Philip, et al -- ...and then Philip Mak said... % % On Mon, 31 Dec 2001, Benjamin Michotte wrote: % % > just to say that I finally win :) % > I convert 3 friends to use mutt and they're really happy now ;)
Yay! Good job :-) ... % I used mutt a few months ago but gave up on it because I couldn't figure % out how to do things that I could easily do with pine. ... % I think that mutt is a good e-mail client, but the default configuration % is sub-optimal (vim doesn't format paragraphs well by default, some of the % key bindings are counterintuitive IMHO, etc.). In order for a newer user % to get into mutt, he has to be able to use it how he wants. I agree with the final statement in this paragraph. May I humbly request that you take copious notes of everything that you've found challenging or lacking, particularly if you've found a workaround, so that you can document that for other new users. mutt is powerful. mutt is highly configurable. mutt is a precision tool, akin to a high-performance race car. It is not, by any means, a run-of-the-mill product like a basic automobile, and it doesn't try to be. In that sense, it's not surprising that the average, much less new, driver (er, user) has some difficulty fitting into the driver's seat (er, muttrc file) and adjusting the settings properly and then managing to just drive it around a closed track (er, send some email). With some training and practice, though, this same person can soon be flying around the track in record time, executing smooth passes and doing generally everything more quickly, more gracefully, and more easily than the competition (er, so the analogy gets a little stretched here; you get the idea). There is a mutt-newbie project at sourceforge, and Roman has a mutt HOWTO project going, and there are probably others. Many people have tried to get some basic, groundbreaking mutt documentation together to show new users the basics of whipping up an SMTP server, choosing an editor, using gpg or PGP, and so on. The biggest problem is that we experienced drivers have forgotten what it's like to touch the brake as carefully as possible and still draw a nosebleed against the steering wheel, even if we still have the bloody kleenex (er, excessive comments ;-) strewn around our car and its files. I agree that the best thing would probably be a "best-of" forum outlining how to do this and where to do that, organized for the newbie without any other confusing clutter but kept up to date and therefore also moderated somehow -- but who, even among us who really, really, really like mutt, has the time (and permanence) to commit to that? Thus we have multiple projects going on and nothing that's yet polished or complete enough for the users. P.S. to the developers -- If one of these projects *does* settle into stability, perhaps a big, blinking pointer to (if not even a snapshot copy of) it should be included in the distribution -- even though it's not something from the development group -- so that folks at least looking at the README will get a helpful pointer. % % My next mutt project: SSH-before-WWW (inspired by POP-before-SMTP). I have % been using ZMODEM to send attachments back to my desktop for % saving/displaying, but ZMODEM doesn't work ever since I started running I % mutt in screen. Instead of using ZMODEM, I'm going to put the files into a % directory on my web server; this directory will be protected such that % only IP addresses currently logged into my account can view it. Good idea. Make sure you send yourself a URL in mutt, too, so that you can line-click on it and paste it into your browser so that it's easy to load up the image; I have my faxes-by-email processed (TIFF -> JPG conversion and web page layout) by procmail at receipt time and generate a response to myself with the URL in it, for instance, but your script might instead simply spit out the detached attachment's URL on a blank line as part of the pipe when you run it... TIA & HTH & HAND & Happy Holidays to all :-D -- David T-G * It's easier to fight for one's principles (play) [EMAIL PROTECTED] * than to live up to them. -- fortune cookie (work) [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.justpickone.org/davidtg/ Shpx gur Pbzzhavpngvbaf Qrprapl Npg!
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