On Sat, Dec 28, 2002 at 09:01:39PM -0800, Dexter Graphic wrote: > As fellow engineers interested in the success of open source technology > I think we should undertake an analysis of why your text-based Linux > mail system is not functional. Is the problem with hardware, software, > training, cost, usability, reliability, technical support, or what? I > am severely discouraged that after 18 months of effort you still have > not been able to get your Debian system working to your satisfaction. > And don't back down and blame it on yourself; I know that you've made a > heroic effort, far beyond what anyone should be expected to go through > just to be able to send and receive e-mail (without using MS Windows.)
I think it's not working probably because it's not finished yet. The list of things I plan to do, but have not yet done (possibly abridged since I'm working from memory here): - replace the fetchmail daemon with a keybinding in mutt which simply runs fetchmail - make use of the SuSE modifications to wvdial, turning it into a dial- on-demand thing. (This is why it is necessary for fetchmail to not run as a daemon..) - have Dan's system use =INBOX in mutt to behave more like pine (I do this on my own system, actually, don't ask me why I set it up using /var/mail on Dan's system..) - Configure gpm and show Dan how that works so he'll have copy/paste - Install and configure CUPS, which will make printing Just Work for Dan - replace the mutt built-in help screens with dumps of those screens to files opened with less. This will allow Dan to edit these files to his liking, since he commented that the screens were annoying to use (I tend to agree with him on this..) - change the arrow keys to go to next/prev message rather than next/prev undeleted message (the difference annoys people) The list of things I had not determined that I would do for certain, but might make Dan's life easier with Linux: - folder-specific keybindings for deleting messages - d on a message in any folder will actually copy it to a deleted messages folder. Deleting a message from that folder would just nuke it. Most likely, it would be good to prune messages in this folder after a time. Thirty days or so should be useful. Do not know how I would do this yet. - I have always found aspell to be more useful than ispell. I think I should sit Dan down in front of a text file with some errors in it and let him use both programs to see which he prefers. Once he has chosen his preference, I know how to change which mutt will use easily enough. I think it would probably do Dan well if I changed the keybinding from its current i for ispell to something simpler (s would work, though it is currently used for letting you edit the subject of the message without spawning an editor. Since Dan's got edit_hdrs set, though, this is superfluous..) It might be good for Dan to use an editor wrapper similar to the one I use for generating my trademark signatures for things like spell-checking. These things are not generally complex for me to do other than the folder- specific stuff. The rest is just a matter of putting Dan and I in the same room for a bit of time to make it work. I think. -- Joseph Carter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> You want fries with that? <Espy> we need to split main into"core" and "wtf-uses-this"
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