In article <Pine.SOL.4.33.0202150856420.29907-100000@???>,
Philip Hazel <ph10@???> wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Feb 2002, Richard Torrens wrote:
> > I am not a windoze or a Unix user - I come to Exim as a RISCOS user,
> Which RISCOS? Acorn's or the other one? (I'm familiar with the former,
> not the latter. I used to to testing for Acorn. In fact, I'm at home,
> posting this from a RISC PC running RISC OS as it happens.)
There is only one... Acorn's workstation operation was sold to Pace.
The philosophy behind the OS has always been closer to Unix than to
MicroSoft - even though we've had a fully functional GUI long before
MicroSoft got there.
Now the computer designs and operating system are licensed. The OS to
Riscos Ltd who released Risc OS 4. There's a huge amount on the WWW about
RiscOS!
> > If these were in the instructions,
> > as an introduction, I think it could help lots of other users.
> Have you read my Exim book, published by O'Reilly? That is supposed to
> contain this kind of general, introductory, overview information.
No. I was wondering if the general style of that was different to your
html instructions - it is very difficult for any product designer to write
at an introductory level!
> The reference manual is supposed to be just that - somewhere you can
> easily look up specific things. It is not meant to be an introductory
> text.
I find that many computer books that take a tutorial approach are
unreadable. I find an introductory part followed by a full reference
section to be the easiest. Once you know the programmer's thinking and the
program's rationale, the reference section becomes meaningful!
> > I refer really to a sort of Flow-chart (probably in words rather than
> > a chart as such) explaining the typical flow of emails around a
> > server, and the part Exim has to play in that.
> Yup, that's in the book.
> > For instance, my own case.. On Arachsys.com as a user I seem to have
> > two 'controls'. The 'aliases' directory and the .forward file. The
> > aliases file gets looked up when I post an email and when one is
> > received. The received email is then dumped to my shell account (if it
> > passes the aliases file) where it is further processed according to
> > the .forward file.
> That is very specific to your circumstances. Do you manage the server?
No: it's a virtual host.
> Your mention of "I seem to have" suggests not. In that case, the Exim
> documentation is not for you - it's for Exim administrators.
That's one thing that I find less than clear-cut in the documentation. The
demarcation between user level and administrator level. I guess I am only
concerned with filtering? Yes, an overview of the way Exim works will help
me do that.
I think that may apply to other here?
> Documentation for users of specific installations is not something that
> should be part of Exim - because Exim can be configured in so many
> different ways. Such documentation should be provided by the server
> administrators.
'should be' - yes. But it won't happen in most instances! Clearly you
cannot write specific instructions for every possible setup. Which is
where the overview + reference becomes very useful.
In some ways it seems to be like Apache itself: there are Admin commands -
and there are user level commands (which can be used in .htaccess files) -
but as the grey area between is configurable....
> > If the idea has any merit and I can assist further, ask. I also live
> > and run the business from Burwell, not v. far from Cambridge.
> Thanks for taking the time to explain and post to the list. And also for
> your willingness to offer assistance. I appreciate such a cooperative
> attitude. However, I feel there is some missed point here, as I suggest
> above. This is a hasty reply, as I'm about to leave for the FOSDEM
> meeting in Brussels. If it isn't clear, please mail me privately and I
> can explain further (but not till next week).
Since Exim can be run under RiscOS - I might consider running it on our
network to sort emails. But ATM it's convenient to have all emails in
Pluto (the email/news program) although that's not exactly a networking
program, as this suits the way we work ATM.
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Torrens
4QD manufacture speed controllers for battery electric motors.
www sites
http://www.4QD.co.uk http://www.4QDtec.com http://www.4QD.org
All email addresses are copyright.
Resale or use on any lists is expressly forbidden
---------- We use a RISC PC 32 bit RISC computer ----------------
