[Techtalk] What I did over the Christmas Holidays!

[David Merrill]

On Sat, Dec 29, 2001 at 07:04:57AM -0500, Caitlyn Martin wrote:
> Hi, David, and everyone else,
> > 
> > Several of us here use mutt and love it. I use plenty of gui tools,
> > but no email client comes close to mutt+procmail. I'll be glad to help
> > you debug if you decide to try it. Don't expect pretty, expect
> > powerful. Expect a learning curve. Expect it to be worth it.
> 
> With all due respect, what does mutt (with procmail) do that kmail
> doesn't do?  Also, can mutt handle multilingual e-mail, including mail I
> receive in Hebrew that requires bidirectional support to display
> properly?  kmail does (it incorporates fribidi, I believe), and so far
> it's the only client I've seen that does.

No, it doesn't handle Hebrew, Arabic, or other semitic or asian
languages. It is not pretty, either. It is also not intuitive. When
you start using it, the first thing you'd better do is print out the
hotkey list and tape it by your computer.

Mutt is all about mail handling and customization for people with serious
mail to work through. Intelligent handling of mailing lists is a biggie if
you're on a lot of them. I have mine put mail To: my mom into their own
folder, along with her messages to me.

I customize my .sig through a script using my own fortune files, and
use a different script based on the recipient. I only use my pagan
quotes fortune file on my pagan list, for example.

I have special people's mail highlighted in different colors, so their
mail stands out.

Possibly the gui muas have gotten this kind of functionality in by
now. I haven't looked at them in over a year.

I first started using mutt because I had to read mail on a remote
machine. I wanted to check my mail at home from my office. Webmail was
overkill. So I used mutt, and it really grew on me.

-- 
David C. Merrill                         http://www.lupercalia.net
Linux Documentation Project                   david at lupercalia.net
Collection Editor & Coordinator            http://www.linuxdoc.org

How dare the government intervene to stifle innovation in the computer
industry! That's Microsoft's job, dammit.
	--MacAddict