message-mode and VM

message-mode and VM

[Uday S Reddy]

Dear Emacs developers,  

As some of you know, I have been maintaining VM recently.  I have heard rumours that Emacs was going to make message-mode the default mail-sending package, and came here to check what was being done.  I was glad to see that there was some very hard debating about the issues, but I am afraid I found more heat than light :-)

In any case, I am writing to let you know that VM doesn't have its own mail-sending package.  It uses Emacs mail-mode.  Specifically, it depends on sendmail.el, mail-utils.el and mail-extr.el.  So, if mail-mode is going to be obsoleted, you will need to tell us what corresponding functions we can use from message-mode.

Minor changes in the user interface will be ok, as long as they are properly documented in the info manual.  The current manual of the message-mode is not quite up to the mark.  Most VM users are serious professionals with email forming an important part of their work, and I am afraid they won't have the stomach for Gnus-style manuals.  So, a rewrite of the message-mode manual should be regarded as an essential part of the project.

I believe that there are quite a few Emacs-based mail clients right now.  I don't know how all of them treat their mail-sending functionality, but I wouldn't be surprised if more of them are continuing to use mail-mode.  So, they would also be affected if mail-mode obsoleted.

Cheers,
Uday

Re: message-mode and VM

[Stefan Monnier]

> In any case, I am writing to let you know that VM doesn't have its own
> mail-sending package.  It uses Emacs mail-mode.  Specifically, it
> depends on sendmail.el, mail-utils.el and mail-extr.el.  So, if
> mail-mode is going to be obsoleted, you will need to tell us what
> corresponding functions we can use from message-mode.

We don't have any plan to obsolete mail-mode at the moment.
But I still recommend you try and figure out how to make VM work with
message-mode, since the same arguments that justified the switch for the
default from mail-mode to message-mode should apply to VM (mostly,
handling of MIME).

And of course, if you have trouble using message-mode for VM, do come
and ask questions here (and/or report corresponding bugs).

> Minor changes in the user interface will be ok, as long as they are
> properly documented in the info manual.  The current manual of the
> message-mode is not quite up to the mark.

I haven't looked at either manual in a while.  Do you have specific
problems in mind?

> I believe that there are quite a few Emacs-based mail clients right
> now.  I don't know how all of them treat their mail-sending
> functionality, but I wouldn't be surprised if more of them are
> continuing to use mail-mode.  So, they would also be affected if
> mail-mode obsoleted.

I don't know either, but AFAIK MH-E has been using message-mode for
a while already.  It was designed as a superset/replacement of mail-mode
so switching to it is usually relatively painless.


        Stefan