mail packages for UNIX
Jay Roth
jayr at well.UUCP
Mon Feb 3 02:51:33 AEST 1986
Here's a summary of the responses I got about good mail packages for UNIX.
A hearty "thanks" to all who replied.
---------
From: lll-crg!seismo!harvard!bu-cs!bzs (Barry Shein)
You might consider playing with GnuEmacs (the editor) and
its full-screen RMAIL and SENDMAIL modes (also a full-screen readnews)
but you have to have enough machine (and probably 4.2bsd tho the SYSV
port is imminent.) It's free source code and probably an excellent
start on customizing an interface (front ends like mail are all written
in EMACS' lisp, easy to play around with once you get started.)
-Barry Shein, Boston University
---------
From: hplabs!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwrba!ries
In the public domain area, try the "message handler" MH package
(origionally developed by Rand Corp.) being supported/developed
at the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT IRVINE. Cost of a tape is
$50. We use it here.
Some third party vendors, like ALTOS, have their own friendly
front-ends to mail. ALTOS calls theirs Altos Executive Mail.
Marc Ries (TRW Operations and Support Group)
--------
From: Bob Paver <hplabs!pyramid!ut-sally!mcc-db2!paver at milano>
Dave Kashtan at SRI has ported MM from TOPS-20 to Unix. MM
has a nice interface and lots of features. I don't know what
the plans are for distribution, whether they will sell it,
license it or what.
His ARPA mail address is kashtan at sri-iu. I don't know what
his UUCP address is, if any.
Bob Paver ----> paver at mcc.arpa OR sally!im4u!milano!paver
Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp (MCC)
9430 Research Blvd
Austin, Texas 78759
(512) 834-3316
----------
From: icca (Guy Scharf)
System V has a new mail package called 'mailx'. It has LOTS more options.
I haven't used it myself (yet), so don't know whether it is any
friendlier. Certainly the manual is the usual Unix hieroglyphics.
There is also a package called, I think, "AT&T Mail". It is supposed to
be a user-friendly package for System V. I have seen it discussed in the
trade press. The discussions have been along the line of "is it released
or not", "what IS AT&T going to do", etc.
AT&T has split up Unix into several parts on the 7300 and 3B1 series machines.
One of those parts is "Unix Electronic Mail". I don't know what is in it.
The old familiar 'mail' is in the basic Unix system, so that is not what is
there.
Guy
------
From: hplabs!sdcrdcf!smeagol!kwan (Richard Kwan)
Depending on your time and energy, you might try getting "mh"
(Mail Handler) from the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA.
It ain't perfect, but I recall it was still better than anything
else available at the time (about 2 years ago).
The last I heard, "mh" and the RAND editor ("ned" or "e17"?) were
being bundled into a single package, and being released into the public
domain. However, since the sources are quite large, they probably never
hit the net. The cost for a 1/2" tape from RAND was on the order
of $350-450.
Sorry I don't have more specifics of the address or who to contact.
If you are still interested, I can try to get them.
Rick Kwan
JPL Spacecraft Data Systems
-------
From: lll-crg!seismo!hadron!jsdy (Joseph S. D. Yao)
snd/msg, hermes, mailx (SysV version of Mail), Mail, ms, mh, apt,
smsg/rmsg (TOFACS/TAOS/Office Power screen-oriented snd/msg), and all
those "integrated office system"s out there, not to mention the mail
version of whatever your favourite news program is.
Joe Yao hadron!jsdy at seismo.{CSS.GOV,ARPA,UUCP}
--
From: Christer Lindh <lll-crg!seismo!enea!sems!clindh>
Check out with ROOT Software (in England, perhaps they are in US too).
They have a package called ROOT Mail that is VERY userfriendly,
it has menues, helptexts and seems to be very easy to use. It uses
the standard UNIX Mail in the bottom.
They've also got other products for UNIX, such as ROOT Telex and
ROOT Map. ROOT Telex sends and receives telex. An incoming telex
is distributed via mail to right person. ROOT Map is a menu-shell
with helptexts.
These products doesn't require any special terminal. I don't know
if it's running on BSD UNIX, but it shure does run on Sys III, V and
UniPlus.
You can reach ROOT in London at;
ROOT Computers Limited
Saunderson House
Hayne Street
London EC1A 9HH
Telephone: +44 1 726 6501
Telex: 894519
UUCP: ...ukc!root44!mkt (Marketing)
or ...ukc!root44!john (John Stewart)
---------------
Path: well!ptsfa!qantel!lll-crg!ucdavis!ucbvax!decvax!decwrl!glacier!diablo!jfinger
David Kashtan at SRI has been developing a Unix MM program with TOPS-20
COMND JSYS-like command recognition, help facilities. I have used it at a
test site and have thoroughly enjoyed using it rather than the various Unix
mail programs I have tried to date.
He is Kashtan at SRI-IU.ARPA. I do not have his phone number and NICNAME is down,
but if you call (415) 326-6200 the operator will put you through to him.
I doubt that they are selling ti yet, but rather, it is being tested at a few
places now. There are still hunks of it missing, but what is there seems
quite good to me.
Good Luck,
-- Jeff Finger --
-------
>From hplabs!topaz!seismo!ATHENA.MIT.EDU!boris Wed Jan 15 23:53:51 1986
The address I have is:
Rand Corp.
1700 Main St.
Santa Monica, CA 90406
213-399-0568 x7463
In a document called "MH, A Mail Handling System For UNIX."
Here is the manual page: (Note: I removed all but page 1. Jay)
MH(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual MH(1)
NAME
mh - Message Handler
SYNOPSIS
any MH command
DESCRIPTION
MH is the name of a powerful message handling system.
Rather then being a single comprehensive program, MH con-
sists of a collection of fairly simple single-purpose pro-
grams to send, receive, save, and retrieve messages. The
user should refer to the MH User's Manual and the pages for
the MH programs in the Unix Programmers Manual.
Unlike mail, the standard UNIX mail user interface program,
MH is not a closed system which must be explicitly run, then
exited when you wish to return to the shell. You may freely
intersperse MH commands with other shell commands, allowing
you to read and answer your mail while you have (for exam-
ple) a compilation running, or search for a file or run pro-
grams as needed to find the answer to someone's question
before answering their mail.
The rest of this manual entry is a quick tutorial which will
teach you the basics of MH. You should read the manual
entries for the individual programs for complete documenta-
tion.
To get started using MH, put the directory /usr/new/mh.6/bin
on your $PATH. This is best done in one of the files: .pro-
file, .login, or .cshrc in your home directory. (Check the
manual entry for the shell you use, in case you don't know
how to do this.) Run the inc command. If you've never used
MH before, it will create the necessary default files and
directories after asking you if you wish it to do so.
inc moves mail from your system maildrop into your MH
`+inbox' folder, breaking it up into separate files and con-
verting it to MH format as it goes. It prints one line for
each message it processes, containing the from field, the
subject field and as much of the first line of the message
as will fit. It leaves the first message it processes as
your current message. You'll need to run inc each time you
wish to incorporate new mail into your MH file.
scan prints a list of the messages in your current folder.
The commands: show, next, and prev are used to read specific
messages from the current folder. show displays the current
message, or a specific message, which may be specified by
its number, which you pass as an argument to show. next and
prev display, respectively, the message numerically after or
[mh.6] 2 MH
MH(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual MH(1)
before the current message. In all cases, the message
displayed becomes the current message. If there is no
current message, show may be called with an argument, or
next may be used to advance to the first message.
rmm (remove message) deletes the current message. It may be
called with message numbers passed as arguments, to delete
specific messages.
repl is used to respond to the current message (by default).
It places you in the editor with a prototype response form.
While you're in the editor, you may peruse the item you're
responding to by reading the file @. After completing your
response, type l to review it, or s to send it.
comp allows you to compose a message by putting you in the
editor on a prototype message form, and then lets you send
it.
All the MH commands may be run with the single argument:
`-help', which causes them to print a list of the arguments
they may be invoked with.
Commands which take a message number as an argument (scan,
show, repl, ...) also take one of the words: first, prev,
cur, next, or last to indicate (respectively) the first,
previous, current, next, or last message in the current
folder (assuming they are defined).
Commands which take a range of message numbers (rmm, scan,
show, ...) also take any of the abbreviations:
<num1>-<num2> - Indicates all messages in the range <num1>
to <num2>, inclusive. The range must be nonempty.
<num>:+N
<num>:-N - Up to N messages beginning with (or ending
with) message num. Num may be any of the pre-defined
symbols: first, prev, cur, next or last.
first:N
prev:N
next:N
last:N - The first, previous, next or last N messages, if
they exist.
There are many other possibilities such as creating multiple
folders for different topics, and automatically refiling
messages according to subject, source, destination, or con-
tent. These are beyond the scope of this manual entry.
Following is a list of all the MH commands:
MH is pretty nice, but I use RMAIL in gnu emacs myself.
Boris
-------
>From hplabs!hpfcdc!hpfcla!hpcnof!veeger!hpcnou!dat Thu Jan 16 20:33:18 1986
Enclosed is the Users Guide for the Msg Mail System. Currently
I plan on offering it for official release in about two weeks at the
price of:
Functional demo - $50 (with your own media)
Working system - $250 (with your own media)
Entire system + source - $500 (with your own media)
The media cost, a reel-to-reel, will be a function of the local
cost should you choose not to include your own.
If you're interested in obtaining any of the above copies after
having read the documentation (and I think you will be) please
drop me another note including what type of system you're
runnning on.
Of course, if you find this mailer to be the exceptional value
and excellent product that I believe it is, please feel free to
refer other customers! I'll probably give a $25 dollar referral
fee for each customer that says they're referred by an existing
customer.
Further note: This is all on the up-and-up with regards to my current
employment at HP - in fact the two week delay in releasing the
software is to ensure that the agreement that HP and I are working
out will be signed.
If you need it, my work address and phone number are:
Dave Taylor
HP - CNO - Mailstop 102
3404 Harmony Road
Fort Collins CO
80525
(303) 229-2419
-- Dave Taylor
(Dave sent me the entire manual. If anyone would like a copy of it,
please mail me, and I'll be happy to send it out. I just didn't want to
clutter up this summary file).
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