gnu mailutils MH suite is excellent, but one program the 'inc' has the bad
specification that it read not only mail requested, but also mail for the
default user.
Why is this bad...
1.) inefficient computing
2.) invites misplaced mail which can and does go unnoticed. This is really
bad if it is
important mail.
Explanation:
I loop through say 10 e-mail address to collect mail from various sources
and lists.
a.) Done properly (in my humble opinion) this would involve 8 calls to the
MH program 'inc'.
BUT it fetches mail at least 15 times if not 16 because is always not
matter which
mailbox is specified always ALSO fetches mail for the mail user. So it
is processing
needlessly for the user's probably empty mailbox.
b.) The problem of missing important mail works like this. The loop goes
through joyfully
fetching mail for each specified mail recipient, but is also fetches
mail for the main
user and stuffs that users addressed mail into the wrong mailbox. This
can and does go
unnoticed. I've missed several important messages due to this.
I'd like an 'inc' which only inc's for only specified mailboxes. I want to get
mail for each
box only once in a mail fetching loop.
Is this doable. I can't think of any reason to not improve the design of this
MH program to do what (I believe) is should do.
Regards,
Darel
