Re: Emacs for email: Rmail v VM v Gnus

[Bill Wohler]

Jason Earl <jearl@notengoamigos.org> writes:

> On Thu, Aug 02 2012, James Freer wrote:
>
>> On 31 July 2012 06:45, Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com> wrote:
>>> James Freer <jessejazza@gmail.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> I'd be grateful if someone could put me right on setting up Rmail,
>>>> and perhaps if someone has experimented with all three give their
>>>> feedback. Basically i want to try each and decide which i'd prefer.
>>>> Starting to use emacs as my editor it seems appropriate to use a
>>>> mail client within it.
>>>
>>> I use fetchmail, procmail, MH-E.
>>>
>>> MH-E documentation is in info or in
>>> http://mh-e.sourceforge.net/manual/html/.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com> aka <Bill.Wohler@nasa.gov>
>>
>> I appreciate your replies but i haven't got far trying them out as i'm
>> having the central heating done and a number of domestic stuff.
>>
>> I would be grateful if someone could clarify a few points - vm seems
>> to happlily install on emacs 23 [i'm just experimenting at present
>> before i upgrade to xubuntu 12.04 which has emacs 24].  - Gnus wants
>> to uninstall emacs 23 and install emacs 22 as does mh-e.  - wl ok on
>> emacs 23
>
> Gnus is included in Emacs 23.  My guess is that your packaging system is
> downgrading Emacs so that it can install its own copy of Gnus.  The
> version of Gnus that comes with Emacs 23 is probably what you want.
> Unless, of course, you want to use the newly release Emacs 24.

Ditto for MH-E. Both Emacs 23 and 24 come with the most recent version
of MH-E, I believe.

I take it you're not using Debian; MH-E in squeeze depends on emacs23 |
emacsen.

>
>> Is vm revised more than Gnus and mh-e? My compiling efforts weren't so
>> hot last time i tried so i'd prefer to stay with what's in the repos.
>> If these apps are more feature rich why does Rmail remain as the
>> default mail reader?
>
> If you want something that is easy to install then Gnus has the
> advantage of coming pre-installed on recent copies of GNU Emacs.  The
> problem with Gnus (if there is a problem) is that it is so ridiculously
> flexible that it can be difficult to configure.
>
> Personally, I think that it is worth the effort, but not everyone feels
> the same way.
>
> Jason
>

-- 
Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com> aka <Bill.Wohler@nasa.gov>
http://www.newt.com/wohler/
GnuPG ID:610BD9AD