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000158_icon-group-sender _Fri Jun 3 09:20:05 1994.msg
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1994-08-19
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Received: by cheltenham.cs.arizona.edu; Fri, 3 Jun 1994 09:27:17 MST
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 1994 09:20:05 -0600 (CST)
From: Chris Tenaglia - 257-8765 <TENAGLIA@MIS.MCW.EDU>
Subject: Re: email system??
To: icon-group@cs.arizona.edu
Message-Id: <01HD3MG181UQ8WWJM2@mis.mcw.edu>
Organization: Medical College of Wisconsin (Milwaukee, WI)
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> From: IN%"eric@star-semi.com" 2-JUN-1994 17:54:32.04
> To: IN%"icon-group@cs.arizona.edu"
> Subj: email system??
> QUESTION 1 (of 2)
> -----------------
> ...
> QUESTION 2 (of 2)
> -----------------
> ...
I've done an icon email thing. It works, but it's so complicated I
wouldn't want to share it because it relies on so many components. It
was a great exercize to get to know all the pieces of email. It's not
just a MAIL.EXE. It's enough work just for me to support it for myself.
But here is my experience and a couple pointers.
I wrote it kind of in the unlikely event that someday my management
would equip me with a laptop on business trips (instead of the satellite
pager). The local office runs on a VMS VAX with VMS MAIL. We also have
add-ons that extend that email to internet as well. I load this laptop
with some software and a modem. Then at convenient times I'd dial back
and download my mailbag. Then I could go through my email off-line at my
leisure and formulate replies, forwards, and new messages. Later I'd
reconnect and a delivery program in the PC would upload the stuff and
instruct the VAX to deliver everything.
I use icon for the user interface (mail user agent) in the PC. It also
takes the giant appended email file and splits it into individual
messages for later reading. It also has to know formulate replies from
the headers. It's also a good idea to use index files to speed lookups.
I use an old IBM XT so speed has to be in the software rather than the
hardware. I use a DOS env var to choose a favorite editor/word
processor. I use ZIP to compress the mailbags on both ends to reduce
file transfer time. I use MS-kermit scripts to do the communications,
and VMS/DCL batch language to deliver the mail. It took a couple weeks
of evenings to kludge it all together. I have a partially finished unix
version too, but work has kind of stopped there. I think there are
commercial packages that can do all this too, but sometimes labor is
cheaper, and the exersize is worth the effort.
If you don't already have mail server hosts, then you will also have fun
writing the mail backend (mail handling system). I'm not that ambitious.
Good luck.
Chris Tenaglia (System Manager) | "The past explained,
Medical College of Wisconsin | the future fortold,
8701 W. Watertown Plank Rd. | the present largely appologized for."
Milwaukee, WI 53226 | Organon to The Doctor
(414)257-8765 |
tenaglia@mis.mcw.edu