MultiMail version 0.8
=====================

What is MultiMail?
------------------

MultiMail is an offline mail packet reader for Unix systems. It currently
supports the Blue Wave and QWK formats. It has a full screen, color user
interface, built with the ncurses library.

MultiMail was originally written by Kolossvary Tamas and Toth Istvan; QWK
support was added by John Zero. The current maintainer is William McBrine
<wmcbrine@clark.net>. 

You can get the latest version by anonymous ftp from: 

 ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/wmcbrine/bbs/offline/mmail.tar.gz

or at the MultiMail home page:

 http://www.clark.net/~wmcbrine/multimail.html

Sorry, but no official Fidonet netmail address or F'REQ site is available
right now.


What's New?
-----------

MultiMail v0.8 has enhanced portability over v0.7. I've tested it under
Linux/i386, Solaris/Sparc and NetBSD/m68k, so it should work under a wide
range of Unices. (Please let me know whether it works for you!)

Blue Wave features have also been enhanced, and MultiMail is now more
compatible with the Blue Wave reader.

Character set translation can now be toggled at runtime instead of
compilation time.

The packet list is sorted, shows sizes, and allows killing old packets.
Packet type is recognized automatically!

See the HISTORY file for other changes. See INSTALL for the installation
procedure, and the man page (mmail.1) for information on usage.


Requirements
------------

   * Unix-compatible OS -- Blue Wave requires a little-endian machine; 
     QWK should work everywhere
   * ncurses (at least 1.9.3; older versions have problems with colors)
   * gcc (g++) 2.7.0+ -- may work with other C++ compilers, not tested
   * sed (used for replies)
   * less (for ANSI viewer)
   * InfoZip, and/or other compressing archivers
   * GNU make *may* be required on some systems

Features
--------

   * auto-decompression of packets with external compress programs
   * user-friendly menus to select packet, area, letter, etc.
   * save whole area or one letter in a text file
   * enter mail in any area (using external editor)
   * insert tagline from a tagline file
   * reply with quote
   * write netmail
   * netmail addressbook


Tested Systems
--------------

I'd like to get MultiMail tested on as many platforms as possible. I've
personally used it on: 

  Linux 2.0.29, Slackware-based, 486, gcc 2.7.2.1, ncurses 4.1
  Linux 2.0.32, Red Hat, Pentium, gcc 2.7.2.1, ncurses 1.9.9e
  Solaris 2.6, Sparc, gcc 2.7.2.3, ncurses 4.1 (QWK only)
  NetBSD 1.3, Macintosh SE/30, gcc 2.7.2.2+myc1, ncurses 4.1 (QWK only)

I also compiled it without ncurses on the Sparc (using standard curses
instead), but the resulting binary didn't work too well. Perhaps that can
be fixed.

If you get it going on a dissimilar system, please let me know (along with
any necessary patches). Or, let me telnet to your machine, and I'll try
porting it myself. :-)
