Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!mucs!liv-cs!rkl
From: rkl@anduin.cs.liverpool.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Elm wishlist & Problems with Configure in HP-UX
Message-ID: <1990Sep11.094714.17198@anduin.cs.liverpool.ac.uk>
Date: 11 Sep 90 08:47:13 GMT
Organization: Computer Science, Liverpool University
Lines: 37

I hate to be a real bug-bear, cos I think Elm is really nice (honest), but
there's a couple of things (only two ?) that aren't quite right:

1. The 'lock' file created by Elm (usually /tmp/mbox.username) is a slight
   loophole. What if someone switches off their workstation (diskless I
   might add) whilst in the middle of Elm ? When they Elm again when they
   next login, it complains about the lock file and won't run. The user has
   to manually delete the lock file themselves and re-run.

   So what ? Well, /tmp is a+rw of course, so what's to stop someone else
   being a nuisance and creating a /tmp/mbox.username to annoy people ?
   And what if that /tmp/mbox.username is a directory ?

2. More importantly, I would really, really, really like the folder handling
   in Elm to use curses. Surely opendir/readdir/closeddir can be used to
   get a list of folders and then display them - then it's just a question
   of using the cursor keys to select the one you want to read. At the moment,
   a simple system("ls"); command to list folders (and then the user himself
   has to type the folder name) feels a little bit on the tacky side.

Oh, yes, I use Elm 2.3 PL6 on HP-UX 9000 Series 300 and 800 - the Configure
script gives me a 'd_flockon not found' warning during the 1001 Q&A session.
Further investigation reveals that the config.sh file created contains a
faulty line as follows (it's skipped anyway, so I wasn't too worried):

d_cuserid='undef'
d_flock='undef'
d_flockon               -> Truncated ? Should it be "d_flockonly='undef'" ?
tempnamc=''

Has anyone else with HP-UX machines had this problem ?

Richard K. Lloyd,       *** This is a MicroVAX II running VAX/VMS V5.3-1 ***
Computer Science Dept., * JANET     : RKL@UK.AC.LIV.CS.AND or              *
Liverpool University,   *             RKL@000010500211.FTP.MAIL            *
Merseyside, England,    * Internet  : RKL%and.cs.liv.ac.uk@cunyvm.cuny.edu *
Great Britain.          ***       Please note: New e-mail address !      ***