cczdao@mips.nott.ac.uk (David Osborne) (04/20/91)
In article <13672.671898419@uk.ac.liv.uxb> qq11@uxb.liverpool.ac.UK (Alan Thew) writes: >I know Xmh is now the "thing" but this would give elm a good "run for >it's money" since MH is always there and I can use the un*x interface >or X as well. I find I still need to use a terminal interface, despite using xmh regularly, because my xmh doesn't support hierarchical mail folders, and I often need to refile messages into such folders. For the ones I use most often, I created symbolic links with similar names, so I can get at them from xmh, so +uktex/q has a symlink called ~/Mail/uktex-q, but it's a nuisance having to do this. Maybe a later version of xmh supports nested folders? Mine says it's Athena version 2.3.1 (supplied in Mips RiscOS 4.51). --dave David Osborne, Cripps Computing Centre, University of Nottingham Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK -- David Osborne
ziegast@ENG.UMD.EDU (Eric Ziegast) (04/21/91)
David Osborne writes: >qq11@uxb.liverpool.ac.UK (Alan Thew) writes: >>I know Xmh is now the "thing" but this would give elm a good "run for >>it's money" since MH is always there and I can use the un*x interface >>or X as well. > >I find I still need to use a terminal interface, despite using xmh >regularly, because my xmh doesn't support hierarchical mail folders, >and I often need to refile messages into such folders. > >Maybe a later version of xmh supports nested folders? Mine says it's >Athena version 2.3.1 (supplied in Mips RiscOS 4.51). I use xmh only occasionally when I want to go through lots of mail in a folder quickly. Though on a daily basis, I find the command line to be more practicle. Several reasons: 1. XMH has lots of overhead. If I want to read one message or just several recent messages, all I have to do is something like: scan +staff last:10 show last:2 If I started XMH, I'd have to wait for it to rescan through all of my folders before I can do anything. 2. The editor is more intelligent. The Athena text widget is not an ideal text editor. Using VI or Emacs for an "Editor:" is much better. 3. XMH doesn't handle any of the .mh_profile aliased commands. I frequently use "dcomp" (linked to comp) to use another components file for a mailing list. There is no dcomp button, nor do I know a way to make one. In my .mh_profile dcomp is: dcomp: -form dcomponents In fact, unless you get that modified version that someone talked about, you can't use anything but the standard MH commands. 4. You can't use filters or other neat commands with your MH commands. I find I much easier to use scan +staff | fgrep JoeUser than scrolling through a long list of messages or fumbling with the "Sequence" menu. For beginners, xmh is great. But the expert-friendly CLI commands become even more friendly after you use them alot. It's the same reason some people prefer vi over xedit. You can do more, and if you're good at it, you can do it faster too. Just my 5 cents. (inflation :-) ________________________________________________________________________ Eric W. Ziegast, University of Merryland, Engineering Computing Services ziegast@eng.umd.edu - Eric@(301.405.3689)
jerry@ORA.ORA.COM (Jerry Peek) (04/22/91)
In message <1991Apr19.183815.27525@cs.nott.ac.uk>, David Osborne wrote: > Maybe a later version of xmh supports nested folders? Mine says it's > Athena version 2.3.1 (supplied in Mips RiscOS 4.51). The xmh with R4 of the X Window System supports one level of subfolders. Point to a folder button -- if that folder has subfolders, a menu with the subfolder names will drop down. It still ignores sub-subfolders, though. --Jerry Peek, jerry@ora.com or uunet!ora!jerry