Re: lynx-dev lynx: are you getting spam like this one?:

[Heather Stern]

I ate the fortune cookie first, then read what 
  DC == David Combs 
  DW == David Woolley
wrote:
DW> And is there a way in unix mail (or other program) to
DW> interactively show all that stuff that maybe SHOULD be
DW> supressed normally?

[snip]

DC> Maybe I'm using the wrong mail program.  I'm using plain
DC> old "mail", via ".mailrc", etc.
> 
DC> I know NOTHING about mail-sending, elm, pine, etc.
> 
DC> O'Reilly has a book (thick!) "Sendmail".  Does that discuss
DC> this stuff?  Is what is in that book also apply to elm, pine,
DC> etc?  Again, I know NOTHING -- I learned "mail" back in
DC> 1986 when I got a sun3, have learned nothing new since then
DC> (about mail!).

The short form is no, it doesn't.

The O'Reilly sendmail book is about the transport agent, not about mail 
user agents.  It uses the analogy of the MTA (transport) being the postal 
service, starting with the postman who picks up your mail, and the MUA 
(user agent) being the pen and paper you use to write the letter and the 
envelope you seal it into.  (In my opinion the analogy is broken, *you* 
are the user agent;  the ink on the paper are the bits that are your 
actual letter, but *you* write it.)  It spends less than a page out of
c. 750 pages on this, and gets down to nitty grittys that most postal
staff don't want to know either.  But it is worth every penny if you are
postmaster@ some large company, or a medium and growing one.

DC> I like "mail" just fine; easy to use, dot-files are all ascii,
DC> is for unix, not pc windows etc, just dandy.  But doesn't handle
DC> attachments eg mime etc.

elm handles attachments with aid of a package called metamail.  I don't
know how pine does it (probably the same -- but I despise pine's 
interface;  if you like fullscreen menus, you might actually like it).
Basically this package decides what application to use to present non-text
portions of mail.  Possibly you can tell mail to use metamail as well.

DC> I recall from the early 80's something called mm, with 
DC> about 10,000 commands and options.  Never used it.

Hadn't heard of it, sorry.

DC> Am using a shell account on netcom.  Any suggestions, and why?

I also have a shell account on netcom -- they have elm available there.
All their basic shell commands are very old and haven't been upgraded in
a long time.  (ex: their lynx is from the stone ages -- 2.3.7 BETA)

Ob lynx: if someone wants a historical copy of lynx 2.3.7 Beta for SunOS
         you know where to get one.

As a generic recommendation, if NUGLOPS (netcom users group um er uhh
something-r-other ... I love acronyms) has an updated binary in: 

        /usr/local/nuglops/bin

...then by all means use it.  Add it to your path before the standard 
directories.  You will *not* be sorry.  (ex: the nuglops gang have
lynx 2.7.2 -- much better!)  Also if it's your only account join the
netnews group for nuglops (I don't recall it offhand, sorry, but its a 
netcom-local group).

As a specific, if someone sends you an image or sound file you're going 
to end up downloading it and displaying it on your local system... after 
you uudecode or unMIME it.  The best you could really do at netcom, is if
you also own web space there, to decode it and move it into your web space
using a script.  To do this you would probably:
        1. create or tweak your .forward file to run all messages through
           procmail.
        2. have some supporting scripts decode, deMIME and move as
           necessary -- let procmail create a plaintext "you have a
           MIME application/jpeg in mydir/mywebspace/filename.jpg" message 
           to let you know about its success.
        3. procmail will pass all uncaptured mail to your normal spool,
           which you can continue to read with mail.

This does not really change what I said - you will just download and 
display it with your web browser later.  Could even be lynx with zgv as
helper app for graphics :D

DC> Thanks.
> 
DC> (I know this is off subject, but you guys seem to know lots
DC> about all this stuff.)

If you want to keep talking about mail agents, I'll be glad to chat with
you off the list.  I favor elm, and my hubby uses MH-E, but we experimented
with a handful before we settled on these.  I'll go back to lurking now ;)

  . | .   Heather Stern                  |         address@hidden
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