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