Friday, May 19, 2000, 9:04:17 AM, A. wrote: > Thanks to all for the MUA advice. I can see that I'm going to have to learn > some new things (again), like MTAs. Linux has an amazing ability to laugh at > your years as a computer professional make you feel like an idiot.
Actually I'd not do that. This is the one area where I think the unix community gets it backwards. They proudly proclaim that there are three separate processes involved with mail. The MTA, MDA and MUA. They say all three should be separate at all times. However, look at it another way. The email client is the /only/ client that doesn't transfer its own data! We don't have the Web User Agent that relies upon the Web Transfer Agent to retrieve web pages, do we? No. We don't have the FTP User Agent relying upon the FTP Transfer Agent to make the actual transfer of data possible, do we? No. We don't have a News Users Agent relying upon a News Transport Agent to send to a News Delivery Agent to score/filter the news so we can read it, do we? No. We have web proxies, FTP proxies and leaf news servers. However, in each case they are not /required/ for operation of the client software, they can just be added to the software for more robust operation /if needed/. They the hell, then, do we make a glaring exception that email is the only /client/ that requires a proxy-like operation to be considered "normal". Just like the other services it should be able to pull/filter and send its own data /as well as/ make allowances for more robust, external programs to perform those functions. -- Steve C. Lamb | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your ICQ: 5107343 | main connection to the switchboard of souls. -------------------------------+---------------------------------------------