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From: grindef@chianti.cc.umich.edu (Wes Craig)
Newsgroups: comp.editors,comp.emacs,comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: Editor for mail
Keywords: mail editors emacs mh elm mts eMpTyS
Message-ID: <592@mailrus.cc.umich.edu>
Date: 27 Jul 88 20:10:53 GMT
References: <215@fed.FRB.GOV> <5455@ecsvax.uncecs.edu> <2945@utastro.UUCP> <11657@steinmetz.ge.com>
Sender: usenet@mailrus.cc.umich.edu
Reply-To: grindef@chianti.cc.umich.edu (Wes Craig)
Organization: Unix Project in Exile, University of Michigan
Lines: 69

>	... the
>	Michigan Terminal Systems operating system has an absolutely wonderful
>	mail system called $MESSAGESYSTEM.

Huh? Are you talking about the michigan terminal system (mts)
developed at the university of michigan computing center in Ann Arbor?

>	I have yet to find anything that
>	comes close in terms of functionality and ease of learning.

Of course it's easy to learn: things are always easy to learn when
there's only a very small number of things that you can do.

>	Things
>	like "retrieve outgoing status to=fred", if you want to see if fred
>	has read your mail yet, and the ability to modify or destroy messages
>	you have already posted, and being able to set notices that people see
>	as soon as they initiate a message to you, are very nice.

True, as you can in any megalithic system such as a mainframe.  But
these thing could also be done in a distributed fashion (and with a
better inteface).

>	(Of course,
>	you can abbreviate commands and make typos, and it will almost always
>	get it right.  Though if you spell "retrieve" wrong it tells you the
>	"I before E" rule and tsk tsks...)

Well, the one here doesn't do that, but I understand that it used to a
bit more friendly, in that way.

>	Clearly much of this doesn't work in a network environment,

Not so, but it's true that the MTS implementation of those features
won't work well in a networked environment. And one could only be
flamed a little in asking "If it doesn't work in a network, what's it
good for?" The fact is, it could be done in a network, (and there are
people working on doing it a network), but the $MESSAGESYSTEM writers
were too short sighted (or they just didn't care) to write code that
could be easily ported to a networked environment.

>	but the
>	command interface could,

How could you suggest such a thing?!

>	as could the userdirectory database, which
>	lets you mail to people by name (and tells you near-matches if you
>	spell a name wrong; "5 names almost matched 'Jim Elliot'. Do you mean
>	'Jim Elliott'?")

Maybe your version is a better implementation, but our's is not what
I'd call easy to use. Like the only way to stop one of those "Do you
mean `Jim Elliot'? " is to type "cancel" in its entirety. Granted,
tho, it would be nice if you could use soundex to send your mail.

> 	.     .    .	 .   .	. ... .	 .   .	  .    .     .	  .   .	  .  . ... . .
>
>	 Jim Elliott			   /	...!seismo!uunet!steinmetz!crd!elliott
>					  /	       userE2U7@rpitsmts.BITNET
>	 "Don't look, son, it's		 /	Jim_Elliott%mts@itsgw.rpi.edu [school]
>	  a secular humanist!"		/  (or)	    elliott@ge-crd.arpa	      [work]
>	 .     .    .	 .   .	. ... .	 .   .	  .    .     .	  .   .	  .  . ... . .

______________________________________________________________________
Wes Craig				grindef@chianti.cc.umich.edu
					Wes_Craig@{um,ub}.cc.umich.edu
					...!uunet!umix!grindef
______________________________________________________________________