.H0 "Preface" no

.P
MH is a set of mail handling tools with a common concept, like
the Unix toolchest is a set of file handling tools with a common
concept. nmh is the currently most popular implementation of an
MH-like mail handling system.


.H1 "How the Fun Began" no
.P
I have discovered nmh in September 2009. At that time I used to use mutt,
like many command line-attracted Unix users do.
Conceptually nmh had convinced me at once and learning
its different model of email handling had been relatively easy.
The change was like
managing files in the Unix shell when you are used to graphical file
managers, or like learning vi when you are used to modeless editors.
The change was not trivial but as I was convinced by the concepts and
already managed my files with shell tools and edited with vi, not to
difficult either.
In contrast, setting nmh up to a convenient state became a tendious task
that took several months.
.P
Once having nmh arranged as wished, using it was joy because of its
conceptional elegance and scripting capabilities.
On the other hand, however, it still was
inconvenient in handling attachments, non-ASCII character encodings,
and similar features of modern emailing.
My setup required more and more scripts and additional configuration
to have nmh act the way I expected it to behave, where my
expectations were rather common to modern emailing than exceptionel.
In being a software developer, I wanted to improve the situation.
.P
In Spring 2010, I asked on the nmh-workers mailing list for the
possibility to offer a Google Summer of Code project on nmh.
Participating in the development this way appeared attractive to me,
especially as it would have been possible to have the project
accepted at university. Although the nmh community
generally had been positive on the
suggestion, eventually it had not been possible to manage the
administrative work. Though my proposal had started the nmh community
to move. In the following weeks, goals for nmh's future were discussed
on the list. During the discussions, I became involved in the
question whether nmh should be an MTA. (Thread subject:
``should nmh be an MTA or an MUA?''.)
In this point, my opinion differed from the opinion of most others
as I voted for the MTA facility of nmh to be removed.
.P
Being not able to work on nmh in a way that would be
accepted as part of my official studies, I needed to get my credit
points with some other project.
Half a year later, starting in August 2010,
I took one semester off to travel through Latin America.
Within this time, I had to do practical computer work for three
months.
This brought me back to nmh.
Richard Sandelman, an active nmh user, made it possible for
me to work on nmh. Juan Granda, living in Santiago del
Estero in Argentina, provided a computer and Internet connection for
my work.
Within the three month, I became familiar with nmh's code base and
its community. I learned how things work. Quickly it became obvious that
I wouldn't succeed with my main goal, to improve the character
encoding handling within the project. One obvious problem is the missing
transfer decoding of the quoted text in replies.
As this is one of the most intricate parts of the system, the goal
was simply too difficult to reach.
Instead I improved the code as I read through it. I found minor bugs
for which I proposed fixes to the community. Also I
could improve the documentation. When I started with
larger code changes, I had to discover that the community's wish for
compatibility was stronger than its wish for convenient
out-of-the-box setups \(en in contrast with my opinion.
This lead to long discussions, again.
I came to understand their point of view, but it simply is not mine.
.P
At the end of my three-month project, I had become familiar with
nmh's code base and its community. I had improved the project a bit
and I still was convinced that I wanted to go on with that.
.P
Another half a year later, the end of my studies came within reach.
I needed a topic for my master's thesis.
There was no question: I wanted to work on nmh.
But well, not exactly on nmh,
because I had accepted that the nmh community has different goals
than I have. This would result in long discussions and thus few progress.
After careful thought, I decided to start an experimental version of nmh.
I wanted to follow my own ideas of how nmh should look like. I wanted
to see where that would lead to. I wanted to compare the result of my
work to the present state of nmh. Time should prove me successful or
not.
Nmh would hardly be hurt by my work as I would not interfere with
them. But nmh could profit from my experiences.
.P
I started to work on my experimental version, which I call
\fImmh\fP (for \fImeillo's mail handler\fP), in Fall 2011.
In December, when I announced that I would work on an experimental
version, the activity in nmh suddenly rose. Suddently the community
started to move.
After long years of mostly idling, nmh became actively developed again.
What a great result!
Hence, while I was working on mmh, the community was working on nmh
too. My own work went in parallel and mostly unrelated.
.P
Because of several circumstances, my experimental version is rather
a fork today, although this may change again in the future.


.H1 "Organization" no
.P
foo

.H1 "Conventions" no
.P
.B "Mail client" .
Synonym for MUA. The part of the mail software the user directly
interacts with.
.P

.H1 "Acknowledgments" no
.P
foo


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