Why was mail_bsd(1) changed?

[DanKarron at UCBVAX.BERKELEY.EDU]

I like the mailer, but I am used to it.

I think that we need more control over message header presentation.
Such options are a longer subject field, I don't need to know the character
count of a message, and the received date. I would rather know the send
date. I would like to see more settable .mailrc options, such as a way 
to automatically set the
showfrom option when reviewing saved outbound record'ed mail messages.

Also, all of the .mailrc options should be settable from the command line
option, so you can override your mailrc for special cases, situations,
customers, whatever.

A visual front end would be nice, and I would like to see a sendmail option
so you can send a paper letter (printed on letterhead, with an envelope, and
so on) with the inclusing of a special escape sequence, unknown computer,
special domain, or what ever.

We also need a way to scan subject header lines for literal and RE 
expressions. Also needed is a way to scan From and From: lines by
user, domain, uucp path, etc. I would also like to see utilities to
group mail by date send, date read, users from a domain, aliases,
etc.

I would like to also see the vacation automatic reply working, or a
automatic reply like "I am very busy, but I did get your mail, and I will
reply to it next morning" to let your corrospondants know that you are alive
but distracted.


>	(contact usenet at ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU if you have questions)
>Date: 2 Feb 91 21:08:24 GMT
>From: Vernon Schryver <ucbvax.berkeley.edu!sgi!vjs%rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com>
>Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA
>Subject: Re: Why was mail_bsd(1) changed?
>Message-Id: <83826 at sgi.sgi.com>
>References: <1991Jan24.185356.13375 at alias.uucp>, <83600 at sgi.sgi.com>, <1991Feb2.005029.19901 at cs.umn.edu>
>Sender: info-iris-request at BRL.MIL
>To: info-iris at BRL.MIL
>
>In article <1991Feb2.005029.19901 at cs.umn.edu>, slevy at poincare.geom.umn.edu (Stuart Levy) writes:
>> I'd like to second Mark Andrews' complaint.  Yes, it's reasonable
>> to have reply-to-all be non-default.  But if you were going
>> to make that change, it'd be better just to swap 'r' <-> 'R'.
>> We system administrators could then 'set replyall' in the systemwide Mail.rc
>> to exchange them back.  ...
>
>Well, the change was made in 1986 before we'd looked at the 4.3BSD Mail, so
>we missed 'set replyall'.  I recall that we argued about whether to just
>switch r & R, or to use a new command to "avoid confusion and calls to the
>Hotline."  I don't remember which side I argued, so feel free to blame me.
>I started the thing by borrowing the idea from a previous employer, but
>don't remember if they switched r&R, or did ra.  In either case, they're
>effectively out of business.  At this late date, SGI is stuck with ra, to
>avoid making important people unhappy, most existing customers.
>
>I think we should re-review the differences between our 4.2BSD+SGI Mail and
>4.3BSD Mail.  How about adding a string valued replyall variable which
>would select among the two 4.3BSD and the SGI [rR]* choices?
>
>Is anyone bugged by the many ~ commands Robert added?  I like them, and so
>hope not.
>
>
>Vernon Schryver, vjs at sgi.com
>
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