# HG changeset patch # User markus schnalke # Date 1340656058 -7200 # Node ID 97369a93ef390585482870ab5bcbe5da1462fd4a # Parent 4fbd14dc5e91aaf911e1777447fb54ea8b73206d Corrections by Kate. Again of high quality. :-) diff -r 4fbd14dc5e91 -r 97369a93ef39 intro.roff --- a/intro.roff Mon Jun 25 20:48:36 2012 +0200 +++ b/intro.roff Mon Jun 25 22:27:38 2012 +0200 @@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ RFCs. In the advent of MIME, MH was the first implementation of this new email standard. .P -In the nineties, the Internet had become popular and in December 1996, +In the nineties, the Internet became popular and in December 1996, Richard Coleman initiated the ``New Mail Handler'' (nmh) project. Nmh is a fork of MH 6.8.3 and bases strongly on the \fILBL changes\fP by Van Jacobson, Mike Karels and Craig Leres. @@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ Some systems might still provide old MH, but mainly for historical reasons. .P In the last years, the work on nmh was mostly maintenance work. -However, development was revived in December 2011 +However, the development was revived in December 2011 and stayed busy since then. .U2 "Concepts @@ -307,44 +307,52 @@ easily be tried out without the need to discuss changes beforehand. In fact, revolutionary changes are hardly possible otherwise. .P -The mmh project implements and demonstrates the listed ideas +The mmh project provides the basis on which the aforementioned +ideas can be implemented and demonstrated, without the need to change nmh or its community. Of course, the results of the mmh project shall improve nmh, in the end. +By no means is my intend to work against the nmh project. + .U2 "Target Field .P Any effort needs to be targeted towards a specific goal in order to be successful. -Following is a description of the imagined typical mmh user. -mmh should satisfy his needs. +Following is a description of imagined typical mmh users. +Mmh should satisfy their needs. .\" XXX Remove the next sentence? Actually, as mmh is my personal version of MH, this is a description of myself. .P -The target user of mmh likes Unix and its philosophy. -He likes to use programs that are conceptionally appealing. -He's familiar with the command line and enjoys its power. -He is at least capable of shell scripting and wants to improve his +The target users of mmh like Unix and its philosophy. +They appreciate to use programs that are conceptionally appealing. +They are familiar with the command line and enjoy its power. +They are at least capable of shell scripting and want to improve their productivity by scripting the mail system. -He naturally uses modern email features, like attachments, +.\" XXX Naturally, he uses ... +They naturally use modern email features, such as attachments, non-ASCII text, and digital cryptography. -He is able to setup email system components besides mmh, -and actually likes the choice to pick the ones he prefers. -He has a reasonably modern system that complies to standards, +They are able to setup email system components besides mmh, +and actually like to have the choice to pick the ones they prefer. +They have a reasonably modern operating system that complies to standards, like POSIX and ANSI C. .P -The typical user invokes mmh commands directly in an interactive -shell session, but as well, he uses them to automate mail handling tasks. -Likely, he runs his mail setup on a server machine, to which he connects -via ssh. He might also have local mmh installations on his workstations, -but does rather not rely on graphical front-ends. He definitely wants -to be flexible and thus be able to change his setup to suite his needs. +The typical users invoke mmh commands directly in an interactive +shell session, but they use them to automate mail handling tasks as well. +Likely, they runs their mail setup on a server machine, +to which they connect via ssh. +They might also have local mmh installations on their workstations, +where they tend to work with mmh directly in the shell instead +of using graphical front-ends. +They definitely want to be flexible and thus be able to change +their setup to suit their needs. .P -The typical mmh user is a programmer himself. -He likes to, occasionally, take the opportunity of Free Software to put -hands on and get involved in the software he uses. -Hence, he likes small and clean code bases and he cares for code quality. -In general, he believes that: +.\" XXX themself vs. themselves +Typical mmh users are programmers themselves. +They like to, occasionally, take the opportunity of Free Software to put +hands on and get involved in the software they use. +Hence, they like small and clean code bases and care for code quality. +In general, they believe that: .BU Elegance \(en i.e. simplicity, clarity and generality \(en is most important. @@ -363,32 +371,31 @@ The general goals for the mmh project are the following: .IP "Stream-lining Mmh should be stripped down to its core, which is the user agent (MUA). -The feature set should be distilled to the ones really needed, +The feature set should be distilled to the indispensable ones, effectively removing corner-cases. Parts that don't add to the main task of being a conceptionally appealing MUA should be removed. -This includes, the mail submission and mail retrieval facilities. +This includes the mail submission and mail retrieval facilities. Choice should be reduced to the main options. .IP "Modernizing Mmh's feature set needs to become more modern. -Better support for attachment and digital cryptography needs to be added. -MIME support needs to be integrated deeper and more naturally. +Better support for attachment and digital cryptography should be added. +MIME support should to be integrated deeper and more naturally. The modern email features need to be readily available, out-of-the-box. -And on the other hand, -bulletin board support and similar obsolete facilities need to be dropped -out. -Likewise, ancient technologies, like hardcopy terminals, should not -be supported any further. +On the other hand, +bulletin board support and similar obsolete facilities can be dropped out. +Likewise, ancient technologies such as hardcopy terminals +need not to be supported any further. .IP "Code style Mmh's source code needs to be updated to modern standards. Standardized library functions should replace non-standard versions whenever possible. -Code should be separated into distinct modules when possible. +Code should be separated into distinct modules when feasible. Time and space optimizations should to be replaced by clear and readable code. A uniform programming style should prevail. .IP "Homogeneity The available concepts need to be expanded as far as possible. -A small set of concepts should prevail thoroughly throughout the system. -The whole system should appear to be of-one-style. -It should feel like being cast as one. +A small set of concepts should recur consistently. +The whole system should appear to be of-one-style; +it should feel like being cast as one.