Ok. No need to get combative. If the admin saw the package, got interested, and installed it, the message *to the admin* seems potentially useful, since PATH is fundamental and mh requires an unusual change to work at all. Since debian ships things like mh-e, which usefully wrap and simplify nmh, the potential for confusion is significant. But perhaps this is an mh-e bug. If there is no way to deliver a message or it is considered not worthwhile, fine.
On Fri, 12 Jan 2001, Chris Waters wrote: > On Thu, Jan 11, 2001 at 01:29:04AM -0900, Britton wrote: > > I don't think it would be excessively interactive for nmh > > to somehow give a prompt notifying the user that the package requires > > something that debian packages normally never need in order to work > > And how is it supposed to notify the users? It could possibly notify > the sysadmin when the sysadmin installs the package, but that still > leaves the users in the dark. Perhaps you were unaware that Gnu/Linux > is a multiuser system? > > Mh is designed to be installed on a multiuser system without being > intrusive to the users that aren't interested in it. It's a good, > clean, flexible design which only confuses those who don't read > documentation. And those folks are pretty much hopeless in any case. > > > Many debian nmh users will be trying nmh for the first time > > because they saw the description and got interested, and won't know about > > this peculiarity. > > Then those users should try reading the documentation, rather than > complaining that a package which has been working fine for twenty > years on a wide variety of *NIXen doesn't meet their limited and > incorrect expectations. > > (And the ones using tcsh should switch to a shell that *isn't* the > essence of pure evil! Frankly, I'd much rather add install-time > warnings to csh and tcsh than to mh.) :-) > > -- > Chris Waters | Pneumonoultra- osis is too long > [EMAIL PROTECTED] | microscopicsilico- to fit into a single > or [EMAIL PROTECTED] | volcaniconi- standalone haiku >
