			An Overview of the Elm Mail System
			----------------------------------

Introduction

	This file discusses the functionality of the Elm mail system
and explains some of the motivation behind the various features.

1. What is Elm?

	Currently on UNIX, there seems to be a preponderance of line-oriented 
software.  This is most unfortunate as most of the software on UNIX tends to
be pretty darn hard to use!  I believe that there is more than a slight
correlation between the two, and, since I was myself having problems using
"mailx" with high-volume mail, I created a new mail system.

	In the lingo of the mail guru, Elm is a "User Agent" system,
	it's designed to run with "sendmail" or "/bin/rmail" or any
other UNIX Mail Transport Agent (according to what's on your system)
and is a full replacement of programs like "/bin/mail" and "mailx".
The system is more than just a single program, however, and includes
programs like "frm" to list a 'table of contents' of your mail, and
"printmail" to quickly paginate mail files (to allow 'clean'
printouts).

2. What's New about Elm?

	The most significant difference between Elm and earlier mail
systems is that Elm is screen-oriented.  Upon further use, however,
users will find that Elm is also quite a bit easier to use, and quite a
bit more "intelligent" about sending mail and so on.   For example, say
you're on "usenet" and receive a message from someone on the Internet.
The sender also "cc'd" another person on Internet.  With Elm you can
simply G)roup reply and it will build the correct return addresses.

	There are lots of subtleties like that in the program, most of
which you'll probably find when you need them.

3. What systems does it work on?

	The Elm development group uses almost every UNIX system out
there between all of its volunteers.  Elm runs on USL System V, BSD,
SunOS, Apollo, UTS, Pyramid and Xenix and should run on almost any UNIX
systems without any modifications (if there turn out to be
modifications, please notify the Elm Development Group as soon as
possible).

4. Does it obey existing mail standards?

	Yes!  That's another of the basic reasons the program was 
originally written!  To ensure that the date field, the "From:" line
and so on were all added in the correct format.  The program is 100%
correct according to the RFC-822 electronic mail header protocol
guide.

5. What were the main motivating factors for Dave to write Elm?

	The first two I've already mentioned, but here's a (somewhat
partial) list;

	-  To have a mail system that exploited the CRT instead of
	   assuming I'm on a teletype.

	- To have a mailer that was 100% correct when dealing with	 
	  network mail (i.e. RFC-822).

	- To create a system that needed no documentation for the
	  casual user, but was still powerful enough and sophisticated
	  enough for a mail expert.

	- To write a "significant" piece of software as a learning
	  experience (I admit it!)

	- To find out how reasonable it is to try to modify a program
	  to meet the expectations of the users, rather than vice-versa.

	- To basically correct some of the dumb things that the current
	  mailers do, like letting you send mail to addresses that it
	  could trivially figure out are going to result in 'dead.letter'

	- To tie in intimately with the pathalias program output, and
	  allow users to specify machine!user or user@machine and have
	  the COMPUTER do the work of figuring out addresses...
	  (Note: As of 2.4, this has been removed from Elm, as routing
	  mail transports are now readily available for all UNIX systems).

6. Is it reliable?

	The mailer, in various incarnations, has logged literally
thousands upon thousands of hours without any problems that aren't
now corrected.  As new problems arise they're dealt with in as
rapid a manner as possible...

7. Disclaimers 

	The author of this program will deny all liability for any
damages, either real or imagined, due to the execution of this program
or anything related to either the software or the system.  Furthermore,
the entire system and all source within, including the presentation
screens and commands, are legally copyrighted by the author, and while
they can be used, and abused, for public domain systems, it will be in 
violation of the law if used in systems or programs sold for profit.

	By installing the mailer or even extracting it from the network,
you are agreeing to the above disclaimer.

8. Finally

	I think it's a good program, and I can cite at least 75 people
who would (begrudgingly, I'm sure) agree.  You should most certainly
install the program and try it!!


				-- Dave Taylor
				taylor@intuitive.com
				-- Syd Weinstein, Coordinator
				Elm Development Group
				elm@dsi.com

Original: March 13th, 1986
Modified: October 3th, 1992
	Syd Weinstein, Coordinator
	Elm Development Group
	elm@dsi.com
