docs/master

annotate preface.roff @ 176:25d05add0d97

Mentioned the source of the Dijkstra quote and fixed the ref system.
author markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
date Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:48:32 +0200
parents 346ff7e201f5
children eb6eeb10afd5
rev   line source
meillo@0 1 .H0 "Preface" no
meillo@0 2
meillo@23 3 .P
meillo@171 4 I have discovered the mail client \fInmh\fP in fall 2009.
meillo@87 5 At that time I used \fImutt\fP, as many advanced Unix users do.
meillo@87 6 When I read about nmh, its concepts convinced me at once.
meillo@87 7 The transition from mutt to nmh was similar to beginning with
meillo@87 8 file management in the Unix shell when being used to the
meillo@53 9 \fImidnight commander\fP,
meillo@87 10 or like starting with vi when being used to modeless editors.
meillo@87 11 Such a change is not trivial, but, in being convinced by the
meillo@31 12 concepts and by having done similar transitions for file management
meillo@53 13 and editing already, it was not too difficult.
meillo@51 14 In contrast, setting up nmh to a convenient state became a tedious task
meillo@23 15 that took several months.
meillo@164 16 Once having nmh arranged this way, I enjoyed using it
meillo@28 17 because of its conceptional elegance and its scripting capabilities.
meillo@106 18 Nevertheless, it was still inconvenient for handling attachments,
meillo@87 19 non-ASCII character encodings, and similar features of modern emailing.
meillo@31 20 My setup demanded more and more additional configuration and helper scripts
meillo@87 21 to have nmh behave the way I wanted; yet my
meillo@31 22 expectations were rather common for modern emailing.
meillo@106 23 As a computer scientist and programmer, I wanted to improve the situation.
meillo@8 24 .P
meillo@171 25 In spring 2010, I sent a message to the \fInmh-workers\fP mailing list,
meillo@106 26 asking for the possibility to offer a Google Summer of Code project for me.
meillo@106 27 Participating in the development of nmh in this manner appeared attractive
meillo@106 28 to me, because I would have been able to work full time on nmh.
meillo@106 29 Although the nmh community had reacted generally positive to the suggestion,
meillo@171 30 the administrative work for such a project would had been too much.
meillo@106 31 Nonetheless, my proposal had activated the nmh community.
meillo@31 32 In the following weeks, goals for nmh's future were discussed.
meillo@31 33 In these discussions, I became involved in the
meillo@53 34 question whether nmh should include mail transfer facilities.
meillo@34 35 .[
meillo@34 36 nmh-workers thread mta mua
meillo@34 37 .]
meillo@87 38 I argued for the MTA of nmh to be removed.
meillo@87 39 In this fundamental question,
meillo@87 40 my opinion differed from the opinion of most others.
meillo@87 41 Sadly, besides the discussions, hardly any real work was done.
meillo@87 42 Being unable to work on nmh in a way that would be accepted at university
meillo@87 43 as part of my studies, I needed to choose another project.
meillo@8 44 .P
meillo@23 45 Half a year later, starting in August 2010,
meillo@23 46 I took one semester off to travel through Latin America.
meillo@173 47 During my time in Argentina, I wanted to work on free software.
meillo@23 48 This brought me back to nmh.
meillo@159 49 Richard Sandelman, an active nmh user, took care of the official basis.
meillo@173 50 Juan Granda, an Argentine free software developer,
meillo@87 51 provided a computer with Internet connection.
meillo@53 52 Thanks to them, I was able to work on nmh during my three-month
meillo@87 53 stay in Santiago del Estero, Argentina.
meillo@106 54 Quickly it became obvious that I would not succeed with my main goal,
meillo@87 55 to improve the character encoding handling.
meillo@87 56 (One of its ramifications is the
meillo@87 57 missing transfer decoding of quoted text in replies.)
meillo@23 58 As this is one of the most intricate parts of the system, the goal
meillo@53 59 was simply set too high.
meillo@53 60 Instead, I improved the code base as I read through it.
meillo@87 61 I found minor bugs for which I proposed fixes.
meillo@171 62 Additionally, I improved the documentation in minor ways.
meillo@53 63 When I started with larger code changes,
meillo@53 64 I had to discover that the community was reluctant to change.
meillo@53 65 Its wish for compatibility was much stronger than its
meillo@31 66 wish for convenient out-of-the-box setups \(en in contrast to my opinion.
meillo@106 67 This, once again, led to long discussions.
meillo@53 68 I came to understand their point of view, but it was different to mine.
meillo@23 69 At the end of my three-month project, I had become familiar with
meillo@87 70 nmh's code base and community,
meillo@53 71 I had improved the project in minor ways,
meillo@87 72 and I still was convinced that I wanted to continue to do so.
meillo@23 73 .P
meillo@53 74 Another half year later, the end of my studies came within reach.
meillo@23 75 I needed a topic for my master's thesis.
meillo@106 76 Without question, I wanted to work on nmh.
meillo@106 77 But not exactly on nmh, because I had accepted that its
meillo@106 78 community has different goals than I have.
meillo@87 79 Working on nmh would result in much discussion and, in consequence,
meillo@87 80 little progress.
meillo@23 81 After careful thought, I decided to start an experimental version of nmh.
meillo@31 82 I wanted to implement my own ideas of how an MH-like system should look like.
meillo@31 83 I wanted to create a usable alternative version to be compared with
meillo@31 84 the present state of nmh.
meillo@53 85 Eventually, my work would be proven successful or not.
meillo@53 86 In any case, the nmh project would profit from my experiences.
meillo@28 87
meillo@30 88 .U2 "Focus of this Document
meillo@8 89 .P
meillo@53 90 This document explains the design goals and implementation decisions
meillo@53 91 for mmh.
meillo@171 92 .\" XXX mmh taucht hier zum ersten mal auf.
meillo@31 93 It discusses technical, historical, social and philosophical considerations.
meillo@31 94 On the technical side, this document
meillo@125 95 explains how an existing project was streamlined by removing rough edges
meillo@106 96 and better exploitation of the central concepts.
meillo@106 97 On the historical side, changes through time are discussed,
meillo@106 98 regarding the use cases and the email features,
meillo@106 99 as well as the reactions to them.
meillo@31 100 Socially, this document describes the effects
meillo@28 101 and experiences of a newcomer with revolutionary aims entering an old
meillo@53 102 and matured software project.
meillo@106 103 Philosophical thoughts on style, mainly based on the Unix
meillo@53 104 philosophy, are present throughout the discussions.
meillo@53 105 The document describes the changes to nmh,
meillo@53 106 but as well, it clarifies my personal perception of the
meillo@53 107 concepts of MH and Unix, and explain my therefrom resulting point of view.
meillo@23 108 .P
meillo@31 109 This document is written for the community around MH-like mail systems,
meillo@31 110 including developers and users.
meillo@106 111 Despite the focus on MH-like systems, this document may be valuable
meillo@106 112 to anyone interested in the Unix philosophy and anyone in contact with
meillo@106 113 old software projects, be it code- or community-related.
meillo@28 114 .P
meillo@106 115 The reader is expected to be familiar with Unix, C and emailing.
meillo@53 116 Good Unix shell knowledge is required, because MH relies fundamentally
meillo@125 117 on the shell. Without the power of the shell, MH becomes a motorcycle
meillo@30 118 without winding roads: boring.
meillo@31 119 Introductions to Unix and its shell can be found in ``The UNIX Programming
meillo@37 120 Environment'' by Kernighan and Pike
meillo@37 121 .[
meillo@37 122 kernighan pike unix prog env
meillo@37 123 .]
meillo@37 124 or ``The UNIX System'' by Bourne.
meillo@37 125 .[
meillo@37 126 bourne unix system
meillo@37 127 .]
meillo@53 128 The reader is assumed to be a C programmer,
meillo@53 129 but the document should be understandable otherwise, too.
meillo@53 130 The definitive guide to C is Kernighan and Ritchie's
meillo@53 131 ``The C Programming Language''.
meillo@37 132 .[
meillo@37 133 kernighan ritchie c prog lang
meillo@37 134 .]
meillo@164 135 A book about system-level C programming, such as those written by
meillo@164 136 Rochkind and Curry,
meillo@37 137 .[
meillo@37 138 rochkind advanced unix prog
meillo@37 139 .]
meillo@37 140 .[
meillo@37 141 curry system prog
meillo@37 142 .]
meillo@164 143 can be helpful as additional literature.
meillo@106 144 Old books are likely more helpful for understanding,
meillo@106 145 because large parts of the source code are old.
meillo@53 146 The reader is expected to know the format of email messages and
meillo@53 147 the structure of email transfer systems, at least on a basic level.
meillo@53 148 It's advisable to have cross-read the RFCs 821 and 822.
meillo@31 149 Further more, basic understanding of MIME is good to have.
meillo@106 150 The Wikipedia provides good introduction-level information about email.
meillo@53 151 .P
meillo@28 152 Frequent references to the Unix philosophy will be made.
meillo@53 153 Gancarz has tried to sum it up in his book
meillo@34 154 ``The UNIX Philosophy''.
meillo@34 155 .[
meillo@34 156 gancarz unix phil
meillo@34 157 .]
meillo@47 158 Even better, though less concrete, are ``The UNIX Programming Environment''
meillo@34 159 .[
meillo@34 160 kernighan pike unix prog env
meillo@34 161 .]
meillo@34 162 and ``The Practice of Programming''
meillo@34 163 .[
meillo@34 164 kernighan pike practice of prog
meillo@34 165 .]
meillo@34 166 by Kernighan and Pike.
meillo@34 167 The term paper ``Why the Unix Philosophy still matters''
meillo@34 168 .[
meillo@34 169 why unix phil still matters schnalke
meillo@34 170 .]
meillo@34 171 by myself
meillo@53 172 provides an overview on the philosophy, including a case study of MH.
meillo@53 173 .P
meillo@30 174 Although a brief introduction to MH is provided in Chapter 1, the reader
meillo@53 175 is encouraged to have a look at the \fIMH Book\fP
meillo@53 176 ``MH & nmh: Email for Users & Programmers'' by Jerry Peek.
meillo@34 177 .[
meillo@34 178 peek mh
meillo@34 179 .]
meillo@53 180 The current version is available freely on the Internet.
meillo@30 181 It is the definitive guide to MH and nmh.
meillo@30 182 .P
meillo@30 183 This document is neither a user's tutorial to mmh nor an introduction
meillo@53 184 to any of the topics covered.
meillo@53 185 The technical discussions are on an advanced level.
meillo@52 186 Nevertheless, as knowledge of the fundamental concepts is the most valuable
meillo@51 187 information a user can acquire about some program or software system,
meillo@52 188 this document may be worth a read for non-developers as well.
meillo@8 189
meillo@8 190
meillo@28 191 .U2 "Organization
meillo@0 192 .P
meillo@143 193 This thesis consists of three chapters.
meillo@143 194 Chapter 1 introduces into the topic, describing MH and explaining
meillo@143 195 the background and goals of the mmh project.
meillo@143 196 Chapter 2 discusses the work done in the project.
meillo@143 197 It is organized along the three major goals of the project, namely
meillo@143 198 streamlining, modernizing, and styling.
meillo@164 199 Not every change is described because that would bore the reader.
meillo@143 200 Instead, important changes and those standing for a set of similar
meillo@143 201 changes are described and discussed.
meillo@143 202 Chapter 3 finishes up by summarizing the achivements and taking
meillo@164 203 a look into the future of the mmh project.
meillo@28 204 .P
meillo@143 205 .I "Italic font
meillo@171 206 is used to emphasize new terms, and to name software projects and
meillo@171 207 man pages.
meillo@143 208 .CW "Constant width font
meillo@143 209 is used to denote names of programs, files,
meillo@143 210 functions, command lines, code excrepts, program input and output.
meillo@143 211 .P
meillo@143 212 References to man pages are printed as ``\c
meillo@143 213 .Mp cat (1)''.
meillo@143 214 In this case it is a reference to the man page of
meillo@143 215 .Pn cat ,
meillo@143 216 which is in section one of the Unix manual.
meillo@143 217 Internet technologies are specified by \fIRequests for Comments\fP (RFCs).
meillo@143 218 Throughout the document, they are referenced in this way ``RFC\|822''.
meillo@143 219 A list of relevant RFCs is located at the end of the document.
meillo@143 220 References to literature are printed in backets, like
meillo@143 221 .[ ``[
meillo@143 222 kernighan pike unix programming env
meillo@143 223 .]]'', within the text.
meillo@143 224 The full references are collected at the end of the document.
meillo@143 225 .P
meillo@143 226 This document describes practical programming work.
meillo@143 227 The code of mmh is managed by the
meillo@143 228 .Pn git
meillo@143 229 version control system.
meillo@143 230 All code changes were checked in.
meillo@143 231 In the discussions, references to corresponding code changes are printed
meillo@143 232 as ``\c
meillo@143 233 .Ci 1a2b3c4 ''.
meillo@143 234 The identifier is the seven-letter-prefix of the changeset hash value,
meillo@143 235 which is considered unique.
meillo@143 236 A change can be looked up in the repository, on the command line with
meillo@143 237 .Cl "git show XXX" ,
meillo@143 238 replacing `\f(CWXXX\fP' with the concrete hash value or any unique prefix.
meillo@68 239 In this example:
meillo@143 240 .Cl "git show 1a2b3c4" .
meillo@143 241 At the time of writing, changesets can be looked up online this way:
meillo@143 242 .CW "http://git.marmaro.de/?p=mmh;a=commitdiff;h=XXX" .
meillo@146 243 But as we all know, URIs are always at risk to change.
meillo@24 244
meillo@23 245
meillo@28 246 .U2 "Acknowledgments
meillo@23 247 .P
meillo@24 248 To be written at the very end.
meillo@143 249 .P
meillo@143 250 FIXME