# HG changeset patch
# User markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
# Date 1340650116 -7200
# Node ID 4fbd14dc5e91aaf911e1777447fb54ea8b73206d
# Parent  7dc4867fef919325d75481b977c130dae0b8f088
Wrote about modern defaults.

diff -r 7dc4867fef91 -r 4fbd14dc5e91 discussion.roff
--- a/discussion.roff	Mon Jun 25 14:19:41 2012 +0200
+++ b/discussion.roff	Mon Jun 25 20:48:36 2012 +0200
@@ -2382,29 +2382,94 @@
 
 .H2 "Modern Defaults
 .P
-Nmh has a bunch of convenience-improving features available,
-but they are inactive by default.
-The user needs to activate them.
-Today one can expect every new user to want to have them available.
+Nmh has a bunch of convenience-improving features inactive by default,
+although one can expect every new user wanting to have them active.
 The reason they are inactive by default is the wish to stay compatible
 with old versions.
-Surprisingly, the community seems not to care that the highly useful
-draft folder still is not available by default although it had been
-introduced over twenty-five years ago.
+But what is the definition for old versions.
+Still, the highly useful draft folder facility is not active by default
+although it had been introduced over twenty-five years ago
 .[
 rose romine real work
 .]
-This is one of several examples that require new users to first
-build up an extensive profile in order to convert the default
-nmh installation into a convenient state.
+\(en the community seems not to care.
+This is one of several examples that require new users to build up
+their profile before they can access the modern features of nmh.
+Without an extensively built-up profile, the setup is hardly usable
+for modern emailing.
+The point is not the customization of the setup,
+but the activating of generally useful facilities.
 .P
-To give an example, it took one year of using nmh
+Yet, the real problem lies less in enabling the features, as this is
+straight forward as soon as one knows what he wants.
+The real problem is that new users need deep insights into the project
+before they find out what they are missing and that nmh actually
+provides it already, it just was not activated.
+To give an example, I needed one year of using nmh
 before I became aware of the existence of the attachment system.
 One could argue that this fact disqualifies my reading of the
 documentation.
 If I would have installed nmh from source back then, I could agree.
-Yet I had used a prepackaged version and had expected that it would
+Yet, I had used a prepackaged version and had expected that it would
 just work.
+Nevertheless, I had been conviced by the concepts of MH already
+and I am a software developer,
+still I required a lot of time to discover the cool features.
+How can we expect users to be even more advanced than me,
+just to allow them use MH in a convenient and modern way?
+Unless they are strongly convinced of the concepts, they will fail.
+I have seen friends of me giving up disappointed
+before they truly used the system,
+although they had been motivated in the beginning.
+They suffer hard enough to get used to the toolchest approach,
+we should spare them further inconveniences.
+.P
+Maintaining compatibility for its own sake is for no good.
+If any MH implementation would be the back-end of widespread
+email clients with large user bases, compatibility would be more
+important.
+Yet, it appears as if this is not the case.
+Hence, compatibility is hardly important for technical reasons.
+Its importance originates rather from personal reasons.
+Nmh's user base is small and old.
+Changing the interfaces would cause inconvenience to long-term users of MH.
+It would force them to change their many years old MH configurations.
+I do understand this aspect, but it keeps new users from using MH.
+By sticking to the old users, new users are kept away.
+Yet, the future lies in new users.
+Hence, mmh invites new users by providing a convenient and modern setup,
+readily usable out-of-the-box.
+.P
+In mmh, all modern features are active by default.
+In consequence, a setup with a profile that defines only the path to the
+mail storage, is already convenient to use.
+Again, Paul Vixie's ``edginess'' appeal supports the direction I took:
+``the `main branch' should just be modern''.
+.[
+paul vixie edginess nmh-workers
+.]
+.P
+Modern features that are active in mmh by default include: 
+.BU
+The attachment system (\c
+.Hd Attach ).
+.Ci 8ff284ff9167eff8f5349481529332d59ed913b1
+.BU
+The draft folder facility (\c
+.Fn +drafts ).
+.Ci 337338b404931f06f0db2119c9e145e8ca5a9860
+.BU
+The unseen sequence (`u')
+.Ci c2360569e1d8d3678e294eb7c1354cb8bf7501c1
+and the sequence negation prefix (`!').
+.Ci db74c2bd004b2dc9bf8086a6d8bf773ac051f3cc
+.BU
+Quoting the original message in the reply.
+.Ci 67411b1f95d6ec987b4c732459e1ba8a8ac192c6
+.BU
+Forwarding messages using MIME.
+.Ci 6e271608b7b9c23771523f88d23a4d3593010cf1
+