On Fri, 15 Mar 1996, Ingo Luetkebohle wrote:
On Thu, 14 Mar 1996, Nancy McGough wrote:
2] Unix users using any mail program that can access mbox or mh folders
(pine, elm, emacs mail mode, mail, mh, and more)
3] Windows, Macintosh, OS/2, Amiga, etc. users using a mail client
that can access multiple mail folders on a Unix server (probably
using IMAP)
Based on helpful comments from many of you, I'm going to update 3 to be:
3] Windows, Macintosh, OS/2, Amiga, etc. users whose mail is
delivered to a Unix server and who access their mail folder(s)
using either IMAP or POP
4] Users of "Internet boxes" that access their mail folder(s) on a
Unix server
The last three groups are dependent upon the first for some basic mailer
setup (e.g. installing procmail properly in the first place) which, at
least in my opinion, somewhat rules them out, at least if the book is ONLY
about procmail. I know how difficult it can be to have ones own
organization install procmail.
Yes, it's true that these last groups are dependent on system
administrators to install procmail, but I don't think this rules them out
of the audience. I actually think that the majority of the audience will
be people in these last three groups, i.e., users like me. But I don't
know... Out of curiosity, how many people on this list are system
administrators?
Since you didn't exactly specify what the book will be about, I'll take
the liberty to suggest some things which in my opinion are necessary to
get the aforementioned audience:
- interaction of procmail with the rest of the email 'machine' (e.g.
sendmail (complete reference about '.forward' files...))
- installing procmail in one's home-directory (and ONLY there)
- interaction of procmail and popclient (because I am using exactly this
combination)
Yes, all good suggestions. For the last one, interacting with a POP
client, I have a question for you: What types of things do you do with
procmail? Do you filter messages into different folders and, if so, is
your POP client able to access those folders?
Can you think of anyone else who would be in the audience? Do any of you
have a sense of the future of IMAP? If IMAP catches on, then the number
of people in category 3 and 4 could be quite large.
My few cents about IMAP: Being able to read mail only when the phone line
is up is a large disadvantage. IMAP is only practical (as far as I know,
that is) when you don't want to remove your mail from the remote host
which doesn't fit the large majority of PC users connected through a
I'm going to avoid a POP vs. IMAP discussion here but if anyone is
interested my views are pretty much aligned with Terry Gray's, which are
described here:
ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/imap/imap.vs.pop
Even though this mail may suggest the contrary, I am quite positive about
a procmail book, though ;-)
I'm glad to hear that!
Thanks for your input,
Nancy