Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pasteur!ames!vsi1!wyse!mips!pmm
From: pmm@mips.COM (Paul M. Moriarty)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Re: Elm 2.2 miscellany
Message-ID: <17974@winchester.mips.COM>
Date: 23 Apr 89 17:32:11 GMT
References: <5191@nis.mn.org> <467@mjbtn.MFEE.TN.US> <14550@sequent.UUCP> <446@wubios.wustl.edu> <100281@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <5092@pbhyf.PacBell.COM> <1392@sialis.mn.org>
Reply-To: pmm@mips.COM (Paul M. Moriarty)
Followup-To: e-mail
Organization: MIPS Computer Systems, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 40

With all this discussion going on about changes to Elm, I finally feel I
have to add my $0.02 worth.

I'd like to thank the Elm developers for an excellent job with the 2.2
release. As one of the testers of this release, I can say that my questions
and problems were answered/addressed in a timely and professional manner by
those invloved. 

Now, as for the changes, I believe Syd has stated here that great attempts
were made to standardize the behaviour of Elm in this release. Whenever one
attempts such a thing, some changes must be made. I also recall Syd saying
something about not making significant changes to the look and feel of Elm
again in upcoming releases. That is enough said on that matter as far as I
am concerned.

To address the discussion concerning public discussion of changes to Elm that
are being made by the developers, I'd have to say that this is a bad idea
unless the changes are so major and have such great impact to warrant it. It
appears that Syd is trying to do a major release every six months. This would
be a major task even if all of the developers were in the same building, let
alone being spread out all over the world. The release process would take many
months longer were every proposed change discussed on the net.

If you really feel strongly about Elm and its future development, then join
the development team, either as a developer, tester or both.

If you really do not like the 2.2 release or feel that it is going to confuse
your user base then your choice is a simple one. Don't install it. Nobody is
forcing you. There are several Mail User Agents available today, simply pick
another.

Finally, these opinions are my own, not MIPS', nor the Elm development 
group's.



-- 
Paul M. Moriarty        pmm@mips.com          {ames,decwrl}!mips!pmm 
MIPS Computers Systems        
                           Not me baby, I'm too precious ....