MH cleanup and coordination
David Paigen
The recent traffic here suggests that there is a lot of work
people would like to see done to MH, and I also feel that there
are a number of people who would like to be able to contribute
to the MH effort.
However, it seems that over the last year or two the MH team's
energy or interest has declined. I don't even know who is
"officially" involved. Who is the coordinator? Jerry and Bill,
it would seem, have more than a casual connection, but who else?
What is the current connection between UCI and MH? Is the current
coordinator still interested in leading MH development? There
is a lot of talent and interest out here that isn't being utilized.
I have just gone back through the last couple month's worth of
mail and compiled a list of the things that have been suggested
as improvements to MH. I have seperated them into three catagories,
"core", "distribution", and "new functionality" (listed below).
I suggest that the next version of MH incorporate the "core" and
"distribution" catagories and the version after that should work
on new functionality. There is enough here to go to 7.0, I should
think.
-David Paigen
pai...@forte.org
CORE
Remove FILE internal dependancies and use straight stdio functions
(m...@eterna.com.au suggests using sfio. What's sfio?)
Remove curses internal dependancies from vmh. Also make vmh portable
between BSD and SYS V curses
Make MH code POSIX compliant
Reduce MH->MTA complexity, offer fewer choices, let MTA do more work.
DISTRIBUTION
Have MH use Configure instead of mhconfig
Cleanup Makefiles (.so files, rm -f, suggested by aa...@sigma.veritas.com)
Remove unneeded items from distribution:
bboards (?)
less
compress
patch
mh-e
multi-media directory under /miscellany
Also, b...@ncsu.edu suggests removing the following:
mhe == Didn't this preceed mh-e, which has surpassed it?
libndir == Does anyone still need this directory name handling kludge? Can't
we provide a pointer for those few sites that do?
mtrenv == While I love the idea of packaging a sample environment, this one is
from MH 6.5, can we get a newer one from Marshall, or can we get net
donations? John, how about jrenv? :)
netnews == A nice idea, posting to news/reading news with MH. If we keep this,
lets see if there is newer stuff. I personally think we should add
notes to the README that the FAQ for most newsreaders will tell you
how to wire in your favorite mailer.
rcvtrip == Hasn't this trip/vacation program been superceeded by newer one shot
programs, or at least more automated?
sendmail == This contains some mmdfII(?) spooler. I have no idea what this is.
sortf == Hasn't this file sorting tool been superceed by sortm?
tools == This non-documented comparison set of tools seems unnecessary.
NEW FUNCTIONALITY
Allow MH to handle 8-bit messages
Have MH lock all sensitive files (e.g. dot files in folders)
Better MIME handling (composition, display, maybe use .mailcap?)
Format strings for forw and comp
Change format string syntax to be human readable (or provide a compiler)
Jerry Peek
} Jerry and Bill,
} it would seem, have more than a casual connection, but who else?
My only connection to UCI and MH is that I wrote a book about MH --
and I've gotten to know some folks at UCI. But I don't work for them,
speak for them, etc. My guess -- and this is just a guess -- is that the
problem isn't a lack of interest, it's a lack of time and staff at UCI.
I'm glad you're stirring the pot, David. It would be good to get more
MH development going... the question is who, and how. A separate
nmh-workers group got started last fall, but I think it stalled.
Other ideas, folks?
--Jerry, je...@ora.com