Usenet 1994 January/usenetsourcesnewsgroupsinfomagicjanuary1994.iso/sources/unix/volume6/elm/part04/doc/Users.guide

Text File | 1986-11-30 | 24.9 KB | 875 lines

.PH ""
.tm I trust we've run this through tbl first...
\"
\"  Users guide to the ELM mail system.
\"  format with 'tbl Users.guide | troff -mm > Users.fmtd
\"  or something similar.
\"  (C) Copyright 1985 Dave Taylor
\"
\"  Last update: May 14th, 1986
\"
.PF ""
\"  Define the big box macro for troff
.de eb
.sp -1
.nf
\h'-.5n'\L'|\\nau-1'\l'\\n(.lu+1n\(ul'\L'-|\\nau+1'\l'|0u-.5n\(ul'
.fi
..
.ds HF 3  3
.ds HP 12 12
.SA 1
.nr Hy 1
.nr Pt 1
.nr Pi 8
.lg 1
.HM 1 1
.rs
.sp 5
.ce 99
.ps 20
\fBElm Users Guide\fR
.sp 2
.ps 12
\fIA painless introduction to electronic mail
using the \fBElm\fP mailer\fR
.sp 5
Dave Taylor
.sp
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
1501 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto CA
94304
.sp
email: taylor\s10@\s12hplabs or hplabs!taylor
.ps 10
.sp 7
\fBABSTRACT\fR
.ce 0
.sp
.DS CB F
While various parts of the Unix system have been
updated into the `CRT' age (rather than the `teletype')
the electronic mail systems haven't.  This document
presents the \fIElm\fR mail system which remedies
this problem.  This mailer offers all the features of
\fI/bin/mail\fR, \fImailx\fR, \fIMail\fR, \fIuumail\fR and \fINmail\fR in an
unified and intuitive fashion.
.DE
.sp 5
.ce
.ps 18
\fB\(co\fR\s12 Copyright 1986 by Dave Taylor
.ps 10
.SK
.ce 99
.ps 14
\fBElm Users Guide\fR
.ps 10
.sp
(version 1.1)
.sp 2
Dave Taylor
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
1501 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto CA
94304
.sp
email: taylor@hplabs or hplabs!taylor
.sp 2
\*(DT
.ce 0
.nr P 1
.PH "'Elm Users Guide''Version 1.1'"
.PF "''Page \\\\nP''"
.sp 3
.H 1 "Introduction"
.P 1
The Unix\v'-.3'\s5TM\s10\v'.3' 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 - they were all
line oriented, rather than screen oriented.
.P
Gradually this began to change, and, with the addition of the Berkeley
.I vi
visual shell to the
.I ed
line editor, the trend seemed to be brought to the attention of
Unix systems designers.
.FS " "
Historical note: shrewd users will recognize this as the old Unix
.lg 0
\fIMsg\fR
.lg 1
mailer.  The name was changed to avoid a conflict with an old DEC-20
mailer, and because the new name stands for \fBEL\fRectronic \fBM\fRail,
which I think works out better!
.FE
.P
Apparently, however, this wasn't enough of a significant event, as
.I vi
and
.I notes
are the only screen oriented software available
(other than games, which are a taboo subject with managers
and the like!).  Consequently, after becoming more and more
disenchanted
with the existing electronic mail facilities (\fImail\fR
and \fImailx\fR, both of which are essentially line editors) I decided
to write my own!
.P
This document discusses the
.B Elm
mailer, and includes a set of example screens and a discussion
of configuration (for systems administrators).  It is broken
into three main parts, the \fIElm Users Guide\fR, which you're holding,
the \fIElm Reference Guide\fR, and the \fIElm Alias Users Guide\fR.
.P
This guide contains;
this introduction, a session with the mailer, a
discussion of non-interactive uses of \fBElm\fR,
a brief foray into the \fBElm\fR utilities,
and finally, credits and references.
.P
The \fIElm Reference Guide\fR contains;
a discussion of the \fI.elmrc\fR file,
starting options of
.B Elm,
outgoing mail processing,
responses of various commands,
the mail archive file,
the Notes system,
the Alias system,
system aliases etc,
more on the utilities,
and a section for expert users.
.P
The \fIElm Alias Users Guide\fR contains;
a further discussion of \fIuser aliases\fR
and \fIgroup aliases\fR,  System aliases,
how to edit and install new aliases,
the hostname routing database,
the domain routing database,
and so on.
.P
Any comments or problems with any of the documention or the program
itself are welcome: all installed systems should have an alias
that will ensure that I receive any mail sent to `elm'.
.sp 2
.H 1 "The Main System"
.P 1
Upon entry to the program, the main screen will be
displayed as below;
\" display start, constant width, remember loc for BOX
.DS CB
.mk a)
.mk a)
.ce
Mailbox is '/usr/mail/mymail' with 15 messages.  [Version 1.1]

.TS
r c r l l l l.
 ->        1    Apr 3    rob    (24)    Doing anything tonight?
        2    Apr 5    Joe    (154)    bug in gammon game
        3    Apr 5    root    (13)
        4    Apr 6    root    (7)    (continuation of previous message)
    U    5    Apr 8    decvax!mouse    (68)    Re: net.music article decvax:495
        6    Apr 13    John Jacobs    (194)    How can you hate RUSH?
        7    Apr 15    kevin    (27)    More software requests
    N    8    Apr 18    games    (26)    Hi there
    N    9    Apr 18    Don Knuth    (354)    Your version of TeX...
    N    10    Apr 23    Carl Smith    (53)    (More silly stuff
    N    11    Apr 24    jad@hpcnoe    (84)    Chico?  Why go there?
    N    12    Apr 24    Larry Fenske    (49)    hi there...
.TE
.sp
.ce 3
|=pipe, !=shell, ?=help, <n>=set current to n, /=search pattern
A)lias, C)hange mailbox, 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 eX)it

Elm : @
.sp 2
\" draw box, proportional Roman font back, display end
.eb
.DE
.P 0
There are a number of things to notice about this screen;
.BL 4
.LI
First off, it's quite possible that on your screen the current message will
be indicated by an inverse bar rather than an arrow.
Don't worry about it - it's just harder to have an inverse
bar in a document than an arrow!
.LI
The top line always displays the current mail file,
the number of messages in the file, and the current
.B Elm
version number.
.LI
The arrow (``->'') (or bar) always points to the current message.
.LI
The first few characters on each line can indicate the following:
.VL 6 5
.LI "U"
-  an \fIU\fRrgent message
.LI "N"
-  a \fIN\fRew message since you last read mail
.LI "E"
-  an \fIE\fRxpired message (not implemented)
.LI "A"
-  an \fIA\fRction is associated with the message
.LI "D"
-  the message is marked for \fID\fReletion
.LI "+"
-  the message is \fITagged\fR.
.LE
.LI
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)
.LI
The date associated with each message is the date the person
.I sent
the message.
.LI
The next field displayed indicates who the message is from.
\fBElm\fR will try to display the \fIname\fR of the person who
sent the message, rather than the their return address/login.
Some systems don't generate the correct headers, though, hence
messages like number 11, where it's
the return address of the sender...
.LI
The number in parentheses is the number of lines in the message.
.LI
The final field is the (optional) subject of the message.  Note
that message 3 has no subject.
.LI
A maximum of twelve messages are displayed at one time*.
.FS *
On terminals with greater than 25 lines, more messages will be
displayed automatically.
.FE
Further into
the document we'll learn how to change 'pages' in the mailbox.
.LI
The three line mini-menu will always
indicate what commands are available at
the current moment.
.LI
Finally, the '@' character indicates where the cursor would be, awaiting
your input.
.LE
.P 0
The typical action at this point is to use the
.I <return>
key to read the current message.  This particular option actually isn't
noted in the mini-menu, but choosing the '?=help' option will
inform you of a number of choices other than those in the
basic menu!
.P 0
Pressing this key will clear the screen and display the
message using the local pager
(see \fIpager\fR in the \fI.elmrc\fR file).
.P 0
While reading is perhaps the most fundamental function that the
.B Elm
program performs, there are a number of other options available,
namely;
\" ensure we get a reasonable chunk of this table on the page...
.ne 10
.sp
.VL 25 0 1
.LI "Command"
Action
.LE
.sp
.VL 22 3 1
.LI "|"
Pipe current message or tagged messages to specified system command.
.LI "!"
Shell escape.
.LI "?"
Help mode - any key pressed will be explained.
.LI "+, <space>,"
.LI "  or <NEXT>"
Next page of headers
.LI "-, or <PREV>"
Previous page of headers
.LI "=, or <HOME>"
Set current message to 1
.LI "*, or "
.LI " <SHIFT>-<HOME>"
Set current to last message.
.LI "<n>"
Set current message to number n.
.LI "/"
Search for pattern in subject/from lines.
.LI "//"
Search for pattern in entire mailbox.
.LI "<"
Scan message for calendar entries*
.FS *
Some sites might opt not to have this feature
available.
.FE
.LI ">"
A synonym for `s' - \fIsave\fR message or messages.
.sp
.LI "a"
Alias, change to 'alias' mode
.LI "b"
Bounce - remail message**
.LI "c"
Change to new mail file
.LI "d"
Delete current message
.LI "<control>-D"
Delete all messsages matching specified pattern
.LI "e"
Edit mailbox file, resyncing upon reentry.
.LI "f"
Forward message to specified user**
.FS **
The difference between \fIForward\fR and \fIBounce\fR is rather
subtle -- a forwarded message is ``from'' you, with the
original message included, whereas a bounced message
is still from the original sender.
.FE
.LI "g"
Group reply - reply to everyone who received the current message
.LI "h"
Display message + headers
.LI "j"
Increment current message by one
.LI "k"
Decrement current message by one
.LI "m"
Mail to arbitrary user(s)
.LI "n or <return>"
Next message (Read current, then increment)
.LI "o"
Alter current system options.
.LI "p"
Print current message or tagged messages.
.LI "r"
Reply to the author of current message
.LI "s"
Save current message or tagged messages to file
.LI "t"
Tag current message.
.LI "<control>-T"
Tag all messages matching specified pattern.
.LI "q"
Quit - mail deleted, saved in mbox or left.
.LI "u"
Undelete current message
.LI "x"
Exit - don't record as read, don't save...
.sp
.LI "^L"
Rewrite screen.
.LI "^M (<return>)"
Read current message
.LI "^Q, DEL"
Exit - don't record as read, don't save...
.LE
.sp
.P 0
That are all the commands available at the main level of the
.B Elm
program!  Easy to remember, right?
.sp 2
\" again, make sure we start on a new page please
.ne 10
.P 0
As an example, let's enter a series of commands and indicate
what the display would be after each one;
.sp
.P 0
First off, let's go to the next page of mail with `\fI+\fR';
.DS CB
.mk a)
.ce
Mailbox is '/usr/mail/mymail' with 15 messages.  [Version 1.1]

.TS
r c r l l l l.
 ->    N    13    Apr 3    Jack    (17)    Wanna buy some albums cheap?
    N    14    Apr 5    Jack    (8)    Cancel the previous offer!
    N    15    Apr 5    sdcsvax!dx    (420)    Moving day (long)
.TE










.ce 3
|=pipe, !=shell, ?=help, <n>=set current to n, /=search pattern
A)lias, C)hange mailbox, 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 eX)it

Elm : @
.sp 2
.eb
.DE
.P 0
Let's read the new current message, 13, by typing <\fIreturn\fR>.
.DS CB
.mk a)
.tl 'Message #13 from Jack''Mailed April 3, 1985 at 8:45 pm'

Hey Dave! I've got some old AC/DC and KISS albums, and as I know
you are a collector, do you want to buy them off of me before
I make ashtrays out of them (or frisbees...)?

                        Humourously,
                                        Jack








More: @
.eb
.DE
.P 0
Needless to say, we can't let this message go by without replying!
So let's press <\fIreturn\fR> to return to the main menu,
then use the
.I "reply"
command to respond.
.P 0
After pressing the `\fIr\fR' key, the program asks if a copy of the
message is desired (the character under the cursor indicates the
default if <return> is pressed.  In this case, the default is 'no');
.sp
.nf
    copy message? (y/n) @
.fi
.P 0
We choose to answer no, so press the `\fIn\fR' key.  Next
.B Elm
verifies that the subject is okay;
.sp
.nf
    Subject: Re: Wanna buy some albums cheap?@
.fi
.sp
Typing anything other than <return> will allow us
to change the subject to something more appropriate.
We decide, however, to leave it be and press <\fIreturn\fR> again.
.sp
Finally, we're asked if we want to send copies of this
message to anyone.  We don't, so we press <\fIreturn\fR> one
more time.
.P 0
The program then puts us
in the
.I vi
editor with a newly created file.
.P 0
After having entered a suitable reply, and left the editor,
the
.B Elm
system then verifies that we really want to send the message with;
.sp
    Are you sure you want to send this message? (y/n) @
.sp
To which the response is `\fIy\fR' for 'yes'.  It then sends the message off
to Jack, who will receive it hopefully quite soon (or at least
before he makes ashtrays out of the albums!)  (we'll ignore the
next message, which seems to be relevent, because these little
displays are eating up space in this document anyway!!)
.sp
.P 0
Message 13 is still the current message,
so, now let's save it and the one after it from Jack, message 14,
by \fItagging\fR them both.  We press `\fIt\fR' for \fItag\fR, which
puts the '+' tag indicator on this message, move to the next
message with the `\fIj\fR' key, then press `\fIs\fR' for \fIsave\fR*
.FS *
Another subtle note: operations that work with tagged messages also
always work with the current message, so we don't need to actually
\fItag\fR message 14.
.FE
This prompts for the file to save to;
.nf

   Save messages to: @

.fi
to which we answer \fIjack\fR.  The two messages are then saved to
the specified file, marked for deletion, and the \fItags\fR are
removed from them.
.P 0
The screen is now;
.DS CB
.mk a)
.ce
Mailbox is '/usr/mail/mymail' with 15 messages.  [Version 1.1]
.nf

.TS
r c r l l l l.
 ->    \ D    13    Apr 3    Jack    (17)    Wanna buy some albums cheap?
    \ D    14    Apr 5    Jack    (8)    Cancel the previous offer!
    N    15    Apr 5    sdcsvax!dx    (420)    Moving day (long)
.TE
.sp 10
.ce 3
|=pipe, !=shell, ?=help, <n>=set current to n, /=search pattern
A)lias, C)hange mailbox, 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 eX)it

Elm : @
.sp 2
.eb
.DE
.P 0
Now lets go back to the first page of messages by typing '\fI=\fR';
.DS CB
.mk a)
.ce
Mailbox is '/usr/mail/mymail' with 15 messages.  [Version 1.1]
.nf

.TS
r c r l l l l.
 ->        1    Apr 3    rob    (24)    Doing anything tonight?
        2    Apr 5    Joe    (154)    bug in gammon game
        3    Apr 5    root    (13)
        4    Apr 6    root    (7)    (continuation of previous message)
    U    5    Apr 8    decvax!mouse    (68)    Re: net.music article decvax:495
        6    Apr 13    John Jacobs    (194)    How can you hate RUSH?
        7    Apr 15    kevin    (27)    More software requests
    N    8    Apr 18    games    (26)    Hi there
    N    9    Apr 18    Don Knuth    (354)    Your version of TeX...
    N    10    Apr 23    Carl Smith    (53)    (More silly stuff
    N    11    Apr 24    jad@hpcnoe    (84)    Chico?  Why go there?
    N    12    Apr 24    Larry Fenske    (49)    hi there...
.TE
.sp
.ce 3
|=pipe, !=shell, ?=help, <n>=set current to n, /=search pattern
A)lias, C)hange mailbox, 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 eX)it

Elm : @
.sp 2
.eb
.DE
.P 0
Gee..note five not only looks mildly interesting but it's an
\fBU\fRrgent message too!  So
let's read it by typing \fI5<return>\fR
to make that the current message, and press <\fIreturn\fR> again
to read it.  After reading
the message we decide that it's utterly worthless, not even worth
replying to, let alone saving, so we'll mark it
for future deletion with the `d' \fIdelete\fR key.
.P 0
A `D' is put next to the message now...
.P 0
Before we finish up, we suddenly remember that one of the
messages was supposed to be about how to write decent
documentation for Unix software, so let's try to find it...
.P 0
First off, we'll move back to message one with the `\fI=\fR'
key and then use the `/' \fIpattern matching\fR command:
.nf

    Elm : Pattern                   / = match anywhere in messages
    Match pattern: @

.fi
we'll type in \fIdocument\fR (it's case insensitive) and see if the system
can find it.  After a brief second or two it returns 'pattern not found.'
Hmm...maybe it's not either the from or the subject of
any of the messages...In case that's true, let's try using
the \fImatch anywhere in message\fR command;
.P 0
We again type `/' for \fIpattern matching\fR;
.nf

    Elm : Pattern                      / = match anywhere in messages
    Match pattern: @

.fi
And now we'll use `/' again to get the match anywhere in file
option.  Now the bottom of the screen looks like;
.nf

    Elm : Pattern                     / = match anywhere in messages
    Match pattern (in entire mailbox): @

.fi
to which we respond \fIdocument\fR again.
.P 0
The mailer then searches through each line of all the messages in
the file and moves the current message pointer to message
number 7.  A quick check reveals that this message indeed
contains the word `document', but it's not the one we want,
so we're going to just get outta here!
.P 0
We've had enough mail for today, so lets quit, leaving
all the mail in the incoming mailbox, except those few we've
marked for deletion;
.sp
.I Quit
prompts;
.sp
.nf
   Delete messages? (y/n) @
.fi
.sp
to which we answer `\fIy\fR' for yes.  The next prompt is then;
.sp
.nf
   Keep mail in incoming mailbox? (y/n) @
.fi
.sp
to which we also answer yes...the program then quickly saves
the files, removing message 5, 13 and 14 as it goes along, and exits.
.sp 2
.P 0
As you can see, the program is pretty easy to use!  In fact, it was
designed to be used without this documentation at all, so you
could toss this right now (but don't - think of the tree that
sacrificed it's precious life to allow this printout!)
.sp 2
.H 1 "Non-Interactive Uses of Elm"
.P 1
Before we discuss the \fBElm\fR 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).
.P
To send a message to someone without any of the associated
overhead of the main system being loaded, you can invoke the
mailer with the name(s) of the people to send to.  The
mailer will then prompt for Subject, Copies, and then drop
you in your editor (defined in the ".elmrc" file) to compose
the message.   When composition is complete, the program
verifies transmission then terminates.  For example;
.nf

  $ \fBelm dave_taylor\fR
  To: hplabs!taylor
  Subject: \fBthis is a test\fR
  Copies To: \fB<return>\fR

  <invokes editor, message composed, then>

  Are you sure you want to send this? (y/n) \fBy\fR

  mail sent.

  $

.fi
Note that the user input is in \fBbold\fR face, so you can see that
the mailer verified the alias expansion too!
.sp
.P
The mailer also supports batch type mailing, of files and so on,
by using the following starting sequence;
.nf

  $ \fBelm -s "File help.c" dave_taylor < help.c\fR

.fi
which will read in the file and transmit it to the specified user
with the specified subject.  Note that the program is intelligent
enough to check to see what the standard input is from this
invocation, so a command of the form
.nf

  $ \fBelm -s "file help.c" dave_taylor\fR

.fi
would result in the following sequence since the program is reading
the "standard in" for information;
.nf

  $ \fBelm -s "file help.c" dave_taylor\fR
  To: hplabs!taylor
  Subject: file help.c

  Enter your message, ending with ^D

  \fBthis is the message
  Please don't ask me why I used this wierd mode!

  ^D\fR
  <end-of-message>

  $

.fi
which is reasonable behaviour!!  (not only that, but this is
almost exactly what \fI/bin/mail\fR does in the same situation!!)
.sp 2
.H 1 "The Elm Utilities"
.sp
.P
The \fBElm\fR program is really much more than a single
program for reading and writing mail.  It's a unified
environment for intelligently dealing with electronic
mail.  As a consequence, it contains a number of other
programs to aid in the easy processing of email,
including the following pieces;
.VL 14 2
.LI "checkalias"
A script that contains the line \fBelm -c \$*\fR.
.LI "newalias"
This program installs new aliases - please see the
\fIElm Alias Users Guide\fR for more information.
.LI "newmail"
This program is designed to be put into `background' and then
monitors your incoming mailbox for new mail.  Whenever you
receive new mail, the program will asynchronously write to the
screen a notification, including whom the new mail is from and
what the subjects of the messages are.  The output looks like;
.DS
New mail has arrived;

From Jimmy Carter - Urgent matters of state
From [e-mail] - Did I hear someone say PARTY??
.DE
This is quite helpful for deciding in `real time' whether it's
necessary to read the mail immediately or not.
.LI "wnewmail"
This is extremely similar to \fInewmail\fR but is
slightly modified to run in a windowing environment.
The differences are that it stays in `foreground' (thereby
taking over a window entirely), and outputs for new
mail in a slightly more succint format;
.DS
Mail from Jimmy Carter -- Urgent matters of state
Mail From [e-mail] -- Did I hear someone say PARTY??
.DE
.LI "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, or by the metacharacter `$' which
represents the last message in the mailbox.
.P 0
For example;
.DS
$ \fBreadmsg 4 5 9 | lpr\fR
.DE
would generate a printout, \fIsans\fR headers, of the fourth,
fifth and ninth messages in your mailbox.
.DS
$ \fBreadmsg Carter | page\fR
.DE
would be a fast way to read what `ole Jimmy has to say...
and
.DS
$ \fBreadmsg -h hear someone say\fR
.DE
would list, including the message headers, the message
containing the string ``hear someone say''.
.LI "from"
Similar to the Berkeley \fIfrom\fR 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.
.LI "printmail"
This is a formatting routine that knows that mailboxes look
like and inserts either formfeeds or dashed lines between
messages.  It can be used in either of two ways - either
a mailbox file can be \fIpiped\fR to it or it can be given
a list of mailbox file names to format.  The only option
on the program is `-d' which indicates that you want to have
a dashed line separating messages rather than a formfeed.
.P 0
For example;
.DS
$ \fBprintmail -d | lpr\fR
.DE
will print out your current incoming mailbox, separating the messages
by a dashed line.
.DS
$ \fBreadmsg 3 4 10 | printmail | lpr\fR
.DE
will print messages 3, 4, and 10 from your incoming mailbox,
separated by formfeeds (that is, each message will start on it's
own page).
.P 0
Finally,
.DS
$ \fBprintmail ~/mbox ~/Mail/mail.sent | lpr\fR
.DE
will print all the messages saved in \fImbox\fR and in your \fImail.sent\fR
files.  The second file will be started on a new page regardless of
the presence or absence of the `-d' dashed line option.
.LI "newalias"
This is used to install new user/group aliases.  Please see the
\fIElm Alias Users Guide\fR for further information on this!
.LI "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 \fBElm\fR.  An example of this would
be if you have a large mailing list for a newsletter, say.
This command, \fIfastmail\fR, is designed just for that purpose.
It avoids the lengthy startup time of \fBElm\fR while still
generating valid \fIRFC-822\fR* mail.
.FS *
If you don't know what RFC-822 is, don't worry about it!
.FE
Please see the `man' entry for more information on this
command (use \fBman fastmail\fR after installation).
.LE
.sp 3
.H 1 "Credits and So on"
.P
This mailer has been evolving over the past year or so with
invaluable comments on the interface and general mail
issues from the following people;
Walter Underwood, Larry Fenske, Rob Sartin,
John Dilley (who got the SPECTRUM version checked out, too!) and Carl DierschowX.
.sp
For the Berkeley implementation, lots of help came from
John Lebovitz and Ken Stone.
.sp
For the Amdahl/UTS implementation, thanks to Scott McGregor and
Stan Isaacs.
.sp
For the Sun problems, Dave England in Lancaster (UK) turned out to be
``bloody useful'', as he would no doubt say.
.sp
The Pyramid version is due to the work of Steve Malone
of the University of Washington.
.sp
A few others have been amazingly disciplined at reporting problems
and (usually, much to my relief) indicating the fixes needed,
namely Guy Hillyer and Bruce Townsend.
.sp
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.
.sp
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 HP Colorado Networks Division for their
support, and now HP Labs for the wonderful working environment
that I have here (more than any one person is safe having!)
.P
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.