meillo@0: .H0 "Preface" no
meillo@0: 
meillo@23: .P
meillo@23: MH is a set of mail handling tools with a common concept, like
meillo@23: the Unix toolchest is a set of file handling tools with a common
meillo@23: concept. nmh is the currently most popular implementation of an
meillo@23: MH-like mail handling system.
meillo@23: 
meillo@23: 
meillo@8: .H1 "How the Fun Began" no
meillo@8: .P
meillo@23: I have discovered nmh in September 2009. At that time I used to use mutt,
meillo@23: like many command line-attracted Unix users do.
meillo@23: Conceptually nmh had convinced me at once and learning
meillo@23: its different model of email handling had been relatively easy.
meillo@23: The change was like
meillo@23: managing files in the Unix shell when you are used to graphical file
meillo@23: managers, or like learning vi when you are used to modeless editors.
meillo@23: The change was not trivial but as I was convinced by the concepts and
meillo@23: already managed my files with shell tools and edited with vi, not to
meillo@23: difficult either.
meillo@23: In contrast, setting nmh up to a convenient state became a tendious task
meillo@23: that took several months.
meillo@23: .P
meillo@23: Once having nmh arranged as wished, using it was joy because of its
meillo@23: conceptional elegance and scripting capabilities.
meillo@23: On the other hand, however, it still was
meillo@8: inconvenient in handling attachments, non-ASCII character encodings,
meillo@23: and similar features of modern emailing.
meillo@23: My setup required more and more scripts and additional configuration
meillo@23: to have nmh act the way I expected it to behave, where my
meillo@23: expectations were rather common to modern emailing than exceptionel.
meillo@23: In being a software developer, I wanted to improve the situation.
meillo@8: .P
meillo@8: In Spring 2010, I asked on the nmh-workers mailing list for the
meillo@23: possibility to offer a Google Summer of Code project on nmh.
meillo@23: Participating in the development this way appeared attractive to me,
meillo@23: especially as it would have been possible to have the project
meillo@23: accepted at university. Although the nmh community
meillo@23: generally had been positive on the
meillo@23: suggestion, eventually it had not been possible to manage the
meillo@23: administrative work. Though my proposal had started the nmh community
meillo@23: to move. In the following weeks, goals for nmh's future were discussed
meillo@23: on the list. During the discussions, I became involved in the
meillo@23: question whether nmh should be an MTA. (Thread subject:
meillo@23: ``should nmh be an MTA or an MUA?''.)
meillo@23: In this point, my opinion differed from the opinion of most others
meillo@23: as I voted for the MTA facility of nmh to be removed.
meillo@8: .P
meillo@23: Being not able to work on nmh in a way that would be
meillo@8: accepted as part of my official studies, I needed to get my credit
meillo@23: points with some other project.
meillo@23: Half a year later, starting in August 2010,
meillo@23: I took one semester off to travel through Latin America.
meillo@23: Within this time, I had to do practical computer work for three
meillo@23: months.
meillo@23: This brought me back to nmh.
meillo@23: Richard Sandelman, an active nmh user, made it possible for
meillo@23: me to work on nmh. Juan Granda, living in Santiago del
meillo@23: Estero in Argentina, provided a computer and Internet connection for
meillo@23: my work.
meillo@23: Within the three month, I became familiar with nmh's code base and
meillo@23: its community. I learned how things work. Quickly it became obvious that
meillo@23: I wouldn't succeed with my main goal, to improve the character
meillo@23: encoding handling within the project. One obvious problem is the missing
meillo@23: transfer decoding of the quoted text in replies.
meillo@23: As this is one of the most intricate parts of the system, the goal
meillo@23: was simply too difficult to reach.
meillo@23: Instead I improved the code as I read through it. I found minor bugs
meillo@23: for which I proposed fixes to the community. Also I
meillo@23: could improve the documentation. When I started with
meillo@8: larger code changes, I had to discover that the community's wish for
meillo@8: compatibility was stronger than its wish for convenient
meillo@23: out-of-the-box setups \(en in contrast with my opinion.
meillo@23: This lead to long discussions, again.
meillo@23: I came to understand their point of view, but it simply is not mine.
meillo@8: .P
meillo@23: At the end of my three-month project, I had become familiar with
meillo@23: nmh's code base and its community. I had improved the project a bit
meillo@23: and I still was convinced that I wanted to go on with that.
meillo@23: .P
meillo@23: Another half a year later, the end of my studies came within reach.
meillo@23: I needed a topic for my master's thesis.
meillo@23: There was no question: I wanted to work on nmh.
meillo@23: But well, not exactly on nmh,
meillo@8: because I had accepted that the nmh community has different goals
meillo@23: than I have. This would result in long discussions and thus few progress.
meillo@23: After careful thought, I decided to start an experimental version of nmh.
meillo@23: I wanted to follow my own ideas of how nmh should look like. I wanted
meillo@23: to see where that would lead to. I wanted to compare the result of my
meillo@23: work to the present state of nmh. Time should prove me successful or
meillo@23: not.
meillo@23: Nmh would hardly be hurt by my work as I would not interfere with
meillo@23: them. But nmh could profit from my experiences.
meillo@8: .P
meillo@23: I started to work on my experimental version, which I call
meillo@23: \fImmh\fP (for \fImeillo's mail handler\fP), in Fall 2011.
meillo@23: In December, when I announced that I would work on an experimental
meillo@23: version, the activity in nmh suddenly rose. Suddently the community
meillo@23: started to move.
meillo@23: After long years of mostly idling, nmh became actively developed again.
meillo@23: What a great result!
meillo@23: Hence, while I was working on mmh, the community was working on nmh
meillo@23: too. My own work went in parallel and mostly unrelated.
meillo@23: .P
meillo@23: Because of several circumstances, my experimental version is rather
meillo@23: a fork today, although this may change again in the future.
meillo@8: 
meillo@8: 
meillo@23: .H1 "Organization" no
meillo@0: .P
meillo@24: This thesis is split into XXX chapters, ...
meillo@24: .P
meillo@24: .I Chapter 1
meillo@24: introduces ...
meillo@24: .P
meillo@24: .I Chapter 2
meillo@24: describes ...
meillo@24: .P
meillo@24: .I Chapter 3
meillo@24: covers ...
meillo@24: 
meillo@23: 
meillo@25: .\" What audience is expected?
meillo@25: .\" General required knowledge (C, email, ...)
meillo@25: 
meillo@25: 
meillo@23: .H1 "Conventions" no
meillo@5: .P
meillo@24: Which font for what use.
meillo@24: Meaning of `foo(1)'.
meillo@24: RFCs.
meillo@24: MH vs. nmh vs. mmh.
meillo@24: 
meillo@23: 
meillo@23: .H1 "Acknowledgments" no
meillo@23: .P
meillo@24: To be written at the very end.
meillo@0: 
meillo@0: 
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meillo@0: .\" Switch to arabic page numbers and start on a right page.
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