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Why I don't use ean

Mitchell Wyle
wyle@ethz.uucp

The University of British Columbia's X.400 mail system "ean" is the
electronic mail system of choice for the ETH computer science
department.  I have used the system for over a year; it is the system
with which I am most experienced, but I have discovered some features
in the system which have led me to the decision to change mail systems.

Most major decisions of this nature are prompted by unfortunate
accidents.  Such is the case in this situation.  Because ean uses a
bizarre method of storing its data (db5), one must periodically "clean"
the data files ean creates.  Otherwise, they would continue to grow
without bound, until the disk is full.  One day, the  "eanrebuild"
command destroyed all of my ean data.  Upon restoring the data from a
backup tape, ean refused to read the restored data.  A mail system
which  1) needs a dangerous, periodic "clean-up" command, and 2) cannot
read restored data is unacceptable.  The data cannot be moved to tape
and back to disk.  No backup is possible;  therefore ean is
unacceptable.

The eanrebuild command is simply a nuisance which does not belong in a
computer system.  One could live with such an inconvenience if backup
were possible.

Ean's user interface is as poor as most other electronic mail
systems'.  There is no way to specify rules and actions (it is not
programmable).  It has a flat storage method (one level of folders).
It does not take advantage of a video screen terminal.  It has no
information retrieval system for mail messages.

Ean cannot run on all unix systems.  It is specific for the DEC vax.
It's files cannot be used by other applications.  Almost all ean
messages I send arrive with an annoying "Parse error of original
messages in Switzerland" error message, which leads me to assume that
the lower layers of the system are as weak as the user interface and
no-backup features.

The public domain, University of California Berkeley's (UCB) Unix mail
system is not much better, but at least there is no "rebuild" command,
and the files are standard unix text files.  One can use the Unix shell
environment, the "mail-tool" interface on Suns, and the file directory
tree to add structure to mail messages.  UCB Unix mail is programmable
and richer in commands.  It is standard on many different machines, and
identical on Suns and vaxen.  Most importantly, the data are
interchangeable, and can be backed up!

Ean?  No thank you.
-- 
Mitchell F. Wyle           | csnet or arpa:  wyle%ifi.ethz.ch@relay.cs.net
Instituet fuer Informatik  | uucp:           wyle@ethz.uucp
ETH Zentrum / SOT          | Telephone:      011 41 1 256 5237
8092 Zuerich, Switzerland