Re: Help to import formats!

[Carlos Morgado <chbm chbm nu>]

On Sun, Sep 02, 2001 at 12:17:31AM +0200, Guido Amoruso wrote:
> Thanks all!
> 
> I've had nice suggestions: my problem with e-mail is due to the fact that I
> haven't find on the Web any clear place explaining all the stuff reguarding
> formats of mailboxes used by the different clients (do tou know something?).
> In fact - it seems to me - outlook 4 and 5 use different formats (.mbx and
> .dbx), which are prorietary; I thought Eudora use standard Unix format, but
> it's not so (the troubles are with some <x-html>, <x-flow>...??...); and
> what about Netscape?
> 
<x-html> isn't a mailbox format problem, it's a "what's inside the message"
problem. If the message isn't constructed properly or uses unknown MIME tips 
the mailer will just say "I don't know what this is. I can't display it".

> I think I'll try with "eud2mbox" from Freshmeat (thank you....) as soon as I
> have time and then I'll tell you...
> On SourceForge I've also found an "outlook express mailboxes-->unix style
> mailboxes" converter, but I don't know if it works on .mbx or .dbx.
> 
no clue there.

> In my opinion Linux mailers should deal with this problem: expecially for
> newbies it is difficult to make head of it, also because it's natural to
> test different mailers. But one would like to be able to read one's old
> mail!

No. Balsa handles properly the 3 mailbox formats (most) used in UNIX. I 
believe it can also be made to support a mbox like os/2 format if need be. 
All those formats are open and if you search google you'll find documentation 
and software to handle them.
Outlook and other such MUAs use proprietary formats for which no
documentation is available. Those formats are designed for user lock-in and
most atempts for compatibility are meet with hostility.
In fact, now might just be a crime in some less free countries (like USA) to
reverse engineer the formats or even access your email with a diferent
program. Having your legal and lawful work be rewarded by InterPol is not
nice.

Short: In my opinion, UNIX mailers shouldn't be forced to deal with broken
proprietary formats.

> Why not add such topic to Balsa website? It could be really very useful!

Good point. "Links to free yourself". pawel ? stuart ?

> I think filters are one feature of the mailer itself, but one quality of
> Linux (and open source) is to use different little tools together...anyway,
> I am rather ignorant with such topics!
> 

Filters are scheduled for the next devel cycle. Be patient :)
They are just a low priority as so much people already have working procmail
configurations :)

cheers

-- 
Carlos Morgado - chbm(at)chbm(dot)nu - http://chbm.nu/ -- gpgkey: 0x1FC57F0A 
http://wwwkeys.pgp.net/ FP:0A27 35D3 C448 3641 0573 6876 2A37 4BB2 1FC5 7F0A
UNIX is user friendly. It's just very carefull choosing his friends.