| rev |
line source |
|
meillo@161
|
1 .H0 "Summary
|
|
meillo@132
|
2 .P
|
|
meillo@161
|
3 This document describes and explains my work on mmh.
|
|
meillo@161
|
4 I have streamlined the project by removing programs, facilities
|
|
meillo@161
|
5 and options that diverted from the main task of mmh, being a MUA.
|
|
meillo@161
|
6 I have modernized the code base removing obsolete functions and
|
|
meillo@161
|
7 activating modern features per default.
|
|
meillo@161
|
8 Further more, I improved the style by refactoring clumpsy code
|
|
meillo@161
|
9 and by defining or exploiting clear concepts.
|
|
meillo@161
|
10 All my work was motivated by Antoine de Saint Exupery's well-known
|
|
meillo@161
|
11 statement:
|
|
meillo@161
|
12 .[
|
|
meillo@161
|
13 antoine de saint exupery: Wind, Sand and Stars (1939)
|
|
meillo@161
|
14 .]
|
|
meillo@132
|
15 .QS
|
|
meillo@132
|
16 It seems that perfection is attained not when there is nothing
|
|
meillo@132
|
17 more to add, but when there is nothing more to remove.
|
|
meillo@132
|
18 .QE
|
|
meillo@161
|
19 .P
|
|
meillo@161
|
20 In contrast to the common expectations, I have hardly added new features.
|
|
meillo@161
|
21 I regard my improvements in selecting the relevant set of existing
|
|
meillo@161
|
22 features and exploiting the concepts more thoroughly.
|
|
meillo@161
|
23 I believe, the result is a system simpler and clearer for both
|
|
meillo@161
|
24 developing and using, without lacking important functionality.
|
|
meillo@132
|
25
|
|
meillo@161
|
26
|
|
meillo@161
|
27 .U2 "Work Left to Do
|
|
meillo@148
|
28 .P
|
|
meillo@161
|
29 The work done during the project is not finished.
|
|
meillo@161
|
30 Several tasks are left to do, mainly the MIME integration.
|
|
meillo@132
|
31 .P
|
|
meillo@161
|
32 MIME handling is the most complex part of mmh and it requires
|
|
meillo@161
|
33 general rework.
|
|
meillo@161
|
34 The changes already done to it build upon the existing structure.
|
|
meillo@161
|
35 Yet, MIME support is not truly integrated.
|
|
meillo@161
|
36 For instance, accessing messages and accessing MIME parts of messages
|
|
meillo@161
|
37 have inherently different concepts, although a single concept should
|
|
meillo@161
|
38 cover both.
|
|
meillo@161
|
39 The sequence notation should provide a way to address MIME parts directly.
|
|
meillo@161
|
40 Furthermore, the sequence notation should be made more powerful in general.
|
|
meillo@161
|
41 For instance, it is currently not possible to access the second last
|
|
meillo@161
|
42 message in a given sequence.
|
|
meillo@161
|
43 Displaying messages with
|
|
meillo@161
|
44 .Pn show
|
|
meillo@161
|
45 requires further rework.
|
|
meillo@161
|
46 Encrypted messages, for example, should be decoded automatically
|
|
meillo@161
|
47 and digital signatures should be verified on-the-fly.
|
|
meillo@161
|
48 The whole task should be aligned with the common behavior of other
|
|
meillo@161
|
49 mail clients.
|
|
meillo@161
|
50 MH's unique features should not be lost, but the default should become
|
|
meillo@161
|
51 less surprising.
|
|
meillo@161
|
52 Transfer-decoding of the quoted text in replys and encoding of non-ASCII
|
|
meillo@161
|
53 characters in message header fields like
|
|
meillo@161
|
54 .Hd Subject
|
|
meillo@161
|
55 remain unsolved.
|
|
meillo@132
|
56 .P
|
|
meillo@161
|
57 Besides MIME-related tasks, some tools were not worked on yet.
|
|
meillo@161
|
58 Among them are
|
|
meillo@161
|
59 .Pn dist ,
|
|
meillo@161
|
60 .Pn rcvdist ,
|
|
meillo@161
|
61 .Pn mark ,
|
|
meillo@161
|
62 .Pn pick ,
|
|
meillo@161
|
63 and
|
|
meillo@161
|
64 .Pn sortm .
|
|
meillo@161
|
65 Concerning
|
|
meillo@161
|
66 .Pn sortm ,
|
|
meillo@161
|
67 a threaded message view is completely missing to mmh, yet.
|
|
meillo@161
|
68 .Pn pick
|
|
meillo@161
|
69 could profit from message indexing.
|
|
meillo@161
|
70 No research was performed in this field.
|
|
meillo@161
|
71 .P
|
|
meillo@161
|
72 The features most often asked for are Maildir and IMAP support.
|
|
meillo@161
|
73 Yet, both of them collide with MH in the same fundamental way as
|
|
meillo@161
|
74 different filesystem approaches would collide with Unix.
|
|
meillo@161
|
75 Nevertheless, a storage back-end abstraction layer could provide
|
|
meillo@161
|
76 a mapping from such back-ends to the MH storage format.
|
|
meillo@161
|
77 Research in this area is highly appreciated.
|
|
meillo@132
|
78
|
|
meillo@132
|
79
|
|
meillo@132
|
80 .U2 "Relationship to nmh
|
|
meillo@132
|
81 .P
|
|
meillo@161
|
82 The mmh project started as an experimental version of nmh because the
|
|
meillo@161
|
83 nmh community did not welcome my changes in the mainline version.
|
|
meillo@161
|
84 To not slow my work down by the need to convince the community in
|
|
meillo@161
|
85 discussions for each step I liked to take,
|
|
meillo@161
|
86 I started to create an experimental version to convicce by demonstration
|
|
meillo@161
|
87 of the result.
|
|
meillo@161
|
88 My worked on mmh was independent of the nmh community.
|
|
meillo@161
|
89 This enabled me to follow my vision straightly and thus produce
|
|
meillo@161
|
90 a result of greater pureness.
|
|
meillo@0
|
91 .P
|
|
meillo@161
|
92 Mmh shall be considered an inspiration for the future development of nmh.
|
|
meillo@161
|
93 It shall show identify weak part of nmh and suggest possible
|
|
meillo@161
|
94 improvements by change.
|
|
meillo@161
|
95 It shall present a lean appearance that is simpler to understand
|
|
meillo@161
|
96 and work with for developers and users.
|
|
meillo@161
|
97 By all means shall my work on mmh improve nmh in some way.
|
|
meillo@161
|
98 Improving nmh directly in the way I wanted was impossible for me
|
|
meillo@161
|
99 due to personal and community-related circumstances.
|
|
meillo@161
|
100 The mmh project is my way to offer my gifts though.
|
|
meillo@161
|
101 .P
|
|
meillo@161
|
102 During my work on mmh, the community of nmh suddenly became very active.
|
|
meillo@161
|
103 They have worked on nmh in parallel to my work on mmh.
|
|
meillo@161
|
104 There was no collaberation in our work, except that I have pulled some
|
|
meillo@161
|
105 changes from nmh to mmh.
|
|
meillo@161
|
106 Our work was motivated partly by similar and partly by different aims.
|
|
meillo@161
|
107 Although some changes are common among both projects,
|
|
meillo@161
|
108 fundamental differences exist.
|
|
meillo@161
|
109 My experimental version thus more and more felt like being a fork.
|
|
meillo@161
|
110 I am undecided how I like to have it.
|
|
meillo@161
|
111 Yet, I am strongly convinced that most of the decisions taken in mmh
|
|
meillo@161
|
112 were good to achieve my goals and I like to push the project even
|
|
meillo@161
|
113 farther in this direction.
|
|
meillo@161
|
114
|
|
meillo@161
|
115
|
|
meillo@161
|
116 .U2 "Weaknesses of My Work
|
|
meillo@161
|
117 .P
|
|
meillo@161
|
118 not targeting on the right problems (maildir, imap)
|
|
meillo@0
|
119
|
|
meillo@0
|
120 .P
|
|
meillo@161
|
121 refactoring requires testing, automated testing
|
|
meillo@132
|
122
|
|
meillo@53
|
123 .P
|
|
meillo@161
|
124 communication with nmh.
|
|
meillo@161
|
125 worked behind closed doors, but no:
|
|
meillo@161
|
126 talks I've given
|
|
meillo@148
|
127
|
|
meillo@148
|
128 .P
|
|
meillo@158
|
129 focus on myself.
|
|
meillo@158
|
130 But: If good for me then also good for others.
|
