Re: Email programs that work.
On Wed, Aug 30, 2006 at 10:06:03AM EDT, Russell L. Harris wrote:
> Derek Martin <code@pizzashack.org> writes: ...
> Thanks, Derek, for a refreshing and informative post in this mostly
> dreary and argumentative thread.
I'll second that.
> Being a heavy user of XEmacs for composition of documents, I have been
> handling mail with Gnus (which runs under XEmacs), and enjoy the ability
> to zip through a stack of spam by simply holding down the "E" key to
> mark the messages for deletion.
That, for me at least, is the reason I switched to mutt.. I can just
"zip" through all these "managing my mail" chores .. orders of magnitude
faster than I used to.
> But I not infrequently forget the combination of keystrokes required
> for mail manipulations other than the routine operations of reading,
> printing, deleting, and forwarding. So at present I'm using
> Thunderbird as an expedient when I need something out of the ordinary.
You could probably re-configure mutt to use something that's close
enough to Gnus/Xemacs shortcuts. At least configure mutt to use
mnemonically close equivalents.
> I tried Sylpheed and Balsa and Evolution a while back, but each was in
> development, and had a few problems I could not live with or wait to be
> fixed. And then there is the matter of the rodent, which I hate.
Same here. I will never forgive mice for the time I wasted.
> I've looked at Mutt a time or two, but I never managed to use it. I
> spent a day two trying to write a configuration file for Mutt, but I
> got lost in the options, not knowing what was essential and what was
> not.
I took a different approach .. namely, I stole some guru's .muttrc off
of some web site .. modified what was obviously necessary .. such as
path names for mail folders etc. and I was up and running working with
live mail in a matter of hours. Never looked back and never lost any
mail.
Naturally, I have since looked at the mutt manual and added quite a bit
of customization .. with this kind of approach, configuring mutt is not
so much of a chore because you do it in your own time .. one small step
at a time .. and in case you are stuck, the mutt-user list is always
ready to help.
> However, if Gnus were to disappear today, I would make every attempt to
> learn to use Mutt, particularly in view of the fact that I hate the
> mouse.
> So, could you perhaps recommend a web site or a how-to for getting
> started with Mutt?
The mutt people have recently done some really nice things in the way of
getting new users up to speed via the MuttGuide and the MuttWiki.
It's apparently still work in progress but worth keeping an eye on.
http://www.mutt.org
is your entry point.
Thanks
cga
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