docs/unix-phil

diff unix-phil.ms @ 22:4c21f5b8d716

wrote about problems of MH (ch04)
author meillo@marmaro.de
date Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:24:30 +0100
parents ca929b042039
children f0511a56416e
line diff
     1.1 --- a/unix-phil.ms	Fri Feb 26 14:28:59 2010 +0100
     1.2 +++ b/unix-phil.ms	Tue Mar 02 12:24:30 2010 +0100
     1.3 @@ -1017,10 +1017,29 @@
     1.4  .NH 2
     1.5  Problems
     1.6  .LP
     1.7 -modern emailing
     1.8 -MIME
     1.9 -encodings
    1.10 -largest problem: different feeling
    1.11 +\s-1MH\s0, for sure is not without problems.
    1.12 +There are two main problems: one technical, the other about human behavior.
    1.13 +.PP
    1.14 +\s-1MH\s0 is old and email today is very different to email in the time
    1.15 +when \s-1MH\s0 was designed.
    1.16 +\s-1MH\s0 adopted to the changes pretty well, but it is limited.
    1.17 +For example in development resources.
    1.18 +\s-1MIME\s0 support and support for different character encodings
    1.19 +is available, but only on a moderate level.
    1.20 +More active developers could quickly improve there.
    1.21 +It is also limited by design, which is the larger problem.
    1.22 +\s-1IMAP\s0, for example, conflicts with \s-1MH\s0's design to a large extend.
    1.23 +These design conflicts are not easily solvable.
    1.24 +Possibly, they require a redesign.
    1.25 +.PP
    1.26 +The other kind of problem is human habits.
    1.27 +When in this world almost all \s-1MUA\s0s are monolithic,
    1.28 +it is very difficult to convince people to use a toolbox style \s-1MUA\s0
    1.29 +like \s-1MH\s0.
    1.30 +The habits are so strong, that even people who understood the concept
    1.31 +and advantages of \s-1MH\s0 do not like to switch.
    1.32 +Unfortunately, the frontends to \s-1MH\s0, which can provide familiar look'n'feel,
    1.33 +are not very appealing in contrast to what monolithic \s-1MUA\s0s offer.
    1.34  
    1.35  .NH 2
    1.36  Summary \s-1MH\s0