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