🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <140@dcl-csvax.comp.lancs.ac.uk> stephen@comp.lancs.ac.uk (Stephen J. Muir) writes:
> A mail user interface should *never* try to interpret the contents of any
> header fields.  smail breaks this golden rule.  In particular, it should not
> try to do any routing either.  Leave this all up to the mail delivery system.
>
> **** IF YOU TRY TO BE SMART, YOU WILL GET IT WRONG ****

Smail doesn't do anything with header fields.  (Sure it deals with uucp remote-from
lines, but only as an rmail emulator, so that hardly counts.)  Also, I don't see how
smail is more of a "mail user interface" than is sendmail, and sendmail plays all
kinds of games with header fields.  I'd go so far as to say that the majority of
mail problems are due to sendmail fiddling with From: and To: addresses, not smail
rerouting.  The distributed configuration for smail doesn't do rerouting at all.

Really, this discussion is absurd.  UUCP mail used to work fine when the number
of sites on the "net" was less than a thousand or so.  It never worked too well
when one wanted to send or receive mail to or from another mail network.  It
has been quite a disorganized mess for a number of years now.  Why do you think
people came up with programs like sendmail, pathalias, uumail, and smail?
The good old days are gone, folks.  If you want to send mail, either you've
got to be smart, or your mailer does.  The smail program doesn't automatically
reroute mail, so you can prove your net-smarts all you want.  I prefer to
let the computer do it for me.

-- 
Greg Paris ....................... gmp@rayssd.RAY.COM
{cbosgd,gatech,ihnp4,linus,mirror,uiucdcs}!rayssd!gmp
.. Everything seems to be up in the air at this point
................ I need something to change your mind