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260 lines
12 KiB
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN">
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<html> <head>
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<title>New Mail Programs</title>
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</head>
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<body bgcolor="#ffefd5" text="#181871">
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>
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"</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<center><h1>Two New X-windows Mail Clients</h1></center>
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<center><h4><a href="mailto: layers@vax2.rain.gen.mo.us">by Larry
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Ayers</a></h4></center>
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<center>Copyright (c) 1996</center><BR>
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<center><H5>Published in Issue 13 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>
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<hr>
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<center><h3>Introduction</h3></center>
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<p>There are several full-featured text-mode mail clients available for Linux,
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and these programs (such as Pine and Elm) are probably the most commonly used
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mailers in the Linux/unix world. One reason for this tendency is that they
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run equally well in both console and X sessions (in an xterm). They also have
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a longer development history than their X-windows counterparts which results
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in the accretion of more features and options. There has been ample time for
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the developers to deal with bugs as well.
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<p>Many of the X-windows mailers I've tried have either been too basic, too
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beta, or awkward to use. I've always returned to Pine, my standby. Recently
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two X-based mailers have been released (in late beta versions), both of which
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are stable and well-provided with features and options. When I say stable I
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mean that they have functioned well for me, I haven't lost any mail, and
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they both have been through several releases in which the most egregious
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bugs seem to have been ironed out.
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<p>Mail programs are a rather personal sort of software. I've found it to be
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prudent to copy any existing mailbox files or directories to a safe location
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before installing any new mail client. You never know until you try just what
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a new mailer will do with your existing mail messages the first time it is
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run. As an example, mbox-style mail "folders" (which are just single files
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with messages concatenated) might be willy-nilly transformed into MH-style
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directories, with each message becoming an individual numbered file. I
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suppose there may exist a technique to reverse this metamorphosis, but I don't
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know what it might be, aside from manually using an editor.
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<hr>
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<center><h3>TkMail</h3></center>
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<p><a href="mailto: raines@slac.stanford.edu">Paul Raines</a> has been working
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on a Tcl/Tk mail client for some time now. I'll let him describe its
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origin:<br>
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<pre><i>
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I began the project at the beginning of '92 while a physics
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grad student at the Univ. of Penn. I had been put in charge
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of several SGI workstations and was disappointed in the X
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window mail readers I had found. I had recently got into
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Tcl/Tk programming and played around with putting Tk
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interfaces on top of command line programs for physics
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simulation. I figured it would be easy to do one to sit on
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top of the mailx command and did. That produced tkmail 1.x.
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Eventually I decided I was too limited by the mailx command
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and wrote a Perl backend to serve as an extensible
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equivalent. That produced tkmail 2.x. Perl was used because
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its text processing features were much faster than Tcl but I
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wanted to keep the whole program as scripts for portability.
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This proved a lost cause as Perl proved as hard to port as C
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code. For my update to work with Tk4.0, I decided to drop
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Perl in favor of writing my own C code as a module extension
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to Tcl. The past year was the last of my graduate career and
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mostly devoted to finishing my thesis leaving little time
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for work on tkmail. It is sort of behind in some of the
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features out there today (MIME, POP, IMAP, etc) but I hope
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to rectify that soon.
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The most important future plans are:
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* better MIME support
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* better key binding customization
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* an "auto-filing" feature
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* better search support </i></pre> <br>
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<p>TkMail is very customizable; Paul Raines includes with the distribution an
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alternate Tk text-manipulation library which allows the use of emacs-style
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key-bindings in the compose window. This library can be used with other Tk
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programs as well. Colors and fonts can be independently selected for the
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folder-view and compose window. Much of the configuration can be done from
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menu-selections.
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<p>Here is a screenshot of the main folder-view window:<br>
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<p><center><a href="./gx/ayers/main.gif">Tkmail Main Window</a></center>
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<p>And here is one of the composition window:<br>
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<p><center><a href="./gx/ayers/comp.gif">the Composition Window</a></center>
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<p>TkMail, like many other Linux mailers, in effect acts as a front-end to
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sendmail. Luckily most recent Linux distributions come with sendmail
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preconfigured. If your inbox is on a POP server you will need to use
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popclient, fetchmail, or fetchpop to retrieve your messages and leave them in
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a mailbox file on your local disk, where mail clients can find them.
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<p>Among the many features of this beta release are:<br>
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<ul>
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<li>easy inclusion of files into message compositions with
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automatic uuencoding and compression, if desired
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<li>ability to access an alternate editor from the composition window
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<li>spell check compositions using an X windows interface (using ispell)
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<li>reads aliases from either standard .mailrc or elm aliases.txt
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<li>sorting of messages on any field and the ability to
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write out the folder physically in that order
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<li>simple MIME reading and composition tool
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<li>built in 'biff' icon for notification of new mail
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on multiple folders
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<li>dynamic (at startup) menus for quick access to mail folders
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for reading, copying, and moving messages
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</ul><br>
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<p>TkMail is set up initially to open a small debugging window from which the
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main program can be started. Once it becomes evident that the program is
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working to your satisfaction this can be disabled by editing the main
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<b>tkmail4</b> script and changing the line <i>set mfp(debug) 1</i> to <i>set
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mfp(debug) 0</i>, or just start it with the <i>-nodebug</i> option.
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<p>I have found TkMail 4.0b8 to be easy to learn and use, and its interface is
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nice-looking. With a little more work on the MIME abilities it will be as
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effective an X mail client as any available.
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<p>Paul Raines maintains a
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<a href="http://www.slac.stanford.edu/~raines/tkmail.html">home page</a> for
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TkMail; the source for the 4.0b8 version is available
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<a href="ftp://ftp.slac.stanford.edu/TkMail/BETA/">here</a>.
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<hr>
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<center><h3>XFMail</h3></center>
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<p>Some months ago John Fisk wrote about the XFmail program in the Gazette.
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His account inspired me to try it out, but I had quite a few problems with the
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message editing window, so much so that when I tried to mail the developers a
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comment on their program, the message was corrupted and I doubt that it was
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legible to them. I gave up and deleted it soon after, making a mental note
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to check it out later when perhaps it had become more usable.
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<p>Recently I did just that, and found that a new editing module had been
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contributed which really makes a difference in usage of the mailer. No longer
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is there a limit to the amount of the text in the editing window. This
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change, I believe, makes XFMail a credible choice as a Linux mail client.
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<p>XFMail requires the XForms library. This is available from
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<a href="http://bragg.phys.uwm.edu/xform">the XForms web-site</a>, which will
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always have the latest version and news. If you obtain the archive be aware
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that the package includes a GUI designer as well as many samples. All you
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need to keep if you're not a programmer is the XForms shared and static
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libraries (libforms.so.81 and libforms.a) and the header file (forms.h). These
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three files will enable you to compile XForms applications, such as XFMail
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from source.
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<p>In order to try the current beta (which I recommend) you'll need to obtain
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the source archive from the
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<a href="ftp://Burka.NetVision.net.il/pub/xfmail/work/">
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XFMail home FTP site</a>.
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As long as you have the XForms library files installed it should compile for
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you, notwithstanding the warning message at the FTP site. If your current
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mailbox is in the common mailx format (a single file), you might want to copy
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the file (INBOX or whatever) to another location before installing XFMail.
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The default behaviour is for XFMail to transform your messages into the
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multiple-file MH format; after installation you can disable this and move your
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mailbox back. If you already store your mail in the MH manner the program
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will load your messages without moving them.
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<p>Even though XFMail reads and stores messages in MH format, it doesn't
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require that you have the MH system installed.
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<p>This mail client can handle all mail fetching and delivery needs for a
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single-user machine. The user is given the option of using sendmail for
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delivery (either on- or off-line), or using XFMail to directly contact the
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SMPT server and deliver outgoing mail. Fetching new mail can be done
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externally,(popclient et al), or via XFMail directly. These features could be
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helpful for new users who would rather not deal with sendmail; all functions
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can be handled by the mailer.
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<p>XFMail has the recognizable XForms look, familiar to users of the Lyx
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front-end program for TeX/Latex. The XForms library gives programs a unique
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look, unlike standard X or Motif. The user interface is perhaps not quite as
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fancy as some, but it's not hard to become accustomed to it. There are some
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limitations in choice of colors; the selection available is greater than that
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of console-ANSI programs, but less than the amount available to standard X
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clients.
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<p>Here are some screenshots of the various XFMail windows:<br>
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<p><center><a href="./gx/ayers/xf_main.gif">The Main Window</a></center><br>
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<center><a href="./gx/ayers/xf_comp.gif">The Composition Window</a></center><br>
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<p>And here is the logging window:<br>
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<p align=center> <img src="./gx/ayers/xf_log.gif"></p><br>
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<p>Among the other features of this mailer are an internal address book, full
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MIME support, and support for faces and picons. Support is planned for
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compatibility with mailx-style mail-folders.
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<p>XFMail is quite an ambitious programming project; if you do try out the
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beta version I'm sure the authors would appreciate hearing any comments you
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may have. There also exists an XFMail mailing list; send a message to:
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<a href="mailto:majordomo@Burka.NetVision.net.il">
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majordomo@Burka.NetVision.net.il</a>
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with "subscribe xfmail" in the message body.
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<p>Visit <a href="http://burka.netvision.net.il/xfmail/xfmail.html"
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>the XFMail homepage</a> for the latest news; by the time you read this, beta
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0.5 may well have been released.
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<p>XFMail is being developed by <a href="mailto:gen@NetVision.net.il">
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Gennady B. Sorokopud</a> and <a href="mailto:ugen@NetVision.net.il">
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Ugen J.S. Antsilevich</a>.
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<hr>
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<address><a href="http://vax2.rainis.net/~layers/">
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Larry Ayers<layers@vax2.rainis.net></a>
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</address>
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<!-- hhmts start --> Last modified: Tue Dec 17 19:05:43
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CST 1996
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<!-- hhmts end -->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1997, Larry Ayers <BR>
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Published in Issue 13 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>
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