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From: jeffo@mrcnext.uiuc.edu (Jeffrey B Nicholson)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Complex and alias addressing on same line - coming in an ELM update?
Summary: Will the ability to do "hawaii = the twins = joe@cs.rit.edu,maoa" come?
Keywords: complex simple addressing future elm
Message-ID: <jeffo.668402748@mrcnext>
Date: 8 Mar 91 03:25:48 GMT
Sender: usenet@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Reply-To: jeffo@uiuc.edu
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 44


Will the ability to do "hawaii = the twins = joe@cs.rit.edu,maoa" come in the
next release of ELM?  I would think that all that is required is two scans of
the alias listing.  In the alias-guide there is this example:

   hawaii = The Hawaiian Twins = joe@cs.rit.edu, maoa 
   maoa   = Maoa Lichtenski Jr = maoa@Hawaii.cs.uh.edu

Aside from the maoa being defined after the hawaii (I see why that is a problem)
why must the hawaii line be bad?  What's so bad about having both a complex
address and an alias defined in the same alias such as the 'hawaii' line?

Think about the case where the two lines are reversed:

   maoa   = Maoa Lichtenski Jr = maoa@Hawaii.cs.uh.edu
   hawaii = The Hawaiian Twins = joe@cs.rit.edu, maoa

To make this work, all you'd have to do is modify the existing alias expansion
technique a little by just skipping names that can't be expanded.  Here,
"joe@cs.rit.edu" can't be expanded (there is no such alias defined), so just
move on to the next name in line (skip to the comma and do the rule again).

This is a pretty nice way to define aliases, IMHO, and avoids making silly
little aliases such as:

   joe    = Joe Lichtenski     = joe@cs.rit.edu

just for the purpose of getting the 'hawaii' alias to work (defined as
joe,maoa).  Perhaps the user has another use for the alias 'joe'?  Maybe
"joe@cs.rit.edu" will never get any mail from the user without 'maoa' getting
the same mail?

Anyways, will we be able to do these kind of definitions in an upcoming ELM
release?  If so, when?  If not, why not?

Jeff
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