# HG changeset patch # User markus schnalke # Date 1338563738 -7200 # Node ID 24aabbfe579417936f8d7a491469b05de46be7f8 # Parent 058afce2a13879b068ce25274ac951431ec3c8be Minor rework of larger text areas. diff -r 058afce2a138 -r 24aabbfe5794 ch03.roff --- a/ch03.roff Fri Jun 01 16:44:08 2012 +0200 +++ b/ch03.roff Fri Jun 01 17:15:38 2012 +0200 @@ -140,114 +140,123 @@ .I fdm . - .H2 "Removal of non-MUA Tools .P -Several of nmh's tools were removed from mmh because they didn't +Some of nmh's tools were removed from mmh because they didn't match the main focus of adding to the MUA's task. -.P +.BU .Pn conflict was removed because it is a mail system maintenance tool. -Besides, it also checks the +Besides, it even checks .Fn /etc/passwd and .Fn /etc/group -files. +for consistency, which has nothing at all to do with emailing. The tool might be useful, but it should not be shipped with mmh. -.P +.BU .Pn rcvtty was removed because its usecase of writing to the user's terminal on receiving of mail is hardly wanted today. If users like to be informed of new mail, then using the shell's .Ev MAILPATH -variable or different (graphical) notifications are likely more -appealing. Writing directly to other terminals is hardly ever wanted -today. If though one wants to have it this way, the standard tool +variable or graphical notifications are likely more +appealing. +Writing directly to a terminals is hardly ever wanted today. +If though one wants to have it this way, the standard tool .Pn write can be used in a way similar to: .DS scan -file - | write `id -un` .DE -.P -When the new attachment system was introduced, +.BU .Pn viamail -was removed because then +was removed when the new attachment system was introduced, because .Pn forw -could cover the task itself. -The wrapper program +could can now the task itself. +The program .Pn sendfiles -was rewritten as a shell script to use +was rewritten as a shell script wrapper around .Pn forw . -.P +.BU .Pn msgchk -was removed as it became hardly useful when POP support was removed. -It is questionable if +was removed, because it lost its usefulness when POP support was removed. .Pn msgchk -provides more information than: +provides hardly more information than: .DS ls -l /var/mail/meillo .DE -It does separate between old and new mail, but that's not very -useful and can be found out with +It does separate between old and new mail, but that's merely a detail +and can be done with .Pn stat (1) -too. A very small shell script could care for the form of output. +too. +A very small shell script could be written to output the information +in a convenient way, if truly necessary. As mmh's inc only incorporates mail from the user's local maildrop -and thus no long data transfers are involved, -there's no need to check for new mail before incorporating it. -.P +and thus no data transfers over slow networks are involved, +there's hardly need to check for new mail before incorporating it. +.BU .Pn msh -was removed because the tool was in conflict with the original +was removed because the tool was in conflict with the philosophy of MH. It provided an interactive shell to access the features of MH. One major feature of MH is being a tool chest. .Pn msh wouldn't be just another shell, tailored to the needs of mail handling, but one large program to have the MH tools built in. It's main use was for accessing Bulletin Boards, which have seized to -be popular. Removing +be popular. +.P +XXX discuss +.P +Removing .Pn msh , -together with the truly obsolete programs +together with the truly obsolete code relicts .Pn vmh and .Pn wmh , -saved more than 7\|000 lines of C code \(en a major achievement. +saved more than 7\|000 lines of C code \(en +that's about 15\|% less code in the project. -.H2 "mhshow show Merge +.H2 "Merge of \f(CWshow\fP and \f(CWmhshow\fP .P Since the very beginning, already in the first concept paper, .Pn show -had been MH's mail display program. +had been MH's message display program. .Pn show found out which pathnames the relevant messages had and invoked .Pn mhl -then to let it render the content. +then to have the content formated. With the advent of MIME, this approach wasn't sufficient anymore. MIME messages can consist of multiple parts, some of which aren't -directly displayable, and text content can be encoded in +directly displayable, and text content might be encoded in foreign charsets. .Pn show 's simple approach and .Pn mhl 's limited display facilities couldn't cope with the task any longer. +.P Instead of extending these tools, new ones were written from scratch and then added to the MH tool chest. Doing so is encouraged by the tool chest approach. The new tools could be added without interfering -with the existing ones. This is great. It allowed MH to be the -first MUA to implement MIME. +with the existing ones. This is great. The ease of adding new tools +even made MH the first MUA to implement MIME. .P -The new MIME features were added in form of the single program +First, the new MIME features were added in form of the single program .Pn mhn . The command -.DS -mhn \-show 42 -.DE +.Cl "mhn \-show 42 would show the MIME message numbered 42. With the 1.0 release of nmh in February 1999, Richard Coleman finished the split of .Pn mhn into a set of specialized programs, which together covered the -aspects of MIME. One of these resulting tools was +multiple aspects of MIME. One of these resulting tools was .Pn mhshow . +.Pn mhshow +resembled the +.Cl "mhn \-show +call. +.P .H2 "Removal of Configure Options