This is an alpha release of the Mail::Folder module package for perl5.

This module provides an interface to email folders that is independent
from the physical folders.  The actual work on folders is done with
folder interface modules lying 'beneath' the Mail::Folder interface.

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
Think twice about using this module to modify folders you consider
important.  At the very least make sure you have backup copies.

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
The method interface is currently in an evaluation phase.  Since the
module is at an early stage of it's life, I'm not going to try too
hard to provide for backward compatability to older alpha versions.  I
am, however, going to try to make all changes to the method interfaces
before it reaches beta release.

The next release will be making substantial changes to the method
interface.  If you use this module, take a look at the TODO file.
Interface changes being considered are marked with a 'X'.  Feedback is
welcome.  The proposed changes have two purposes - simplifying the
interface, and correcting some design decisions.  Some of the
corrections will pave the way for some performance improvements.  I
also think some of the corrections will make it easier to get to a
beta release level.

To build and install the package execute the following commands:
	perl Makefile.PL
	make
	make test
	make install

The TODO file has information on features that aren't present or
complete yet.  The items marked with '*' in the TODO file are items I
want to have done before I put it in beta release mode.  By beta, I
mean approaching (repeat: approaching ;-) the point where you might
not lose too much sleep if you wanted to use it on real folders on a
regular basis for important things.  Other items might also be
completed, but I wanted to provide some indication of what work I
think needs to be done in order to proceed to the next level.

The NEWS file has summary information on the changes from release to
release.

The BUGS file has information on current implementation bugs/malfeatures.

The CREDITS file lists folks who have been particularly helpful/brave.

The current version has been developed and tested against 5.003_97 or
newer. Older versions won't work.

The following modules are required:
    MailTools-1.11	      - for handling mail messages
    MIME-tools-4.116	      - for handling MIME mail messages
    TimeDate-1.08	      - for date field slurping in the mbox interface
    File-Sync-0.04	      - for implementing qmail's style of writing to
				maildir files
    libnet-1.0505	      - for the NNTP interface

I've included the following folder interfaces:
    + Mail::Folder::Mbox - ye olde standard mailbox format (ugh).
    + Mail::Folder::Maildir - a maildir (ala qmail) interface.
	This is a very interesting folder format.  It's missing some
	the nicer features that MH folders have (like .mh_sequences),
	but is probably one of the more resilient folder formats around.
	The implementation I've provided is very rudimentary, please
	contact me if I've made a mistake in the implementation.
    + Mail::Folder::Emaul - an amoebic folder interface of my own design.
	It is vaguely MHish. Eventually, it might grow into a
	full-featured folder architecture or it might go away if an MH
	interface is ever written., In either case, for now it's an
	adequate example.  It will never be a 100% MH interface, but
	it can actually read MH folders, albeit without some of the
	fancier MHisms like sequences and the like.  It's here because
	it was what I used to flesh out early versions of
	MailFolder. If an MH folder interface is ever written, I'll
	probably do away with the emaul interface.
    + Mail::Folder::NNTP - the beginnings of an NNTP folder interface.
	There are several notable Mail::Folder methods are not
	implemented yet, and it hasn't been tested very well.  There's
	no regression test for it yet - I'm going to have to implement
	a test like Graham Barr uses to test Net::NNTP in his libnet
	package.  Expect various improvements (like xhdr) in the
	future.  I haven't decided how or if to map update_message and
	append_message into NNTPspeak yet.

These interfaces should serve as reasonable (? :-) examples of hacking
a folder interface into Mail::Folder.

I don't plan on writing a lot of interfaces, myself, but here is a
list of some of the ones I'm interested in enough to write (in order
of likelihood, not timeframe):
    + imap - I don't think this will make it in by MailFolder-1.0.
	     The IMAP transaction model is, however, going to be the
	     seed of version 2.0.

Here are some folder interfaces that would be nice to have, but since
I don't use them, someone will probably have to contribute them:
    + MH (I might actually write this, but I would gladly take volunteers :-)
    + ams
    + vm
    + babyl
    + mmdf
    + mbx
    + any other interesting ones?

Contact me if you are interested in writing an interface.  Another
option is that if someone would be willing to spoon-feed me
information about a folder format, I would be more likely to write it.

It would appear that several of these folder formats are 'almost'
exactly like other folder formats.  The current folder interfaces
aren't verified to be subclassable yet.  I'm not sure if I'll be able
to address this until after 1.0.

Check the documentation for Mail::Folder and the provided folder
interfaces for information on using the package and adding folder
interfaces.  Please let me know if you run across something that needs
better documentation.

The examples directory contains some sample scripts illustrating
various uses of the module.  None of these are installed by the
Makefile.
    + getpop.pl      - a simple pop slurper (uses Net::POP3).
    + from.pl        - a simple variant of from(1).
    + xmailfolder.pl - the beginnings of an MUA using the Tk:: modules!
There is further information on these scripts in the README file in
the examples directory.

It is 'highly unlikely' Mail::Folder will ever be capable of
abstracting every folder feature of every MUA out there in a truly
transparent way.  I don't, however, think this detracts from some of
it's more interesting potential uses:
    + 100% pure perl MUAs (at least one is in process)
    + perl scripting against mail folders
      (folder conversions are a snap :-)
    + email folder to html conversion (any volunteers?)
    + accessing folders from otherwise non-email packages

You might yourself why I don't just resort to a perl interface to
c-client.  I could do that, and it would probably be cool, but I'm
interesting in being able to provide a more unbounded list of folder
interfaces than c-client currently provides.  For example, there will
probably not be a maildir interface in c-client until there is a
perception of a sufficient need for it.  I'd much rather provide a
tool that caters to the toolsmith in us all.

Please contact me if you use this for anything non-trivial.  This is
not for permission, it's so I can get some idea of what folks are
using the package for other than trivial scripts.

Please report any bugs/suggestions to <kjj@pobox.com>.

Copyright (c) 1996-1998 Kevin Johnson <kjj@pobox.com>.

All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can
redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.