Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!ICS.UCI.EDU!psv%nada.kth.se
From: psv%nada.kth.se@ICS.UCI.EDU (Peter Svanberg)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.mh
Subject: Re: MH drawbacks for computer-unexperienced users
Message-ID: <8804252202.AA20406@nada.kth.se>
Date: 25 Apr 88 23:02:06 GMT
References: <8804241616.AA03021@linus.MENET>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 52

First of all: Did you send to psv%nada.kth.se@uunet.uu.net and something
somewhere changed it to psv@uunet.uu.net? I really don't see how this
last address could reach me! Try "psv@nada.kth.se" also, next time.

> It seems to me that you need to read the MH user's manual.

I have!

> MH provides 
> alot of great features, one of which is the fact that you do not have to 
> get into a mail program to look at messages - they are all accessable to 
> unix commands.  Though this may seem strange at first to those used to 
> using mail, I feel that it is one of the better features of mh.  

I think MH is very nice to use, and I have no problem with the no
special- program-feature. My and others experience, though, are that
people who are not computer-experienced find that unusual and strange.
They want a special "mail room" to enter, reducing the number of
possible commands. It is also more difficult to teach them how to get
specific help if you don't have a special program with a help command
in it (and perhaps recognition).  (And don't tell me that the manual
information is usable for those people!)

> As far as inc - why not take a look at the man page for mhook.  It
> explains a way to have sendmail use an mh program (slocal) to deliver
> mail automatically.

As I explained, I compared with some other systems. In none of those I
had the mentioned problems. Why should you have to make special
arrangements with strange ".forward"-files etc in MH? The user manual
I'm writing should be possible to use without too much special
arrangements on top of standard MH. (Besides this, aren't you losing
"You have mail"-messages when you use slocal?)

> for including a message in a composition use "comp -form formfile".

Yes, but I want a FILE of any sort, for example a source code.
(NOT containing mail headers!)

> Also, if there is more that you want to include try looking at the
> files replcomp, distcomp, components, and forwcomp.  All these are
> explained in the manual.

I know of them, too, be sure.


Well, I suppose one can say that MH is more for hackers than for
novice users.
---
psv@nada.kth.se			(should work!)	       Peter Svanberg
uunet!nada.kth.se!psv		(for lazy nodes...)    Dept of Num An & CS
psv%nada.kth.se@uunet.uu.net	(ARPA nodes)	       Royal Institute of Tech
						       Stockholm, SWEDEN