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- TTTThhhheeee EEEEllllmmmm UUUUsssseeeerrrrssss GGGGuuuuiiiiddddeeee
-
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- _A _p_a_i_n_l_e_s_s _i_n_t_r_o_d_u_c_t_i_o_n _t_o _e_l_e_c_t_r_o_n_i_c _m_a_i_l
- _u_s_i_n_g _t_h_e EEEEllllmmmm _m_a_i_l _s_y_s_t_e_m
-
-
-
- The Elm Mail System
- (Version 2.4)
-
-
- Syd Weinstein, Elm Coordinator
- Datacomp Systems, Inc.
- 3837 Byron Road
- Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006-2320
-
- email: elm@DSI.COM or dsinc!elm
-
-
-
-
- AAAABBBBSSSSTTTTRRRRAAAACCCCTTTT
-
- While various UNIX utilities have been
- designed to take advantage of the CRT screen
- (rather than line-oriented systems) electron-
- ic mail systems haven't "caught the wave".
- This document presents Elm, a sophisticated
- full-screen mail system for interactive use.
- Elm offers all the features of /_b_i_n/_m_a_i_l,
- _B_e_r_k_e_l_e_y _M_a_i_l, _u_u_m_a_i_l, _N_M_a_i_l and the AT&T
- Mail family of UNIX mailers (namely _P_M_X/_T_E_R_M)
- in a unified and intuitive fashion.
-
-
-
-
-
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-
-
-
-
-
-
- Copyright 1986,1987 by Dave Taylor
- Copyright 1988-1992 by The USENET Community Trust
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- EEEEllllmmmm UUUUsssseeeerrrrssss GGGGuuuuiiiiddddeeee
-
- (The Elm Mail System, Version 2.4)
-
- October 1, 1992
-
-
- Syd Weinstein
- Datacomp Systems, Inc.
- 3837 Byron Road
- Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006-2320
-
- email: elm@DSI.COM or dsinc!elm
-
-
- Derived from
- "The Elm Mail System, Version 2.0"
- by
- Dave Taylor
- Intuitive Systems
- Mountain View, California
- email: taylor@intuitive.com or limbo!taylor
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 1111.... IIIInnnnttttrrrroooodddduuuuccccttttiiiioooonnnn
-
- The UNIX(R) operating system was originally written on a small
- PDP machine, to work with teletypewriters. Consequently, all the
- original software for the operating system was written with a
- "tty" in mind; with line oriented interfaces, rather than screen
- oriented.
-
- Gradually this began to change, and, with the addition of the
- Berkeley _v_i visual shell to the _e_d line editor, the trend began
- to be brought to the attention of UNIX systems designers. And
- yet, this transition has seemed too subtle for many software en-
- gineers, and so precious few UNIX programs are available designed
- to exploit the entire CRT screen.
-
- Consequently, after becoming more and more disenchanted with the
-
- __________
- (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX Systems
- Laboratories.
-
-
- Elm Users Guide Version 2.4
-
-
-
-
-
- Elm Users Guide Version 2.4
-
-
- existing electronic mail facilities (_b_i_n_m_a_i_l and _B_e_r_k_e_l_e_y _M_a_i_l)
- Dave Taylor decided to undertake creating his own system. Once
- the ball was rolling it became quite difficult not to keep
- enhancing it, especially as he and the Elm Development Group be-
- came more and more familiar with various different mail systems,
- but the result, we hope, is a solid, unified interface to elec-
- tronic mail suitable for almost any environment.
-
- One thing that sets the Elm mail system off from other packages
- is that it comes with an extensive documentation set, including;
- _T_h_e _E_l_m _U_s_e_r_s _G_u_i_d_e, which you're holding, _T_h_e _E_l_m _R_e_f_e_r_e_n_c_e
- _G_u_i_d_e, _T_h_e _E_l_m _A_l_i_a_s _U_s_e_r_s _G_u_i_d_e, _T_h_e _E_l_m _F_i_l_t_e_r _S_y_s_t_e_m _U_s_e_r_s
- _G_u_i_d_e, _T_h_e _E_l_m _F_o_r_m_s _M_o_d_e _G_u_i_d_e, and _T_h_e _E_l_m _C_o_n_f_i_g_u_r_a_t_i_o_n _G_u_i_d_e.
- The names of each indicate what they discuss (not unreasonably).
-
- This particular document contains; this introduction, a tutorial
- session with the mailer, a discussion of non-interactive uses of
- Elm, a brief foray into the Elm utilities, and finally, credits
- and references.
-
- _T_h_e _E_l_m _R_e_f_e_r_e_n_c_e _G_u_i_d_e contains a much more in-depth discussion
- of all the possible options available within the Elm environment,
- including the ._e_l_m/_e_l_m_r_c file, the available outbound mail pro-
- cessing features, a section for expert users, suggestions on de-
- bugging strange installations, and many other useful topics.
-
- _T_h_e _E_l_m _A_l_i_a_s _U_s_e_r_s _G_u_i_d_e is the place to go to learn about the
- format of the ._e_l_m/_a_l_i_a_s_e_s._t_e_x_t file and the associated data
- files, system aliases, and other related topics.
-
- One of the more innovative features of Elm is the ability to
- transmit and receive "forms" (as defined by the AT&T Mail sys-
- tem). To learn about how to create and reply to forms you should
- refer to _T_h_e _E_l_m _F_o_r_m_s _M_o_d_e _G_u_i_d_e.
-
- If you find yourself getting too much mail delivered in your
- mailbox, you might be a good candidate for the _f_i_l_t_e_r program.
- To learn more about what this program is and how to use it please
- consult _T_h_e _E_l_m _F_i_l_t_e_r _S_y_s_t_e_m _U_s_e_r_s _G_u_i_d_e.
-
- Finally, if you're working with the actual source code and are
- interested in what all the locally configured options are and
- mean, please see _T_h_e _E_l_m _C_o_n_f_i_g_u_r_a_t_i_o_n _G_u_i_d_e. It is strongly
- suggested that all system administrators and people installing
- the system print out the local _s_y_s_d_e_f_s._h file and have it handy
- while reading the configuration guide.
-
- The recommended order of learning the Elm system is to skim this
- guide until you feel confident enough to start up the program.
- Once that's reached, _u_s_e _i_t! Soon you'll find areas that you
- need to expand into, and you can achieve that by going into the
- options screen within Elm and changing your user level according-
- ly. After a while, sit down again and read through this guide.
- You should have a couple of "aha!" intuitive flashes. After
-
-
- October 1, 1992 Page 2
-
-
-
-
-
- Elm Users Guide Version 2.4
-
-
- another period of time, you're ready to delve into the real power
- of the system and read the reference guide. The other manuals
- should be read as the need arises.
-
- In any case, the system should be usable without reading _a_n_y of
- the documentation!
-
- Any comments or problems with any of the documentation or the
- program itself are welcome; if you can't get electronic mail to
- the Elm Development Group, please feel free instead to drop me a
- note via the overland mail address in the title page.
-
-
- 2222.... TTTThhhheeee MMMMaaaaiiiinnnn SSSSyyyysssstttteeeemmmm
-
- Upon entry to the program, the main screen will be displayed as
- below:
-
-
- Mailbox is '/usr/mail/mymail' with 15 messages [Elm 2.4PL22]
- -> N 1 Apr 24 Larry Fenske (49) Hello there
- N 2 Apr 24 jad@hpcnoe (84) Chico? Why go there?
- E 3 Apr 23 Carl Smith (53) Dinner tonight?
- NU 4 Apr 18 Don Knuth (354) Your version of TeX...
- N 5 Apr 18 games (26) Bug in cribbage game
- A 6 Apr 15 kevin (27) More software requests
- 7 Apr 13 John Jacobs (194) How can you hate RUSH?
- U 8 Apr 8 decvax!mouse (68) Re: your Usenet article
- 9 Apr 6 root (7)
- O 10 Apr 5 root (13)
-
- You can use any of the following commands by pressing the first character;
- d)elete or u)ndelete mail, m)ail a message, r)eply or f)orward mail, q)uit
- To read a message, press <return>. j = move down, k = move up, ? = help
- Command : @
-
- __________________________________________________________________
-
- There are a number of things to notice about this, the main
- screen;
-
-
- +o
- Most likely, on your computer the message currently "active"
- will be displayed in an inverse bar rather than being delimit-
- ed by the two character arrow as here. It's nothing to worry
- about; displaying inverse video is just quite difficult on
- printable guides!
-
-
- +o
- The first line on the screen always displays the name of the
- current folder, the number of messages in the folder, and the
- current Elm version number.
-
-
-
- October 1, 1992 Page 3
-
-
-
-
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- Elm Users Guide Version 2.4
-
-
- +o
- The arrow ("->") or inverse video bar will always indicate
- which is the current message.
-
-
- +o
- The first field that appears associated with each message is
- the status field. This can be blank (as with most of the ones
- above, or can have any combination of the following:
-
- The first character signifies temporary status:
-
- E for an _e_x_p_i_r_e_d message
- N for a _n_e_w message
- O for an _o_l_d (i.e. not new but not read) message
- D for a _d_e_l_e_t_e_d message
-
- The second character which signifies permanent status:
-
- C for _c_o_n_f_i_d_e_n_t_i_a_l mail
- U for _u_r_g_e_n_t mail
- P for a _p_r_i_v_a_t_e message
- A for messages that have an _a_c_t_i_o_n associated with them
- F for a _f_o_r_m letter
- M for a _M_I_M_E compliant message
-
- The third character of the status field can be a '+' to indi-
- cate that the message is _t_a_g_g_e_d too.
-
-
- +o
- Continuing from left to right, the next field is the message
- number. For the most part you can ignore these unless you
- want to quickly move to a specific message (as we'll see
- later).
-
-
- +o
- The date associated with each message is typically the date
- the person actually _s_e_n_t the message.
-
-
- +o
- The next field displayed indicates whom the message is from.
- Elm will try to display the _f_u_l_l _n_a_m_e of the person who sent
- the message, rather than the their return address or computer
- login. Some systems don't generate the correct headers,
- though, hence messages like numbers 2 and 8, where it's their
- return address.
-
-
- +o
- The number in parentheses is the total number of lines in the
- message.
-
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- October 1, 1992 Page 4
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- Elm Users Guide Version 2.4
-
-
- +o
- The final field is the subject of the message. Notice that
- messages might not have any subject, as in messages #9 and
- #10.
-
-
- +o
- A maximum of ten messages are displayed at one time. Further
- into the document we'll learn how to change "pages" in the
- folder.
-
-
- +o
- The three line menu display will always indicate the relevant
- commands. There are actually two possible menus that can be
- displayed, based on the _u_s_e_r _l_e_v_e_l as set from either the op-
- tions screen or the ._e_l_m/_e_l_m_r_c file. The alternate menu, for
- more advanced users, lists more options;
-
- |=pipe, !=shell, ?=help, <n>=set current to n, /=search pattern
- a)lias, C)copy, c)hange folder, d)elete, e)dit, f)orward, g)roup reply, m)ail,
- n)ext, o)ptions, p)rint, r)eply, s)ave, t)ag, q)uit, u)ndelete, or e(x)it
-
-
- +o
- Finally, the '@' character indicates where the cursor would
- be, awaiting your input.
-
-
- The typical action at this point is to use the <_r_e_t_u_r_n> key to
- read the current message, which will clear the screen and display
- the current message:
-
- Message 1/15 from Larry Fenske Apr 24 '87 at 8:45 pm edt
- Hello there
- Dave,
- Just wanted to drop you a brief note to see what was going on with
- you this afternoon. Life here has been the usual fun and games...
- Ah well, off to the great wilds beyond the desk!
- Larry
- Command ('i' to return to index): @
- __________________________________________________________________
-
- Before we go further with our example, however, let's very quick-
- ly look at all the functions available from the main screen:
-
-
-
-
-
- __________
- 1. On screens with more than 24 lines, additional
- messages are displayed automatically. Furthermore, if
- you choose to turn off the menu display, you can have
- an even greater number displayed.
-
-
- October 1, 1992 Page 5
-
-
-
-
-
- Elm Users Guide Version 2.4
-
-
- CCCCoooommmmmmmmaaaannnndddd AAAAccccttttiiiioooonnnn
-
-
- <return> or <space>
- Read current message.
-
- | Pipe current message or tagged messages to specified
- system command.
-
- ! Shell escape.
-
- $ Resynchronize folder.
-
- ? Help mode - any key pressed will be explained.
-
- + or <right>
- Display next page of subjects.
-
- - or <left>
- Display previous page of subjects.
-
- = Set current message to 1.
-
- * Set current to last message.
-
- <number><return>
- Set current message to number _n_u_m_b_e_r.
-
- / Search for pattern in subject/from lines.
-
- // Search for pattern in entire folder.
-
- < Scan message for calendar entries.
-
- > A synonym for ssss - ssssaaaavvvveeee message or messages.
-
-
- a Alias, change to "alias" mode.
-
- b Bounce - remail message (see ffff - ffffoooorrrrwwwwaaaarrrrdddd too).
-
- C Copy current message or tagged messages to folder.
-
- c Change to another folder.
-
- d Delete current message.
-
- <control>-D
- Delete all messages matching specified pattern.
-
-
- __________
- 2. Some sites might opt not to have the calendar
- feature available.
-
-
- October 1, 1992 Page 6
-
-
-
-
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- Elm Users Guide Version 2.4
-
-
- e Edit current folder, resyncing upon re-entry.
-
- f Forward message to specified user.
-
- g Group reply - reply to everyone who received the
- current message.
-
- h Display message with headers.
-
- i Return to index screen after displaying message.
-
- J Set current to next message.
-
- j or <down>
- Set current to next message not marked deleted.
-
- K Set current to previous message.
-
- k or <up> Set current to previous message not marked deleted.
-
- l Limit displayed messages based on the specified cri-
- teria.
-
- <control>-L
- Rewrite screen.
-
- m Mail to arbitrary user(s).
-
- n Read current message, then increment to next message
- not marked deleted.
-
- o Alter current system options.
-
- p Print current message or tagged messages.
-
- q Quit - maybe prompting for messages to delete, store,
- or keep.
-
- Q Quick quit - like quit but without prompting.
-
- r Reply to the author of current message.
-
- s Save current message or tagged messages to folder.
-
- t Tag current message.
-
-
- __________
- 3. Some sites might opt not to have the edit folder
- feature available.
- 4. The difference between ffffoooorrrrwwwwaaaarrrrdddd and bbbboooouuuunnnncccceeee is rather
- subtle - a forwarded message is _f_r_o_m you, with the
- original message included, whereas a bounced message is
- still from the original sender.
-
-
- October 1, 1992 Page 7
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-
-
-
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- Elm Users Guide Version 2.4
-
-
- <control>-T
- Tag all messages matching specified pattern.
-
- u Undelete current message.
-
- <control>-U
- Undelete all messages matching specified pattern.
-
- x Exit - prompt if mailbox changed, don't record as
- read, don't save.
-
- X Exit immediately - don't record as read, don't save.
-
- But let's go back to our example and see some of this at work,
- shall we?
-
- We were reading the message from Larry and the screen looked
- like:
-
- Message 1/15 from Larry Fenske Apr 24 '87 at 8:45 pm edt
- Hello there
- Dave,
- Just wanted to drop you a brief note to see what was going on with
- you this afternoon. Life here has been the usual fun and games...
- Ah well, off to the great wilds beyond the desk!
- Larry
- Command ('i' to return to index): @
- __________________________________________________________________
-
- From this point let's go ahead and reply to the message. To do
- this, we can use the rrrreeeeppppllllyyyy command. To do this, we type 'r' and
- the last few lines change to something like:
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
- Command: Reply to message Copy message? (y/n) @
-
-
- To which we decide that we don't need the text of this message in
- our new one, so we reply _n_o by pressing the 'n' key. The bottom
- part of the window then changes to:
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
- Command: Reply to message To: Larry Fenske
- Subject: Re: Hello there@
-
-
- At this point we can either decide to enter a new subject (you
- could use either _b_a_c_k_u_p _w_o_r_d (<_c_o_n_t_r_o_l>-_W) or _b_a_c_k_u_p _l_i_n_e (this
- is the same as your "line kill" character, <_c_o_n_t_r_o_l>-_X or
- <_c_o_n_t_r_o_l>-_U usually)) or go with this one by pressing <_r_e_t_u_r_n>.
- We'll just leave it as it is and press <_r_e_t_u_r_n>, changing the
- screen to:
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
- Command: reply to message To: Larry Fenske
-
-
- October 1, 1992 Page 8
-
-
-
-
-
- Elm Users Guide Version 2.4
-
-
- Subject: Re: Hello there
- Copies to: @
-
- There's no one we want to have receive copies of this message, so
- we'll just press <_r_e_t_u_r_n> again to indicate this.
-
- Once you've answered these questions the program will put you
- into your favorite editor and let you compose a response. When
- you're done it then asks:
-
- Please choose one of the following options by parenthesized letter: @
- e)dit message, edit h)eaders, s)end it, or f)orget it.
-
- Since we're just interested in sending the message out, we'll
- choose the sssseeeennnndddd option and press 's'. The program then sends the
- message, indicating that by the line below saying:
-
- Sending mail...
-
- then putting at the bottom of the screen ``Mail sent!'' and giv-
- ing us the prompt:
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
- Command: (Use 'i' to return to index.)
-
- Pretty easy, isn't it? Let's continue by going back to the main
- screen pressing the 'i' key to request the _i_n_d_e_x. The screen is
- then:
-
-
- Mailbox is '/usr/mail/mymail' with 15 messages [Elm 2.4PL22]
- -> 1 Apr 24 Larry Fenske (49) Hello there
- N 2 Apr 24 jad@hpcnoe (84) Chico? Why go there?
- E 3 Apr 23 Carl Smith (53) Dinner tonight?
- NU 4 Apr 18 Don Knuth (354) Your version of TeX...
- N 5 Apr 18 games (26) Bug in cribbage game
- A 6 Apr 15 kevin (27) More software requests
- 7 Apr 13 John Jacobs (194) How can you hate RUSH?
- U 8 Apr 8 decvax!mouse (68) Re: your Usenet article
- 9 Apr 6 root (7)
- O 10 Apr 5 root (13)
-
- You can use any of the following commands by pressing the first character;
- d)elete or u)ndelete mail, m)ail a message, r)eply or f)orward mail, q)uit
- To read a message, press <return>. j = move down, k = move up, ? = help
- Command : @
-
- __________________________________________________________________
-
- Notice that the first message is no longer marked as _n_e_w since
- we've now read it.
-
- Let's go ahead and read the message from kevin (message #6) since
- it has some sort of _a_c_t_i_o_n associated with it anyway. To do
- this, we simply press the '6' key, which will change the bottom
-
-
- October 1, 1992 Page 9
-
-
-
-
-
- Elm Users Guide Version 2.4
-
-
- of the screen to:
-
- Command: New Current Message Set current message to : 6@
-
- We'll just press <_r_e_t_u_r_n> to move the active message pointer (the
- arrow).
-
- Now we're pointing at the new message, so let's go ahead and read
- it by pressing <_r_e_t_u_r_n> again, giving us:
-
- Message 6/15 from kevin Apr 15 '87 at 11:36 am pst
- More software requests
- Action: please acknowledge receipt
- I don't suppose you have a nifty netnews reader around too, do
- you??
- --
- kevin
- Command ('i' to return to index): @
- __________________________________________________________________
-
-
- Well, it turns out that we don't, but a friend of ours does, so
- let's ffffoooorrrrwwwwaaaarrrrdddd the message to them by pressing 'f':
-
- Command: Forward message Edit outgoing message (y/n) ? @
-
-
- No need to edit it, so let's answer _n_o with 'n':
-
- Command: Forward message Edit outgoing message (y/n) ? No
- To: @
-
- We type in the address of the person we're forwarding to (in this
- case usenet) and press <_r_e_t_u_r_n>:
-
- Command: Forward message To: usenet
- Subject: More software requests (fwd)@
-
- To which we again press <_r_e_t_u_r_n> to take the default subject.
- Elm asks for any possible copy recipients, asks us if we're sure
- we want to send it, and shoots it off.
-
- Enough mail for now, however, so we just eeeexxxxiiiitttt by pressing the 'x'
- key at the "Command:" prompt and the program drops us back into
- our shell.
-
- As you can see, it's quite easy to use the Elm system, so rather
- than continue with our example, let's look at some other aspects
- of the program.
-
-
- 3333.... NNNNoooonnnn----IIIInnnntttteeeerrrraaaaccccttttiiiivvvveeee UUUUsssseeeessss ooooffff EEEEllllmmmm
-
- Before we go ahead and discuss the Elm utilities, it's worth not-
- ing that there are a couple of other ways to use the main mail
-
-
- October 1, 1992 Page 10
-
-
-
-
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- Elm Users Guide Version 2.4
-
-
- system, namely to "send only" and to send files (batchmail).
-
- To send a message to someone without any of the associated over-
- head of reading in a mail folder, you can invoke the mailer with
- the name(s) of the people to send to. For example:
-
- $ eeeellllmmmm ddddaaaavvvveeee____ttttaaaayyyylllloooorrrr
-
- Elm then prompts for Subject, Copies, and then drops you in your
- editor (defined in the ._e_l_m/_e_l_m_r_c file) to compose the message.
- When composition is complete, the program verifies transmission
- then terminates.
-
- Elm also supports batch type mailing, of files and so on, by us-
- ing the following command:
-
- $ eeeellllmmmm ddddaaaavvvveeee____ttttaaaayyyylllloooorrrr <<<< hhhheeeellllpppp....cccc
-
- which reads in the file and transmits it to the specified user.
-
- A subject may be specified with "-s _s_u_b_j_e_c_t" as an option to Elm
- in either "send only" or "batch" modes, as in:
-
- $ eeeellllmmmm ----ssss """"FFFFiiiilllleeee hhhheeeellllpppp....cccc,,,, aaaassss pppprrrroooommmmiiiisssseeeedddd"""" ddddaaaavvvveeee____ttttaaaayyyylllloooorrrr <<<< hhhheeeellllpppp....cccc
-
- Elm also has an option to specify that a certain file be used as
- the initial text of the message. This makes it easier to use Elm
- with other programs that interface with a mailer. Use "-i _f_i_l_e"
- as an option to Elm in "send only" mode. For example, to specify
- to _r_n to use Elm as the mailer, define the following in RRRRNNNNIIIINNNNIIIITTTT:
-
- -EMAILPOSTER="elm -i %h -s \"Re: %S\" %t"
-
- See the man page for _r_n(1) or the newsreader you use for more
- specific information.
-
-
-
- 4444.... TTTThhhheeee EEEEllllmmmm UUUUttttiiiilllliiiittttiiiieeeessss
-
- The Elm mail system is really much more than a single program for
- reading and writing mail. It's a unified environment for intel-
- ligently dealing with electronic correspondence. As a conse-
- quence, it contains a number of other programs to aid in the easy
- processing of "email", including the following;
-
-
- answer An answering-machine transcription program. Please see
- the manual entry for more information on how to use
- this program.
-
-
- checkalias
- A script for checking aliases simply.
-
-
- October 1, 1992 Page 11
-
-
-
-
-
- Elm Users Guide Version 2.4
-
-
- elmalias A tool to obtain information on defined aliases.
-
-
- listalias
- A script to produce sorted listings of aliases.
-
-
- messages A script that lists the number of messages in the
- specified folder. Suitable for login scripts and such.
-
-
- newmail This program monitors a mailbox or set of mailboxes and
- can output notification of new mail in one of two pos-
- sible formats; either:
-
- >> New mail from Jimmy Carter -- Urgent matters of state
- >> New mail from joe@ucbvax.arpa -- Did I hear someone say PARTY??
-
- if running as _n_e_w_m_a_i_l or:
-
- Jimmy Carter -- Urgent matters of state
- joe@ucbvax.arpa -- Did I hear someone say PARTY??
-
- if running as _w_n_e_w_m_a_i_l. BSD Users will find this is a
- far superior _b_i_f_f program.
-
-
- wnewmail This is the same program as _n_e_w_m_a_i_l, but has different
- defaults if invoked this way.
-
-
- readmsg This handy little program can be used in two ways.
- First off, it can be used to easily read a specific
- message in the incoming mailbox, specified by ordinal
- number, by a string that the message contains, by the
- metacharacter '$' which represents the last message in
- the folder, or '*' which matches all the messages in
- the folder.
-
- For example;
-
- $ rrrreeeeaaaaddddmmmmssssgggg 4444 5555 9999 |||| llllpppprrrr
-
- would generate a printout, _s_a_n_s superfluous headers, of
- the fourth, fifth and ninth messages in your mailbox.
-
- $ rrrreeeeaaaaddddmmmmssssgggg CCCCaaaarrrrtttteeeerrrr |||| ppppaaaaggggeeee
-
- would be a fast way to read what 'ole Jimmy has to say,
- and
-
- $ rrrreeeeaaaaddddmmmmssssgggg ----hhhh hhhheeeeaaaarrrr ssssoooommmmeeeeoooonnnneeee ssssaaaayyyy
-
- would list, including all the message headers, the
-
-
- October 1, 1992 Page 12
-
-
-
-
-
- Elm Users Guide Version 2.4
-
-
- message containing the string "hear someone say".
-
-
- frm Similar to the Berkeley _f_r_o_m command, this will give
- you a "table of contents" or a summary of either the
- current mailbox or a mailbox of your choice. It's
- useful to see what mail is pending, or what's in a
- mailbox. If used with the "-n" option, it will number
- each message in a way compatible with the arguments
- _r_e_a_d_m_s_g expects to get, too!
-
-
- newalias This is used to install new user/group aliases. Please
- see _T_h_e _E_l_m _A_l_i_a_s _U_s_e_r_s _G_u_i_d_e for further information.
-
-
- fastmail Sometimes you want to have a batchmailing system that
- works as quickly as possible, not bothering with
- aliases or any of the other "deluxe" features of Elm.
- An example of this would be if you have a large mailing
- list for a newsletter, say. This command, _f_a_s_t_m_a_i_l, is
- designed just for that purpose. It avoids the lengthy
- startup time of Elm while still generating valid RFC-
- 822 mail. Please see the manual entry for more infor-
- mation on this command.
-
-
- 5555.... CCCCrrrreeeeddddiiiittttssss aaaannnndddd SSSSoooo oooonnnn ---- EEEEllllmmmm''''ssss eeeeaaaarrrrllllyyyy yyyyeeeeaaaarrrrssss ffffrrrroooommmm DDDDaaaavvvveeee TTTTaaaayyyylllloooorrrr
-
- This mailer has been evolving over the past few years with in-
- valuable comments on the interface and general mail issues from
- the following people; Jim Davis, Steve Wolf (or should that say
- Steve!! Wolf!!!! perhaps?), Larry Fenske, Rob Sartin, John Dilley
- and Carl Dierschow.
-
- For the Berkeley implementation, lots of help came from both John
- Lebovitz and Ken Stone.
-
- For the Amdahl/UTS implementation, thanks to Scott McGregor and
- Stan Isaacs.
-
- For the Sun problems, Dave England in Lancaster (UK) turned out
- to be "bloody useful", as he would no doubt say.
-
- The Pyramid version is due to the work of Steve Malone of the
- University of Washington.
-
- A number of other people have been amazingly disciplined at re-
- porting problems and (usually, much to my relief) indicating the
- fixes needed, especially Guy Hillyer, Bruce Townsend and Eric
-
- __________
- 5. If you don't know what RFC-822 is, don't worry about
- it!
-
-
- October 1, 1992 Page 13
-
-
-
-
-
- Elm Users Guide Version 2.4
-
-
- Negaard.
-
- There have been many, many others, too numerous to mention, that
- have inspired me with questions like "Why can't Elm..." or "Why
- does it ..." or "Can we make it..." too. A loud round of ap-
- plause and an enthusiastic THANK YOU to you all!!
-
- Also helpful was the ability to have my "own" machine to close up
- the many many iterative loops that this software has gone through
- - since being on a big multi-user machine tends to slow it down
- to a standstill. For that, I thank Hewlett-Packard Colorado Net-
- works Division for their initial support, and now HP Laboratories
- for the wonderful working environment that I have here (more than
- any one person is safe having, I suspect).
-
- Mailers that have influenced the design and implementation of
- Elm, for better or worse, include the following;
-
-
- /_b_i_n/_m_a_i_l
- The most basic of mailers, this one was simply the ex-
- ample of how _n_o_t to force the user to interact with a
- program.
-
-
- _B_e_r_k_e_l_e_y _M_a_i_l
- A surprisingly sophisticated mailer, especially the
- version with 4.3 BSD, _B_e_r_k_e_l_e_y _M_a_i_l still suffers from
- the tendency to force the user to know too much about
- the system, and also lacks a friendly, non-cryptic in-
- terface for the large subset of the population that use
- UNIX but aren't interested in becoming a "hacker".
-
-
- _M_H This is another nifty mailer. The main difference
- between this and the other mailers about is that it is
- a discrete set of programs rather than a single unified
- interface. This is quite useful for those people that
- receive _l_o_t_s of mail and are willing to spend some time
- learning the intricacies of the program. It's quite
- powerful, but again, misses some of the basic friendly
- features the majority of users are interested in.
-
-
- _d_m_a_i_l A sort of mutated cross between _M_H and _B_e_r_k_e_l_e_y _M_a_i_l,
- it was this program that convinced me to implement the
- lllliiiimmmmiiiitttt functions.
-
-
- _N_M_a_i_l A part of the HP AI Workstation Software Environment,
- this program hints at the power that mailers could be
- given to help deal with mail in a quick and intelligent
- fashion. Most of what it can do, and a lot more, are
- therefore part of Elm. Indubitably. And quite fast
-
-
- October 1, 1992 Page 14
-
-
-
-
-
- Elm Users Guide Version 2.4
-
-
- too!
-
-
- _P_M_X/_T_E_R_M Part of the AT&T Mail package, a single glance at this
- interface convinced me that a PC interface, with almost
- half of the screen taken up by a silly function key
- mapping, is most certainly _n_o_t the way to do things!!
- On the other hand, it also shows that the "forms" mode
- can be quite nicely integrated into a more sophisticat-
- ed mailer.
-
-
- _f_m_a_i_l A nickel addition to the /_b_i_n/_m_a_i_l program to add some
- rudimentary screen interface stuff, this nonetheless
- interesting mailer is part of the AT&T Toolchest.
-
-
- _L_a_u_r_e_l A program only available within Xerox PARC, this was an
- interesting early attempt at a graphics based full-
- screen mail program. The one, perhaps trivial, part of
- the interface I really like was the fact that it would
- _c_r_o_s_s _o_u_t a message that was marked for deletion. One
- day when we get real graphics and the ability to use
- them in a facility (not too) like _t_e_r_m_c_a_p, perhaps Elm
- will do this too!
-
-
- _M_a_i_l_t_o_o_l Part of the Sun distribution package, this program is a
- really nice example of what can be done by putting a
- smart shell on top of a dumb program - it uses
- /_b_i_n/_m_a_i_l for all the "dirty work". Other than that,
- it's not a particularly interesting interface or
- mailer, and it certainly doesn't add much functionali-
- ty!
-
-
- _M_e_t_a_m_a_i_l What can I say? This isn't even a real mailer, but is
- just what I dream of as an interface to mail in the fu-
- ture. A program that works sort of like HAL did in
- _2_0_0_1: _A _S_p_a_c_e _O_d_y_s_s_e_y - where it interrupts me as ap-
- propriate for important mail, and can answer inane and
- other queries itself according to what I teach it.
- Maybe Elm, by some sort of groupmind metamorphosis,
- will change into that someday. Maybe not. Maybe no
- one bothers to read this far into the document!!
-
- Finally, it's also been a very useful experience overall, con-
- firming my beliefs that iterative software design and keeping a
- close watch on users (not to mention an open mind and mailbox!)
- improves a product manyfold. Comments, feedback and bug reports
-
- __________
- 6. Not to be confused with the multi-media mailer,
- _m_e_t_a_m_a_i_l, from Nathaniel Borenstein of Bellcore.
-
-
- October 1, 1992 Page 15
-
-
-
-
-
- Elm Users Guide Version 2.4
-
-
- (and fixes!) are, of course, always welcome!
-
-
- 6666.... CCCCrrrreeeeddddiiiittttssss aaaannnndddd SSSSoooo oooonnnn PPPPaaaarrrrtttt IIIIIIII ---- TTTThhhheeee UUUUsssseeeennnneeeetttt EEEEllllmmmm DDDDeeeevvvveeeellllooooppppmmmmeeeennnntttt GGGGrrrroooouuuupppp
-
- As coordinator of the Elm Development Group, I must add to the
- credits. This group of volunteers has taken the Elm code from
- Dave Taylor and added features, made it more robust, and more
- portable.
-
- For getting the Usenet Elm group going, for without which I
- wouldn't be writing this, thanks to Greg Hackney at Southwestern
- Bell Telephone Co.
-
- For the Configuration system and its newer Dist 2.0 version,
- thanks are due to Larry Wall of JPL-NASA.
-
- For his over two hundred sets of changes to version 2.2, Elm owes
- a lot to Rob Bernardo who was at Pacbell at that time.
-
- The ability to run Elm at all on Intel 286 machines owes a lot to
- the insistent nudging of the coordinator by Chip Salzenberg, Chip
- Rosenthal, and Tim Evans.
-
- For getting us the rights to use the news macros and converting
- all the documentation over to those macros, thanks to Mike Brown.
-
- For pushing us into the '90s and forcing the issues of NLS and
- foreign language support, I thank Jan Saell of Administration &
- Systemkonsult AB along with Larry Philps of SCO Canada. I'd also
- like to thank the many current and prior members of the Elm
- development and testing groups. The list varies from time to
- time as people come and go. Also, to all the Elm users out there
- who send in patches. The group can use all the extra help it
- gets. As a postScript, if you wish to join the group, all it
- takes is some time to work on things, and to ask.
-
- Syd Weinstein, Elm Coordinator.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- October 1, 1992 Page 16
-
-
-
-