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Re: Using R-mail in Emacs
From: |
Emanuel Berg |
Subject: |
Re: Using R-mail in Emacs |
Date: |
Sat, 15 Sep 2018 18:43:53 +0200 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.4 (gnu/linux) |
> Gnus has several back ends for mail:
>
>
> https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/gnus/Comparing-Mail-Back-Ends.html
Ha! Rmail is mentioned in that file, which is
part of Gnus' documentation.
It seems Rmail first used the equivalent of the
Gnus nnbabyl back end (Babyl) and then, i.e.
now, uses the equivalent of the Gnus nnmbox
back end, mbox (or if you prefer it, the other
way around, because Babyl and mbox were there
before Gnus).
OK, so RMS wrote Rmail! I suppose this partly
explains the wierd quote that "Rmail is the
primary Emacs mail-reader." [1]
Anyway:
nnbabyl
Once upon a time, there was the DEC-10 and
DEC-20, running operating systems called
TOPS and related things, and the usual
(only?) mail reading environment was
a thing called Babyl. I don't know what
format was used for mail landing on the
system, but Babyl had its own internal
format to which mail was converted,
primarily involving creating
a spool-file-like entity with a scheme for
inserting Babyl-specific headers and status
bits above the top of each message in the
file. Rmail was Emacs's first mail reader,
it was written by Richard Stallman, and
Stallman came out of that TOPS/Babyl
environment, so he wrote Rmail to
understand the mail files folks already had
in existence. Gnus (and VM, for that
matter) continue to support this format
because it's perceived as having some good
qualities in those mailer-specific
headers/status bits stuff. Rmail itself
still exists as well, of course, and is
still maintained within Emacs. Since Emacs
23, it uses standard mbox format rather
than Babyl.
Both of the above forms leave your mail in
a single file on your file system, and they
must parse that entire file each time you
take a look at your mail. [2]
[1] http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2004-09/msg00328.html
[2]
https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/gnus/Comparing-Mail-Back-Ends.html
--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, (continued)
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Eli Zaretskii, 2018/09/14
- Message not available
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Emanuel Berg, 2018/09/14
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Eli Zaretskii, 2018/09/14
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Eric S Fraga, 2018/09/14
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Eric S Fraga, 2018/09/14
- Message not available
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Emanuel Berg, 2018/09/14
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Eli Zaretskii, 2018/09/14
- Message not available
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Emanuel Berg, 2018/09/14
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Eli Zaretskii, 2018/09/15
- Message not available
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Emanuel Berg, 2018/09/15
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs,
Emanuel Berg <=
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Emanuel Berg, 2018/09/15
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Bob Proulx, 2018/09/20
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Bob Newell, 2018/09/20
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Bob Proulx, 2018/09/25
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Eric Abrahamsen, 2018/09/26
- Message not available
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Emanuel Berg, 2018/09/21
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Eli Zaretskii, 2018/09/21
- Message not available
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Emanuel Berg, 2018/09/21
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Eli Zaretskii, 2018/09/21
- Message not available
- Re: Using R-mail in Emacs, Emanuel Berg, 2018/09/21