tlug: Andrew's mail question

[Craig Oda <craig@example.com>]

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tlug note from Craig Oda <craig@example.com>
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Forwarded again.

> 
> - --------------------------------------------------------
> tlug note from "Andrew S. Howell" <andy@example.com>
> - --------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Can anyone recomend an email package to use with emacs that supports
> Japanese and Mime?
> 
> I been using mh-mail and its companion in emacs for a long time. It is
> suppposed to work with Japanese (patched), but I've gotten it to
> work. At any rate, mh-mail has a number of weak points:
> 
> 	File-per-message wastes disk space
> 	Very slow when folder contain 100+ messages
> 	Can't see at a glance, number of unread messages in a folder
> 
> For emaces, I've been using 19.33g mule. I've been waiting 20 to come
> out, which includes mule support. 
> 
> Whatever route I go, I want something text based, as I login from home
> a lot to read mail. Although, if I had IMAP capable mail agent, I
> guess I could download my messages to home. I'm not too sure how this
> works. Anyone have experience with IMAP? I seem to remember seeing
> something on it here....

Andrew,
I used to use mh-mail within mule/emacs.  I made the switch to
Pine in order to use IMAP.  I now use Pine with IMAP both in the
office and at home.  Pine has decent MIME support and I can
view gif and jpeg images without too many problems.  It uses
an attachment format.  I set the default editor to emacs/mule. So
I can input Japanese and quote Kanji fine.

Here is my pine rc file.  This is archived at
http://twics.com/~craig/linux-nihongo/mail/



# Sets domain part of From: and local addresses in outgoing mail.
user-domain=twics.com

# List of SMTP servers for sending mail. If blank: Unix Pine uses sendmail.
smtp-server=mail.twics.com
# Path of (local or remote) INBOX, e.g. ={mail.somewhere.edu}inbox
# Normal Unix default is the local INBOX (usually /usr/spool/mail/$USER).
inbox-path={beehive.twics.com}/users/craig/.mail

###################### Collections, Folders, and Files #####################

# List of incoming msg folders besides INBOX, e.g. ={host2}inbox, {host3}inbox
# Syntax: optnl-label {optnl-imap-host-name}folder-path
incoming-folders={beehive.twics.com}mail/[]

# List of directories where saved-message folders may be. First one is
# the default for Saves. Example: Main {host1}mail/[], Desktop mail\[]
# Syntax: optnl-label {optnl-imap-hostname}optnl-directory-path[]
folder-collections={beehive.twics.com}mail/[]

# Specifies the program invoked by ^_ in the Composer,
# or the "enable-alternate-editor-implicitly" feature.
editor=/usr/local/bin/mule -nw

# Program to view images (e.g. GIF or TIFF attachments).
image-viewer=xv


-----

A couple of things to look for.  I've set xv as my image viewer. 
I've started mule in the same kterm that pine is in with the -nw
no window option.   Your settings will be different for 
inbox paths.  We spool our mail in the users home directory in
a file called .mail.  

I store all files on the central server and use procmail to
pre-sort incoming mail for me.  Then, from the office, home,
or anywhere else in the world, I get my mail with IMAP.

Here is a look at my .mailcap which calls up some other applications
depending on what type of mail I have.

audio/*; play %s
audio/x-pn-realaudio; raplayer %s
video/mpeg; xanim %s
video/*;        /usr/X11R6/bin/xanim +v -Cn %s 
application/x-vrml; /usr/local/bin/vrweb %s
application/pdf; /usr/local/Acrobat3/bin/acroread %s
application/ps;  /usr/bin/ghostview %s
#mailcap entry added by Netscape Helper
application/x-dvi;/usr/bin/xdvi %s
text/html;/usr/local/bin/netscape %s


I read my mail as a normal user with not too many privileges.  If
you execute mime applications automatically, I recommend that you
avoid reading mail as root.


Also, since all my writing is done in mule, I can run trans and
trans.el on the kanji to get the proper readings.

---------------------------------

As far as running a lisp package with the emacs "operating system"
environment, the best I found was mh-emacs.  However, if there is
a better alternative to running emacs within Pine, I would be
interested in it.  The one thing that I don't like about Pine is
that the commands are not as integrated with something like
gnus which I use to read my news.

Regards,
Craig
 


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