Re: Emacs for email: Rmail v VM v Gnus

[Jason Earl]

On Thu, Aug 02 2012, James Freer wrote:

> On 31 July 2012 06:45, Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com> wrote:
>> James Freer <jessejazza@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> I'd be grateful if someone could put me right on setting up Rmail,
>>> and perhaps if someone has experimented with all three give their
>>> feedback. Basically i want to try each and decide which i'd prefer.
>>> Starting to use emacs as my editor it seems appropriate to use a
>>> mail client within it.
>>
>> I use fetchmail, procmail, MH-E.
>>
>> MH-E documentation is in info or in
>> http://mh-e.sourceforge.net/manual/html/.
>>
>> --
>> Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com> aka <Bill.Wohler@nasa.gov>
>
> I appreciate your replies but i haven't got far trying them out as i'm
> having the central heating done and a number of domestic stuff.
>
> I would be grateful if someone could clarify a few points - vm seems
> to happlily install on emacs 23 [i'm just experimenting at present
> before i upgrade to xubuntu 12.04 which has emacs 24].  - Gnus wants
> to uninstall emacs 23 and install emacs 22 as does mh-e.  - wl ok on
> emacs 23

Gnus is included in Emacs 23.  My guess is that your packaging system is
downgrading Emacs so that it can install its own copy of Gnus.  The
version of Gnus that comes with Emacs 23 is probably what you want.
Unless, of course, you want to use the newly release Emacs 24.

> Is vm revised more than Gnus and mh-e? My compiling efforts weren't so
> hot last time i tried so i'd prefer to stay with what's in the repos.
> If these apps are more feature rich why does Rmail remain as the
> default mail reader?

If you want something that is easy to install then Gnus has the
advantage of coming pre-installed on recent copies of GNU Emacs.  The
problem with Gnus (if there is a problem) is that it is so ridiculously
flexible that it can be difficult to configure.

Personally, I think that it is worth the effort, but not everyone feels
the same way.

Jason