
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132 but as well, it clarifies my personal perception of the
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133 concepts of MH and Unix, and explain my therefrom resulting point of view.
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134 .P
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135 This document is written for the community around MH-like mail systems,
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136 including developers and users.
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meillo@106
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137 Despite the focus on MH-like systems, this document may be valuable
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138 to anyone interested in the Unix philosophy and anyone in contact with
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139 old software projects, be it code- or community-related.
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140 .P
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141 The reader is expected to be familiar with Unix, C and emailing.
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142 Good Unix shell knowledge is required, because MH relies fundamentally
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143 on the shell.
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144 Without the power of the shell, MH becomes a motorcycle
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145 without winding roads: boring.
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meillo@181
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146 Introductions to Unix and its shell can be found in \fIThe UNIX Programming
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147 Environment\fP by Kernighan and Pike
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148 .[
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149 kernighan pike unix prog env
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150 .]
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151 or \fIThe UNIX System\fP by Bourne.
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152 .[
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153 bourne unix system
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154 .]
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meillo@53
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155 The reader is assumed to be a C programmer,
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156 but the document should be understandable otherwise, too.
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meillo@53
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157 The definitive guide to C is Kernighan and Ritchie's
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meillo@181
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158 \fIThe C Programming Language\fP.
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159 .[
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160 kernighan ritchie c prog lang
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161 .]
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162 A book about system-level C programming, such as those written by
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163 Rochkind and Curry,
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164 .[
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165 rochkind advanced unix prog
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166 .]
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167 .[
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168 curry system prog
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169 .]
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meillo@164
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170 can be helpful as additional literature.
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171 Old books are likely more helpful for understanding,
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172 because large parts of the source code are old.
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173 The reader is expected to know the format of email messages and
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174 the structure of email transfer systems, at least on a basic level.
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meillo@197
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175 It's advisable to have cross-read RFC\|821 and RFC\|822.
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meillo@212
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176 Furthermore, basic understanding of MIME [RFC\|2045\(en2049]
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meillo@197
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177 is good to have.
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meillo@106
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178 The Wikipedia provides good introduction-level information about email.
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meillo@197
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179 .[
|
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meillo@197
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180 wikipedia email
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181 .]
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meillo@53
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182 .P
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183 Frequent references to the Unix philosophy will be made.
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184 Gancarz has tried to sum it up in his book
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185 \fIThe UNIX Philosophy\fP.
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186 .[
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187 gancarz unix phil
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188 .]
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meillo@181
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189 Even better, though less concrete, are \fIThe UNIX Programming
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190 Environment\fP
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meillo@34
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191 .[
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meillo@34
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192 kernighan pike unix prog env
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193 .]
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meillo@181
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194 and \fIThe Practice of Programming\fP
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195 .[
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meillo@34
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196 kernighan pike practice of prog
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197 .]
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meillo@34
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198 by Kernighan and Pike.
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meillo@181
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199 The term paper \fIWhy the Unix Philosophy still matters\fP
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meillo@34
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200 .[
|
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meillo@34
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201 why unix phil still matters schnalke
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202 .]
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meillo@197
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203 by myself provides an overview on the philosophy,
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204 including a case study of MH.
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205 .P
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206 Although a brief introduction to MH is provided in Section
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207 .Cf mh ,
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208 the reader is encouraged to have a look at
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meillo@181
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209 \fIMH & nmh: Email for Users & Programmers\fP by Jerry Peek.
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meillo@34
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210 .[
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meillo@34
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211 peek mh
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meillo@34
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212 .]
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meillo@53
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213 The current version is available freely on the Internet.
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meillo@30
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214 It is the definitive guide to MH and nmh.
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meillo@30
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215 .P
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meillo@30
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216 This document is neither a user's tutorial to mmh nor an introduction
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217 to any of the topics covered.
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218 The technical discussions are on an advanced level.
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219 Nevertheless, as knowledge of the fundamental concepts is the most valuable
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220 information a user can acquire about some program or software system,
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221 this document may be worth a read for non-developers as well.
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222
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223
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224 .U2 "Organization
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225 .P
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226 This thesis consists of three chapters.
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227 Chapter 1 introduces into the topic, describing MH and explaining
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228 the background and goals of the mmh project.
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229 Chapter 2 discusses the work done in the project.
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230 It is organized along the three major goals of the project, namely
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231 streamlining, modernizing, and styling.
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232 Not every change is described because that would bore the reader.
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233 Instead, important changes and those standing for a set of similar
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234 changes are described and discussed.
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meillo@200
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235 Chapter 3 finishes up by summarizing the achievements and taking
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236 a look into the future of the mmh project.
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meillo@28
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237 .P
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meillo@143
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238 .I "Italic font
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239 is used to emphasize new terms, and for names of software projects,
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240 literature, and man pages.
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meillo@143
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241 .CW "Constant width font
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242 is used to denote names of programs, files,
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243 functions, command lines, code excerpts, program input and output.
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244 .P
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meillo@143
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245 References to man pages are printed as ``\c
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246 .Mp cat (1)''.
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meillo@143
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247 In this case it is a reference to the man page of
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248 .Pn cat ,
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249 which is in section one of the Unix manual.
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meillo@212
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250 \fIRequests for Comments\fP (RFCs), which describe the working
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251 of the Internet, are referenced as ``RFC\|821''.
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meillo@143
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252 A list of relevant RFCs is located at the end of the document.
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meillo@200
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253 Literature is cited in brackets, such as
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254 .[ ``[
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meillo@143
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255 kernighan pike unix programming env
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256 .]]''.
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meillo@212
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257 Citations of email messages and websites are distinguished by
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258 ``mail:'' and ``web:'' prefixes.
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259 All references are collected at the end of the document.
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meillo@143
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260 .P
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261 This document describes practical programming work.
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262 The code of mmh is managed with the
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263 .Pn git
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264 version control system.
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265 .[
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meillo@197
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266 git website
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267 .]
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meillo@143
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268 All code changes were checked in.
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269 In the discussions, references to corresponding code changes are printed
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270 as ``\c
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271 .Ci 1a2b3c4 ''.
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272 The identifier is the seven-letter-prefix of the changeset hash value,
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273 which is considered unique.
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274 A change can be looked up in the repository, on the command line with
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meillo@143
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275 .Cl "git show XXX" ,
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276 replacing `\f(CWXXX\fP' with the concrete hash value or any unique prefix.
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277 In this example:
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278 .Cl "git show 1a2b3c4" .
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279 At the time of writing, changesets can be looked up online at:
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280 .CW "http://git.marmaro.de/?p=mmh;a=commitdiff;h=XXX" .
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281 But as we all know, URIs are always at risk to change.
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282 .P
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283 Whenever lines of code were determined, David A. Wheeler's \fIsloccount\fP
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284 .[
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meillo@197
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285 sloccount website
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meillo@197
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286 .]
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meillo@197
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287 was used to measure the amount in a comparable way.
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288
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289
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290 .U2 "Acknowledgments
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291 .P
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292 To be written at the very end.
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293 .P
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meillo@213
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294 XXX FIXME
|
