.\" @(#)$Id: Users.guide,v 4.1.1.1 90/06/09 22:49:54 syd Exp $ .\" Users guide to the ELM mail system. .\" format with: .\" 'tbl Users.guide | troff tmac.n - > Users.fmtd' .\" Elm is now in the public trust. Bug reports, comments, suggestions, flames .\" etc. should go to: .\" Syd Weinstein elm@DSI.COM (dsinc!elm) .\" (C) Copyright 1986, 1987 Dave Taylor .\" (C) Copyright 1988, 1989, 1990 Usenet Community Trust .\" $Log: Users.guide,v $ .\" Revision 4.1.1.1 90/06/09 22:49:54 syd .\" Droped obsolete control Q command from list .\" From: Joe Wasik .\" Revision 4.1 90/04/28 22:41:16 syd .\" checkin of Elm 2.3 as of Release PL0 .tm I trust we've run this through "tbl" first... .\" Define the big box macro for troff .de eb .sp -1 .ie t \{\ \h'-.5n'\L'|\\nau-1'\l'\\n(.lu+1n\(ul'\L'-|\\nau+1'\l'|0u-.5n\(ul' .el \{\ \h'-.5n'\l'\\n(.lu+1n' .po 1i .ds h0 .ds h1 .ds h2 .ds f0 .ds f1 .ds f2 .nr Hy 1 .nr Pt 1 .nr Pi 0 .lg 0 .\" This will keep the nroff version of the title page on one sheet. .if t .sv |2.0i .ce 99 .ps 20 .ss 18 .vs 12 \f3The Elm Users Guide\f1 .sp 3 .ps 12 .ss 14 .vs 14 \f2A painless introduction to electronic mail using the \f3Elm\fP mail system\f1 .sp 2 Dave Taylor Hewlett-Packard Laboratories 1501 Page Mill Road Palo Alto CA 94304 .sp 3 email: taylor\s10@\s12hplabs.HP.COM or hplabs!taylor .sp 3 >>> Elm is now in the public trust. Bug reports, comments, etc. to: <<< Syd Weinstein Datacomp Systems, Inc. 3837 Byron Road Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006-2320 email: elm\s-1@\s+1DSI.COM or dsinc\s-1!\s+1elm .ps 8 .if t .vs 9 .sp 4 \f3ABSTRACT\f1 .ce 0 .in +1i .ll -1i While various Unix utilities have been designed to take advantage of the CRT screen (rather than line-oriented systems) electronic mail systems haven't ``caught the wave''. This document presents \f2Elm\f1, a sophisticated full-screen mail system for interactive use. \f2Elm\f1 offers all the features of \f2/bin/mail\f1, \f2Berkeley Mail\f1, \f2uumail\f1, \f2NMail\f1 and the AT&T Mail family of Unix mailers (namely \f2PMX/TERM\f1) in a unified and intuitive fashion. .ll +1i .in -1i .if t .sp 3 .if n .sp 2 .ce 2 .ps 18 .if t .vs 14 \f3\(co\f1\s12 Copyright 1986, 1987 by Dave Taylor .ps 18 \f3\(co\f1\s12 Copyright 1988, 1989, 1990 by The USENET Community Trust .ps 10 .ss 12 .vs 12 .bp 1 .sv 5v .ce 99 .ps 14 \f3Elm Users Guide\f1 .ds h0 "Elm Users Guide .ds h1 .ds h2 "Version 2.3 .ds f0 "May 1, 1990 .ds f1 "Page % .ps 10 (Version 2.3) .sp 2 Dave Taylor Hewlett-Packard Laboratories 1501 Page Mill Road Palo Alto CA 94304 email: taylor\s-1@\s+1hplabs.HP.COM or hplabs\s-1!\s+1taylor .sp 2 >>> Elm is now in the public trust. Bug reports, comments, etc. to: <<< Syd Weinstein Datacomp Systems, Inc. 3837 Byron Road Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006-2320 email: elm\s-1@\s+1DSI.COM or dsinc\s-1!\s+1elm .sp 2 May 1, 1990 .ce 0 .sp 3 .hn 1 Introduction 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 \f2vi\f1 visual shell to the \f2ed\f1 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 engineers, and so precious few Unix programs are available designed to exploit the entire CRT screen. Consequently, after becoming more and more disenchanted with the existing electronic mail facilities (\f2binmail\f1 and \f2Berkeley Mail\f1) I decided to undertake creating my own system. Once the ball was rolling it became quite difficult not to keep enhancing it, especially as I became more and more familiar with various different mail systems, but the result, I hope, is a solid, unified interface to electronic mail suitable for almost any environment. One thing that sets \f3The Elm Mail System\f1 off from other packages is that it comes with an extensive documentation set, including; \f2The Elm Users Guide\f1, which you're holding, \f2The Elm Reference Guide\f1, \f2The Elm Alias Users Guide\f1, \f2The Elm Filter System Users Guide\f1, \f2The Elm Forms Mode Guide\f1, and \f2The Elm Configuration Guide\f1. 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 \f3Elm\f1, a brief foray into the \f3Elm\f1 utilities, and finally, credits and references. \f2The Elm Reference Guide\f1 contains a much more indepth discussion of all the possible options available within the \f3Elm\f1 environment, including the \f2``.elm/elmrc''\f1 file, the available outbound mail processing features, a section for expert users, suggestions on debugging strange installations, and many other useful topics. \f2The Elm Alias Users Guide\f1 is the place to go to learn about the format of the ``.elm/aliases.text'' file and the associated data files, to learn how to create and use path route aliases and domain based alias routing, system aliases, and other related topics. One of the more innovative features of \f3Elm\f1 is the ability to transmit and receive ``forms'' (as defined by the AT&T Mail system). To learn about how to create and reply to forms you should refer to \f2The Elm Forms Mode Guide\f1. If you find yourself getting too much mail delivered in your mailbox, you might be a good candidate for the \f2filter\f1 program. To learn more about what this program is and how to use it please consult \f2The Elm Filter System Users Guide\f1. 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 \f2The Elm Configuration Guide\f1. It is strongly suggested that all system administrators and people installing the system print out the local ``sysdefs.h'' file and have it handy while reading the configuration guide. The recommended order of learning the \f3Elm\f1 system is to skim this guide until you feel confident enough to start up the program. Once that's reached, \f2use it!\f1 Soon you'll find areas that you need to expand into, and you can achieve that by going into the \f2o)ptions\f1 screen within \f2elm\f1 and changing your user level accordingly. After a while, sit down again and read through this guide. You should have a couple of ``aha!'' intuitive flashes. After 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 useable without reading \f2any\f1 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 me, please feel free instead to drop me a note via the overland mail address in the title page. .ne 20 .hn 1 The Main System Upon entry to the program, the main screen will be displayed as below; .\" display start, constant width, remember loc for BOX .ft CW .ps 9 .mk a .mk a Mailbox is '/usr/mail/mymail' with 15 messages [Elm 2.2] r l n l l l l. -> 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) .ce 3 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 . j = move down, k = move up, ? = help Command : @ .\" draw box, proportional Roman font back, display end .ps 10 .ft 1 There are a number of things to notice about this, the main screen; .lp \h'12p'\(bu 20p Most likely, on your computer the message currently ``active'' will be displayed in an inverse bar rather than being delimited by the two character arrow as here. It's nothing to worry about; displaying inverse video is just quite difficult on printable guides! .lp \h'12p'\(bu 20p The first line on the screen always displays the name of the current folder, the number of messages in the folder, and the current \f3Elm\f1 version number. .lp \h'12p'\(bu 20p The arrow (``->'') or inverse video bar will always indicate which is the current message. .lp \h'12p'\(bu 20p 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: .ta .75iC 102p E for an \f2expired\f1 message N for a \f2new\f1 message O for an \f2old\f1 (i.e. not new but not read) message D for a \f2deleted\f1 message The second character which signifies permanent status: U for \f2urgent\f1 mail A for messages that have an \f2action\f1 associated with them F for a \f2form\f1 letter The third character of the status field can be a ``+'' to indicate that the message is \f2tagged\f1 too. .lp \h'12p'\(bu 20p 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). .lp \h'12p'\(bu 20p The date associated with each message is typically the date the person actually \f2sent\f1 the message. .lp \h'12p'\(bu 20p The next field displayed indicates whom the message is from. \f3Elm\f1 will try to display the \f2full name\f1 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. .lp \h'12p'\(bu 20p The number in parentheses is the total number of lines in the message. .lp \h'12p'\(bu 20p The final field is the subject of the message. Notice that messages might not have any subject, as in messages #9 and #10. .lp \h'12p'\(bu 20p A maximum of ten messages are displayed at one time\s-2\u1\d\s0. 1. On screens with greater than 25 lines, more messages will be displayed automatically. Further, if you choose to turn off the Menu display, you can have an even greater number displayed. Further into the document we'll learn how to change ``pages'' in the folder. .lp \h'12p'\(bu 20p The three line Menu display will always indicate the relevant commands. There are actually two possible menus that can be displayed, based on the \f2user level\f1 as set from either the o)ptions screen or the \f2.elm/elmrc\f1 file. The alternate menu, for more advanced users, lists more options; .ft CW .ps 9 .ce 3 |=pipe, !=shell, ?=help, =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 .ps 10 .ft 1 .lp \h'12p'\(bu 20p Finally, the '@' character indicates where the cursor would be, awaiting your input. .in 0 The typical action at this point is to use the \f2\f1 key to read the current message, which will clear the screen and display the current message: .ne 10 .ft CW .ps 9 .mk a .tl ' Message 1/15 from Larry Fenske''Apr 24 \'87 at 8:45 pm' .tl ''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): @ .ft 1 .ps 10 Before we go further with our example, however, let's very quickly look at all the functions available from the main screen: .\" ensure we get a reasonable chunk of this table on the page... .ne 10 .lp \h'18p'\f3Command 90p Action\f1 .lp "\h'18p' or " 90p Read current message. .lp \h'18p'| 90p Pipe current message or tagged messages to specified system command. .lp \h'18p'! 90p Shell escape. .lp \h'18p'$ 90p Resynchronize folder. .lp \h'18p'? 90p Help mode \(em any key pressed will be explained. .lp "\h'18p'+ or " 90p Display next page of headers. .lp "\h'18p'- or " 90p Display previous page of headers. .lp \h'18p'= 90p Set current message to 1. .lp \h'18p'* 90p Set current to last message. .lp \h'18p' 90p Set current message to number \f2number\f1. .lp \h'18p'/ 90p Search for pattern in subject/from lines. .lp \h'18p'// 90p Search for pattern in entire folder. .lp \h'18p'< 90p Scan message for calendar entries.\s-2\u2\d\s0 2. Some sites might opt not to have the calendar feature available. .lp \h'18p'> 90p A synonym for `s' \(em \f2save\f1 message or messages. .lp \h'18p'a 90p Alias, change to ``alias'' mode. .lp \h'18p'b 90p Bounce \(em remail message [see \f2f \(em forward\f1 too]. .lp \h'18p'C 90p Copy current message or tagged messages to folder. .lp \h'18p'c 90p Change to another folder. .lp \h'18p'd 90p Delete current message. .lp \h'18p'-D 90p Delete all messages matching specified pattern. .lp \h'18p'e 90p Edit current folder, resyncing upon reentry.\s-2\u3\d\s0 3. Some sites might opt not to have the edit folder feature available. .lp \h'18p'f 90p Forward message to specified user.\s-2\u4\d\s0 4. The difference between \f2Forward\f1 and \f2Bounce\f1 is rather subtle \(em a forwarded message is ``from'' you, with the original message included, whereas a bounced message is still from the original sender. .lp \h'18p'g 90p Group reply \(em reply to everyone who received the current message. .lp \h'18p'h 90p Display message with headers. .lp \h'18p'J 90p Set current to next message. .lp "\h'18p'j or " 90p Set current to next message not marked deleted. .lp \h'18p'K 90p Set current to previous message. .lp "\h'18p'k or " 90p Set current to previous message not marked deleted. .lp \h'18p'l 90p Limit displayed messages based on the specified criteria. .lp \h'18p'-L 90p Rewrite screen. .lp \h'18p'm 90p Mail to arbitrary user(s). .lp \h'18p'n 90p Read current message, then increment to next message not marked deleted. .lp \h'18p'o 90p Alter current system options. .lp \h'18p'p 90p Print current message or tagged messages. .lp \h'18p'q 90p Quit \(em maybe prompting for messages to delete, store, or keep. .lp \h'18p'Q 90p Quick quit \(em like quit but without prompting. .lp \h'18p'r 90p Reply to the author of current message. .lp \h'18p's 90p Save current message or tagged messages to folder. .lp \h'18p't 90p Tag current message. .lp \h'18p'-T 90p Tag all messages matching specified pattern. .lp \h'18p'u 90p Undelete current message. .lp \h'18p'-U 90p Undelete all messages matching specified pattern. .lp \h'18p'x 90p Exit \(em prompt if mailbox changed, don't record as read, don't save... .lp \h'18p'X 90p Exit immediately \(em don't record as read, don't save... .in 0 .\" again, make sure we start on a new page please .ne 10 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: .ne 10 .ft CW .ps 9 .mk a .tl ' Message 1/15 from Larry Fenske''Apr 24 \'87 at 8:45 pm' .tl ''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): @ .ft 1 .ps 10 From this point let's go ahead and reply to the message. To do this, we can use the \f2reply\f1 command... To do this, we type ``r'' and the last few lines change to something like: .ft CW .ps 9 .tl '-------------------------------------------------------------------------------'' .tl 'Command: Reply to message''Copy message (y/n) ? @ ' .sp 2 .ft 1 .ps 10 To which we decide that we don't need the text of this message in our new one, so we reply \f2no\f1 by pressing the ``n'' key. The bottom part of the window then changes to: .ft CW .ps 9 .tl '-------------------------------------------------------------------------------'' .tl 'Command: Reply to message''To: Larry Fenske ' .tl 'Subject: Re: Hello there@'' .ft 1 .ps 10 .sp 2 at this point we can either decide to enter a new subject (you could use either \f2backup word\f1 (-W) or \f2backup line\f1 (this is the same as your `line kill' character, -X or -U usually)) or go with this one by pressing \f2\f1. We'll just leave it as it is and press \f2\f1, changing the screen to: .ps 9 .ft CW .tl '-------------------------------------------------------------------------------'' .tl 'Command: reply to message''To: Larry Fenske ' .tl 'Subject: Re: Hello there'' .tl 'Copies to: @''' .ps 10 .ft 1 There's no one we want to have receive copies of this message, so we'll just press \f2\f1 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: .ps 9 .ft CW .tl ''-------------------------------------------------------------------------------'' .tl 'Please choose one of the following options by parenthesized letter: @''' .tl ''e)dit message, edit h)eaders, s)end it, or f)orget it.'' .ft 1 .ps 10 Since we're just interested in sending the message out, we'll choose the \f2send\f1 option and press ``s''. The program then sends the message, indicating that by the line below saying: .ps 9 .ft CW Sending mail... .ft 1 .ps 10 then putting at the bottom of the screen ``Mail sent!'' and giving us the prompt: .ps 9 .ft CW .tl ''-------------------------------------------------------------------------------'' .tl 'Command:''(Use \'i\' to return to index.)'' .ps 10 .ft 1 Pretty easy, isn't it? Let's continue by going back to the main screen by requesting \f2index\f1: pressing the ``i'' key. The screen is then: .ne 20 .ft CW .ps 9 .mk a .mk a Mailbox is '/usr/mail/mymail' with 15 messages [Elm 2.2] r l r l l l l. -> 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) .ce 3 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 . j = move down, k = move up, ? = help Command : @ .\" draw box, proportional Roman font back, display end .ft 1 .ps 10 .ft 1 Notice that the first message is no longer marked as \f2new\f1 since we've now read it. Let's go ahead and read the message from kevin (message #6) since it has some sort of \f2action\f1 associated with it anyway. To do this, we simply press the ``6'' key, which will change the bottom of the screen to: .ps 9 .ft CW .tl 'Command: New Current Message''Set current message to : 6@' .ft 1 .ps 10 We'll just press \f2\f1 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 \f2\f1 again, giving us: .ne 10 .ft CW .ps 9 .mk a .tl ' Message 6/15 from kevin''Apr 15 \'87 at 11:36 am' .tl ''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): @ .ps 10 .ft 1 .ne 5 Well, it turns out that we don't, but a friend of ours does, so let's \f2forward\f1 the message to them by pressing ``f'': .ps 9 .ft CW .tl '-------------------------------------------------------------------------------'' .tl 'Command: Forward message''Edit outgoing message (y/n) ? @ ' .ft 1 .ps 10 .sp 2 No need to edit it, so let's answer \f2no\f1 with ``n'': .ps 9 .ft CW .tl '-------------------------------------------------------------------------------'' .tl 'Command: Forward message''Edit outgoing message (y/n) ? No ' .tl 'To: @''' .ps 10 .ft 1 We type in the address of the person we're forwarding to (in this case .ft CW usenet\f1) and press \f2\f1: .ft CW .ps 9 .tl '-------------------------------------------------------------------------------'' .tl 'Command: Forward message''To: usenet ' .tl 'Subject: More software requests (fwd)@' .ft 1 .ps 10 To which we again press \f2\f1 to take the default subject. \f3Elm\f1 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 \f2exit\f1 by pressing the ``x'' key and the program drops us back into our shell. .sp 2 As you can see, it's quite easy to use the \f3Elm\f1 system, so rather than continue with our example, let's look at some other aspects of the program. .ne 5 .hn 1 Non-Interactive Uses of Elm Before we go ahead and discuss the \f3Elm\f1 utilities, it's worth noting that there are a couple of other ways to use the main mail system, namely to `send only' and to send files (batchmail). To send a message to someone without any of the associated overhead of reading in a mail folder, you can invoke the mailer with the name(s) of the people to send to. For example: $ \f3elm dave_taylor\f1 mailer will then prompt for Subject, Copies, and then drop you in your editor (defined in the \f2.elm/elmrc\f1 file) to compose the message. When composition is complete, the program verifies transmission then terminates. .ne 3 The mailer also supports batch type mailing, of files and so on, by using the following command: $ \f3elm dave_taylor < help.c\f1 which will read in the file and transmit it to the specified user. .ne 3 A subject may be specified with ``-s \f2subject\f1'' as an option to the program in either `send only' or `batch' modes, as in: $ \f3elm -s "File help.c, as promised" dave_taylor < help.c\f1 .ne 5 .hn 1 The Elm Utilities The \f3Elm\f1 mail system is really much more than a single program for reading and writing mail. It's a unified environment for intelligently dealing with electronic correspondence. As a consequence, it contains a number of other programs to aid in the easy processing of `email', including the following; .lp \h'10p'answer 1.0i An answering-machine transcription program. Please see the manual entry for more information on how to use this program. .lp \h'10p'autoreply 1.0i This program, in conjunction with the ``arepdaemon'', enables users to automatically reply to incoming mail when they're not directly available. .lp \h'10p'checkalias 1.0i A script for checking aliases simply. .lp \h'10p'messages 1.0i A script that lists the number of messages in the specified folder. Suitable for login scripts and such. .lp \h'10p'newmail 1.0i This program monitors a mailbox or set of mailboxes and can output notification of new mail in one of two possible formats; either: .ne 6 .ft CW .ps 9 >> New mail from Jimmy Carter - Urgent matters of state >> New mail from joe@ucbvax.arpa - Did I hear someone say PARTY?? .ft 1 .ps 10 if running as \f2newmail\f1 or: .ft CW .ps 9 Jimmy Carter -- Urgent matters of state joe@ucbvax.arpa -- Did I hear someone say PARTY?? .ft 1 .ps 10 if running as \f2wnewmail\f1. BSD Users will find this is a far superior \f2biff\f1 program. .lp \h'10p'wnewmail 1.0i This is the same program as newmail, but has different defaults if invoked this way. .lp \h'10p'readmsg 1.0i 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; $ \f3readmsg 4 5 9 | lpr\f1 would generate a printout, \f2sans\f1 superfluous headers, of the fourth, fifth and ninth messages in your mailbox. $ \f3readmsg Carter | page\f1 would be a fast way to read what `ole Jimmy has to say... $ \f3readmsg -h hear someone say\f1 would list, including all the message headers, the message containing the string ``hear someone say''. .lp \h'10p'frm 1.0i Similar to the Berkeley \f2from\f1 command, this will give you a ``table of contents'' 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 \f2readmsg\f1 expects to get, too! .lp \h'10p'newalias 1.0i This is used to install new user/group aliases. Please see \f2The Elm Alias Users Guide\f1 for further information on this! .lp \h'10p'fastmail 1.0i 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 \f3Elm\f1. An example of this would be if you have a large mailing list for a newsletter, say. This command, \f2fastmail\f1, is designed just for that purpose. It avoids the lengthy startup time of \f3Elm\f1 while still generating valid \f2RFC-822\f1\s-2\u5\d\s0 mail. 5. If you don't know what RFC-822 is, don't worry about it! Please see the manual entry for more information on this command. .in 0 .ne 5 .hn 1 Credits and So on This mailer has been evolving over the past few years with invaluable 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 reporting problems and (usually, much to my relief) indicating the fixes needed, especially Guy Hillyer, Bruce Townsend and Eric 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 applause 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 \(em since being on a big multi-user machine tends to slow it down to a standstill... For that, I thank Hewlett-Packard Colorado Networks 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 \f3Elm\f1, for better or worse, include the following; .lp \h'4p'\f2/bin/mail\f1 1.0i The most basic of mailers, this one was simply the example of how \f2not\f1 to force the user to interact with a program. .lp "\h'4p'\f2Berkeley Mail\f1" 1.0i A surprisingly sophisticated mailer, especially the version with 4.3 BSD, \f2Berkeley Mail\f1 still suffers from the tendency to force the user to know too much about the system, and also lacks a friendly, non-cryptic interface for the large subset of the population that use Unix but aren't interested in becoming a ``hacker''. .lp \h'4p'\f2MH\f1 1.0i 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 \f2lots\f1 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. .lp \h'4p'\f2dmail\f1 1.0i A sort of mutated cross between \f2MH\f1 and \f2Berkeley Mail\f1, it was this program that convinced me to implement the \f2Limit\f1 functions. .lp \h'4p'\f2NMail\f1 1.0i (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 \f3Elm\f1. Indubitably. And quite faster too! .lp \h'4p'\f2PMX/TERM\f1 1.0i 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 \f2not\f1 the way to do things!! On the other hand, it also shows that the \f2Forms\f1 mode can be quite nicely integrated into a more sophisticated mailer. .lp \h'4p'\f2fmail\f1 1.0i A nickel addition to the \f2/bin/mail\f1 program to add some rudimentary screen interface stuff, this nonetheless interesting mailer is part of the AT&T Toolchest. .lp \h'4p'\f2Laurel\f1 1.0i 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 \f2cross out\f1 a message that was marked for deletion. One day when we get real graphics and the ability to use them indicated in a facility (not too) like \f2termcap\f1, perhaps \f3Elm\f1 will do this too! .lp \h'4p'\f2Mailtool\f1 1.0i 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 \(em it uses \f2/bin/mail\f1 for all the `dirty work'. Other than that, it's not a particularly interesting interface or mailer, and it certainly doesn't add much functionality! .lp \h'4p'\f2Metamail\f1 1.0i 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 future. A program that works sort of like \f3HAL\f1 did in \f22001: A Space Odyssey\f1 \(em where it interrupts me as appropriate for important mail, and can answer inane and other queries itself according to what I teach it. Maybe \f3Elm\f1, by some sort of groupmind metamorphosis, will change into that someday. Maybe not. Maybe no-one bothers to read this far into the document!! .in 0 Finally, it's also been a very useful experience overall, confirming 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 (and fixes!) are, of course, always welcome! .ne 5 .hn 1 "Credits and So on Part II - The Usenet Elm Development Group" 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 at Pacbell. 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. Now, before I get accused of leaving someone out, here are the members of the Elm Development and the Elm Testing Group: Jonathan Bayer, Rob Bernardo, Doug Blair, Kevin Bond, Mike Brown, Ed Clarke, Steven Donegan, Paul Ebersman, Avi Feldblum, Steven Goodman, Greg Hackney, Mark Hahn, Mitch Hamilton, Ed Hann, David Hawkins, Nate Hess, Phil Hochstetler, Bud Hovell, Kenneth Ingham, Chad Larson, Warren Lavallee, Howard Leadman, John A. Limpert, Andy Linton, Darrell McIntosh, Datta Miruke, Paul M. Moriarty, Andrew Mossberg, Robert B. Nelson, Leo C. Noordhuizen, Brian O'Neill, Fairfax O'Riley, Pete Phillips, Dave Rasmussen, Len Rose, Chip Rosenthal, Chip Salzenberg, Ray Smith, Gary Trujillo, Ed Wells, Mike Whitman, Dave Yearke, Jon Zeeff, Syd Weinstein, Elm Coordinator.