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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 in fall 2009.
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6 At that time I used \fImutt\fP,
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7 as many advanced Unix users do.
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8 When I read about nmh, its concepts convinced me at once.
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9 The transition from mutt to nmh was similar to beginning with
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10 file management in the Unix shell when being used to the
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11 \fImidnight commander\fP,
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12 or like starting with vi when being used to modeless editors.
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13 Such a change is not trivial, but, in being convinced by the
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14 concepts and by having done similar transitions for file management
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15 and editing already, it was not too difficult.
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16 In contrast, setting up nmh to a convenient state became a tedious task
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17 that took several months.
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18 Once having nmh arranged this way, I enjoyed using it
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19 because of its conceptional elegance and its scripting capabilities.
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20 Nevertheless, it was still inconvenient for handling attachments,
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21 non-ASCII character encodings, and similar features of modern emailing.
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22 My setup demanded more and more additional configuration and helper scripts
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23 to have nmh behave the way I wanted; yet my
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24 expectations were rather common for modern emailing.
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25 As a computer scientist and programmer, I wanted to improve the situation.
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26 .P
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27 In spring 2010, I sent a message
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28 .[
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29 nmh-workers gsoc
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30 .]
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31 to the \fInmh-workers\fP mailing list,
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32 .[
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33 nmh-workers mailing list website
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34 .]
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35 asking for the possibility to offer a Google Summer of Code
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36 .[
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37 google summer of code website
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38 .]
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39 project for me.
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40 Participating in the development of nmh in this manner appeared attractive
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41 to me, because I would have been able to work full time on nmh.
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42 Although the nmh community had reacted generally positive to the suggestion,
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43 the administrative work for such a project would had been too much.
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44 Nonetheless, 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 include mail transfer facilities.
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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 I argued for the Mail Transfer Agent of nmh to be removed.
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52 In this fundamental question,
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53 my opinion differed from the opinion of most others.
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54 Sadly, besides the discussions, hardly any real work was done.
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55 Being unable to work on nmh in a way that would be accepted at university
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56 as part of my studies, I needed to choose another project.
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57 .P
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58 Half a year later, starting in August 2010,
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59 I took one semester off to travel through Latin America.
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60 During my time in Argentina, I wanted to work on free software.
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61 This brought me back to nmh.
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62 Richard Sandelman, an active nmh user, took care of the official basis.
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63 Juan Granda, an Argentine free software developer,
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64 organized a computer with Internet connection.
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65 Thanks to them, I was able to work on nmh during my three-month
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66 stay in Santiago del Estero, Argentina.
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67 Quickly it became obvious that I would not succeed with my main goal,
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68 to improve the character encoding handling.
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69 (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.
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73 Instead, I improved the code base as I read through it.
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74 I found minor bugs for which I proposed fixes.
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75 Additionally, I improved the documentation in minor ways.
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76 When I started to work on larger code changes,
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77 I had to discover that the community was reluctant to change.
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78 Its wish for compatibility was much stronger than its
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79 wish for convenient out-of-the-box setups \(en in contrast to my opinion.
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80 Once again, this led to long discussions.
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81 I came to understand their point of view, but it is different from mine.
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82 At the end of my three-month project, I had become familiar with
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83 nmh's code base and community,
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84 I had improved the project in minor ways,
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85 and I still was convinced that I wanted to continue to do so.
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86 .P
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87 Another half year later, the end of my studies came within reach.
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88 I needed to choose a topic for my master's thesis.
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89 Without question, I wanted to work on nmh.
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90 But not exactly on nmh, because I had accepted that its
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91 community has different goals than I have.
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92 Working on nmh would result in much discussion and, in consequence,
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93 little progress.
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94 After careful thought, I decided to start an experimental version of nmh.
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95 I wanted to implement my own ideas of how an MH-like system should
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96 look like.
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97 I wanted to create a usable alternative version to be compared with
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98 the present state of nmh.
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99 Eventually, my work would be proven successful or not.
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100 In any case, the nmh project would profit from my experiences.
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101
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102 .U2 "Focus of this Document
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103 .P
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104 This document explains the design goals and implementation decisions
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105 for mmh,
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106 an experimental version of nmh.
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107 It discusses technical, historical, social and philosophical considerations.
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108 On the technical side, this document
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109 explains how an existing project was streamlined by removing rough edges
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110 and better exploitation of the central concepts.
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111 On the historical side, changes through time are discussed,
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112 regarding the use cases and the email features,
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113 as well as the reactions to them.
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114 Socially, this document describes the effects
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115 and experiences of a newcomer with revolutionary aims entering an old
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116 and matured software project.
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117 Philosophical thoughts on style, mainly based on the Unix
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118 philosophy, are present throughout the discussions.
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119 The document describes the changes to nmh,
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120 but as well, it clarifies my personal perception of the
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121 concepts of MH and Unix, and explain my therefrom resulting point of view.
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122 .P
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123 This document is written for the community around MH-like mail systems,
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124 including developers and users.
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125 Despite the focus on MH-like systems, this document may be valuable
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126 to anyone interested in the Unix philosophy and anyone in contact with
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127 old software projects, be it code- or community-related.
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128 .P
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129 The reader is expected to be familiar with Unix, C and emailing.
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130 Good Unix shell knowledge is required, because MH relies fundamentally
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131 on the shell.
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132 Without the power of the shell, MH becomes a motorcycle
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133 without winding roads: boring.
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134 Introductions to Unix and its shell can be found in \fIThe UNIX Programming
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135 Environment\fP by Kernighan and Pike
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136 .[
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137 kernighan pike unix prog env
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138 .]
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139 or \fIThe UNIX System\fP by Bourne.
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140 .[
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141 bourne unix system
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142 .]
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143 The reader is assumed to be a C programmer,
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144 but the document should be understandable otherwise, too.
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145 The definitive guide to C is Kernighan and Ritchie's
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146 \fIThe C Programming Language\fP.
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147 .[
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148 kernighan ritchie c prog lang
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149 .]
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150 A book about system-level C programming, such as those written by
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151 Rochkind and Curry,
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152 .[
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153 rochkind advanced unix prog
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154 .]
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155 .[
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156 curry system prog
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157 .]
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158 can be helpful as additional literature.
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159 Old books are likely more helpful for understanding,
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160 because large parts of the source code are old.
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161 The reader is expected to know the format of email messages and
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162 the structure of email transfer systems, at least on a basic level.
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163 It's advisable to have cross-read RFC\|821 and RFC\|822.
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164 Furthermore, basic understanding of MIME [RFC\|2045\(en2049]
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165 is good to have.
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166 The Wikipedia provides good introduction-level information about email.
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167 .[
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168 wikipedia email
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169 .]
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170 .P
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171 Frequent references to the Unix philosophy will be made.
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172 Gancarz has tried to sum it up in his book
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173 \fIThe UNIX Philosophy\fP.
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174 .[
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175 gancarz unix phil
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176 .]
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177 Even better, though less concrete, are \fIThe UNIX Programming
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178 Environment\fP
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179 .[
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180 kernighan pike unix prog env
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181 .]
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182 and \fIThe Practice of Programming\fP
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183 .[
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184 kernighan pike practice of prog
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185 .]
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186 by Kernighan and Pike.
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187 The term paper \fIWhy the Unix Philosophy still matters\fP
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188 .[
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189 why unix phil still matters schnalke
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190 .]
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191 by myself provides an overview on the philosophy,
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192 including a case study of MH.
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193 .P
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194 Although a brief introduction to MH is provided in Section
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195 .Cf mh ,
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196 the reader is encouraged to have a look at
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197 \fIMH & nmh: Email for Users & Programmers\fP by Jerry Peek.
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198 .[
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199 peek mh
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200 .]
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201 The current version is available freely on the Internet.
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202 It is the definitive guide to MH and nmh.
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203 .P
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204 This document is neither a user's tutorial to mmh nor an introduction
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205 to any of the topics covered.
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206 The technical discussions are on an advanced level.
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207 Nevertheless, as knowledge of the fundamental concepts is the most valuable
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208 information a user can acquire about some program or software system,
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209 this document may be worth a read for non-developers as well.
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210
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211
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212 .U2 "Organization
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213 .P
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214 This thesis consists of three chapters.
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215 Chapter 1 introduces into the topic, describing MH and explaining
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216 the background and goals of the mmh project.
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217 Chapter 2 discusses the work done in the project.
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218 It is organized along the three major goals of the project, namely
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219 streamlining, modernizing, and styling.
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220 Not every change is described because that would bore the reader.
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221 Instead, important changes and those standing for a set of similar
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222 changes are described and discussed.
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223 Chapter 3 finishes up by summarizing the achievements and taking
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224 a look into the future of the mmh project.
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225 .P
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226 .I "Italic
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227 font is used for names of software projects, literature, and man pages,
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228 as well as to emphasize new terms.
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229 .CW "Constant width
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230 font is used to denote names of programs, files, functions,
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231 command lines, code excerpts, program input and output, and the like.
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232 .P
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233 References to man pages are printed as ``\c
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234 .Mp cat (1)'',
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235 which is a reference to the man page of
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236 .Pn cat
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237 in section one of the Unix manual.
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238 \fIRequests for Comments\fP (RFCs), which describe the working
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239 of the Internet, are referenced as ``RFC\|821''.
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240 Literature is cited in brackets, such as
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241 .[ ``[
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242 kernighan pike unix programming env
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243 .]]''.
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244 Citations of email messages and websites are distinguished by
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245 ``mail:'' and ``web:'' prefixes.
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246 All references are collected at the end of the document.
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247 Links to the software projects mentioned throughout
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248 the text are collected there as well.
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249 .P
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250 This document describes practical programming work.
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251 The code of mmh is managed with the
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252 .Pn git
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253 version control system.
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254 All code changes were checked in.
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255 In the discussions, references to corresponding code changes are printed
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256 as ``\c
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257 .Ci 1a2b3c4 ''.
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258 The identifier is the seven-letter-prefix of the changeset's hash value,
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259 which is considered unique.
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260 Any change can be looked up in the repository, using the command line
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261 .Cl "git show 1234567" .
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262 (`\f(CW1234567\fP' needs to be replaced with the concrete hash value.)
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263 At the time of writing, changesets could be looked up online at:
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264 .CW "http://git.marmaro.de/?p=mmh;a=commitdiff;h=1234567" \|.
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265 But as we all know, URIs are always at risk to change.
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266
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267
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268 .U2 "Acknowledgments
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269 .P
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270 .\"so thanks
|
