Jamin Collins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes on 29 November 2000 at 10:10:56 -0600
> How exactly is my MUA broken?
>
> I've included the original text of the message I've responded to. I've
> simply chosen not to add anything to the beginning of each line of the
> original message.
Well, you're sending in a system-specific character set that I can
only access with some difficulty (saving to a file and then treating
as straight ASCII, which loses me any unusual characters in the
text).
And not following standard quoting conventions is a big problem; lots
of us use software that depends on those conventions to properly
present your message, and to properly manipulate it.
Finally, I do sometimes find people overly snappish responding here.
I try to avoid doing so myself, despite feeling the urge sometimes.
It seems to me that we often encounter people who aren't knowledgable
enough to be doing a Unix sysadmin's job, who are trying to set up
their own mail server. Some of us resent doing sysadmin 101 training
more than others of us.
As to the qmail documentation; I'm *not* a professional Unix sysadmin,
though I've been in charge of a SunOS system or two in my professional
life. Most of my admin experience is on my own Linux boxes. But I
installed early versions of qmail and got them working from the
instructions Dan sent with them (the various external documentation
hadn't appeared yet) with very little trouble. You just have to read
what they say, and pay attention. There isn't a lot of redundancy,
and they're written for people who understand Unix. But I'd say
they're reasonably good; not "inadequate". Add in the external
sources such as LWQ, and I'd say the doc is better than any other Unix
package I've installed.
As to "which is right" when the various docs differ -- guess what?
There isn't an official "right" handed down from on high. Qmail
conforms to the Unix philosophy, and should be best regarded as a mail
transfer toolkit. You get to use that toolkit to set up the mail
transfer you want to happen.
--
David Dyer-Bennet / Welcome to the future! / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
SF: http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/ Minicon: http://www.mnstf.org/minicon/
Photos: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/
