On Wed, 20 Dec 2000, David Wright wrote: > Quoting Dwight Johnson ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): > > > These issues concern people who are _not_ beginners. Time is money and > > taking a lot of time to configure an application is wasteful, when an equal > > result can be achieved in much less time with Pine. > > As I said, if you're used to pine, just use the pine bindings, > which someone went to the trouble of writing. If you need the > exact location, it's /usr/share/doc/examples/Pine.rc . It was the great help features of Pine which are not developed in mutt which I was referring to when I said 'issues'. The bindings are not an issue.
> > Some years back, storage cost was an issue. But these days, when you can > > buy a 5Gb drive for $130, the expense of storing Pine is only $0.02. > > If Pine saved only a single $100 consulting hour in configuration time, the > > tradeoff would already be gigantic in Pine's favor. The advantage offered > > by mutt's smaller footprint is nill on any platform larger than a PDA or > > cellphone. > > Kindly desist from offering this sort of advice. I am not party to > institutional decisions. Oh, and read my signature. <duck> My condolences. I didn't realize you work at Stonehenge. :-) </duck> > > On the contrary, the power user does want these aids. The power user wants > > to make efficient use of his time by being able to quickly access help to > > execute commands that perhaps he uses only occasionally, like printing an > > e-mail or finding a particular e-mail by searching for a keyword, without > > having to search through a nearly endless alphabetical list of commands or > > waste brain synapses memorizing something he might do only once a week or > > less. > > It sounds as if you haven't noticed that / will search and highlight > in the help screen as well as elsewhere. No, I had not noticed that. I have not yet invested the requisite man-day studying the mutt documentation in order to notice that feature. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. > > Only in one respect, that I can see based on my brief exposure, is mutt > > better -- mutt is a better _threaded_ mail reader. It looks like a lot of > > effort has been put into mutt's threading features. People who want a > > threaded mail reader may well prefer mutt. Since I want to process my > > mail _strictly_ in arrival order, threaded is not a feature I would ever > > use. > > It beats me how you can deal with high volume lists (like this one) > without threading. If I am reading e-mail continually during my work throughout the day, what is optimal is vastly different from reading it perhaps only once or twice a day. In the latter case, the advantages of threaded mailreading are much greater. But then I think I would be at great risk of missing high priority personal mail unless it were filtered into its own folder. In fact, in that case, I think I would want a cron job to check the personal mail folder and command my computer to emit a beep at intervals to alert me that I have personal mail. My pattern of work _is_ changing as I no longer have a business I am glued to. But, to answer your question: when reading and answering e-mail was an integral and continual part of my work, it was no problem dealing with high volume lists without threading because I checked messages so often that I dispatched messages before threads built up. I do acknowledge that the threading and color enhanced features of mutt are really great and way ahead of what Pine has to offer. > > Pine's help and configuration systems are vastly superior to mutt -- making > > Pine much easier to learn and use on a daily basis -- I submit that these > > features are highly significant for 'power users' who value their time. > > Submit to your hearts content. These things are a matter of opinion, > religion, whatever... I see. Your opinions are a matter of fact, but mine are merely religion. > When I post help, I might post opinions with them, particularly > when solicited, as here. But I'm not interested in discussing > religious issues nor indulging in a flame war. Very well then. You get the last word. I am through. I will continue to try to learn and use Mutt as time permits. But when my time is important, I will be forced to continue to use Pine. Dwight
