docs/master
view preface.roff @ 17:b3c37947764e
Several minor text improvements.
| author | markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> |
|---|---|
| date | Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:16:30 +0200 |
| parents | 8cc0af0724c2 |
| children | 1e4afeb34da7 |
line source
1 .H0 "Preface" no
3 .H1 "How the Fun Began" no
4 .P
5 I have discovered nmh in XXX. I used to use mutt, like many
6 command line-attracted Unix users. Nmh had convinced me conceptually
7 at once. Unfortunately, setting it up to a convenient state became a
8 tendious task. Learning its different model of email handling had,
9 in contrast, been relatively easy. Learning to use MH if you are used
10 to monolithic mail clients is like learning vi if you are used to
11 modeless editors.
12 Once having nmh set up, using it was joy because of its conceptional
13 elegance and scripting capabilities, but on the other hand it was
14 inconvenient in handling attachments, non-ASCII character encodings,
15 and similar stuff. I found it wrong to require more and more scripts
16 and configuration to have it act the expected way. In being a
17 software developer, I wanted to improve the situation.
18 .P
19 In Spring 2010, I asked on the nmh-workers mailing list for the
20 possibility to have a Google Summer of Code project on nmh. Being a
21 student, this appeared attractive to me. Eventually, it had not been
22 possible, but the nmh community started to move. In these months
23 nmh's future was discussed and I became part of a ``Does nmh need an
24 MTA'' discussion. There, my opinion differed from the opinion of
25 most others.
26 .P
27 As it hadn't been possible to work on nmh in a way that would be
28 accepted as part of my official studies, I needed to get my credit
29 points in some other way. But half a year later I was back. Starting
30 in Summer 2010, I took one semester off to travel through Latin America.
31 Within this time, I needed to do practical computer work for three
32 months. Richard Sandelman, an active nmh user, made it possible for
33 me to work on nmh during this time. Juan Granda, from Santiago del
34 Estero in Argentina, provided a computer and Internet connection.
35 Within these three month, I became familiar with nmh's code base and
36 its community. I learned how things work. Quickly it was obvious that
37 I wouldn't succeed to improve on the non-ASCII character encoding
38 problems, as this is one of the most intricate parts of the system.
39 Instead I improved code as I read through it. I found minor bugs in
40 the code and could improve the documentation. When I started with
41 larger code changes, I had to discover that the community's wish for
42 compatibility was stronger than its wish for convenient
43 out-of-the-box setups. This lead to long discussions, again. Finally,
44 I understand their point of view, but it's not mine.
45 At the end of my three-month project, I had became familiar with
46 nmh's code base and community, I had improved both a bit, and I still
47 was convinced that I wanted to go on with it.
48 .P
49 Another half a year later, I needed a topic for my master's thesis.
50 Now it was clear: I wanted to work on nmh. No, not exactly nmh,
51 because I had accepted that the nmh community has different goals
52 than I have. The won't be much progress if generally different opinions
53 lead to long discussions. After careful thought, I had decided to
54 start an experimental version of nmh. I wanted to go my way and see
55 where it would lead to. Time would tell if it would prove successful.
56 Nmh would hardly be hurt by my work, but could profit from my
57 experiences later.
58 .P
59 When I started to work on mmh, my experimental version, in Fall 2011,
60 activity in nmh rose suddenly. While I was working on mmh, XXX were
61 working on nmh. After long years of idleing, nmh was actively
62 developed again. That was a good sign. My own work went in parallel
63 and unrelated. Today, my experimental version became de facto a fork.
64 The mail storage, however, is still compatible.
67 .H1 "Naming Conventions" no
68 .P
69 There are three different versions of MH available currently: original MH,
70 nmh, and mmh. Following is a description how the terms are used.
71 .P
72 .B MH
73 (Mail Handler).
74 Used for any MH-like mail systems, namely the original MH, nmh, and mmh.
75 .P
76 .B "Mail client" .
77 Synonym for MUA. The part of the mail software the user directly
78 interacts with.
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