Re: [Nmh-workers] nmh @ gsoc?

[bergman]

In the message dated: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:37:15 EST,
The pithy ruminations from Ken Hornstein on 
<Re: [Nmh-workers] nmh @ gsoc?> were:
=> >Why? nmh doesn't need any new features, and the code is stable and 
=> >portable.
=> >
=> >The best indicator that a chunk of code is mature is when it hasn't been 
=> >touched for five years. It ain't broke, so leave it alone.
=> 
=> Uuuhhh ... yeah, okay.  That is certainly ONE possible interpretation.
=> Another possible (and much more likely) interpretation: no one uses nmh
=> very much anymore, so no one cares about fixing/improving it.  I don't
=> know about you, but when I go to look at a software package and I see
=> the last new release was 5 years ago, my first thought isn't, "Oh, it's
=> perfect!  That's why they stopped developing it!"; it's "Oh, I guess
=> that project is dead".
=> 

        [SNIP!]
 
=> Here are some pie-in-the-sky things I would like:
=> 

I'll add my wish-list:

        + minor bug fixes (for example, the NAMESZ limit that affects
                scan listings)

        + improved MIME handling, particularly for replies

        + improved attachment handling (supression(?)
                of replies to messages with attachments)

        + threading. I do some threading with exmh, but that's kind of a hack.
                One idea would be to present "threads" through ordered sequence
                lists, rather than by re-numbering each message. This would
                multiple sorted views of a folder (ie., sorted by date, subject,
                sender, threaded, etc.) without the overhead of renumbering
                files.

        + masquerading: we've probably all got multiple email accounts ($WORK,
                personal, gmail, etc.). I like to use [ex|n]mh as a single
                interface, but I want composed mail and replies to reflect
                different accounts (identities) correctly. I've written a
                wrapper to "repl" for this, but that functionality should
                probably be within nmh, so that the actions that arise from
                selecting a persona are available to all programs that send
                mail (repl, comp, forw). For example, selecting a persona may
                alter some or all of:

                        From: address, Reply-To: address, Fcc folder, X-*
                        headers, signature lines, quoting style, even different
                        SMTP server[s]

The very brevity of my wish lists reflects the mature level of the nmh 
code...or just my personal ossification. :)

Thanks,

Mark