From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Mar 18 20:29:50 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 777BC16A404 for ; Sun, 18 Mar 2007 20:29:50 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from igloo.linux.gr (igloo.linux.gr [62.1.205.36]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EA26B13C4BE for ; Sun, 18 Mar 2007 20:29:49 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from kobe.laptop (dialup175.ach.sch.gr [81.186.70.175]) (authenticated bits=128) by igloo.linux.gr (8.13.8/8.13.8/Debian-3) with ESMTP id l2IKTECs013233 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Sun, 18 Mar 2007 22:29:23 +0200 Received: from kobe.laptop (kobe.laptop [127.0.0.1]) by kobe.laptop (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id l2IKT69M023701; Sun, 18 Mar 2007 22:29:07 +0200 (EET) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: (from keramida@localhost) by kobe.laptop (8.13.8/8.13.8/Submit) id l2IKT4QI023695; Sun, 18 Mar 2007 22:29:04 +0200 (EET) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2007 22:29:04 +0200 From: Giorgos Keramidas To: Zhang Weiwu Message-ID: <20070318202903.GA20840@kobe.laptop> References: <1174227685.31608.8.camel@joe.realss.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1174227685.31608.8.camel@joe.realss.com> X-Hellug-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-Hellug-MailScanner-SpamCheck: not spam, SpamAssassin (not cached, score=-3.66, required 5, autolearn=not spam, ALL_TRUSTED -1.80, AWL 0.54, BAYES_00 -2.60, DNS_FROM_RFC_ABUSE 0.20) X-Hellug-MailScanner-From: keramida@ceid.upatras.gr X-Spam-Status: No Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: recommend console email client? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2007 20:29:50 -0000 On 2007-03-18 22:21, Zhang Weiwu wrote: > Dear list > For years I am not yet satisfied with ANY console email client, though > I have tried quite a few. My requirement is actually very simple: a > email client must be able to: > > 1. do the automatic charset conversion, so if I got an email in > GB18030 charset, it display correct on my UTF-8 console; > 2. is able to connect to IMAP server, copy sent emails to > INBOX.Sent folder and let me browse IMAP folders; > 3. is able to look up contact information (including telephone > number) by LDAP; > > mutt => charset conversion is not 100% correct (e.g. cannot display > double-width ideograph correctly when it's on the edge); poor ldap > support and me not knowing how to keep sent message in INBOX/Sent > pine => no charset conversion at all and Washington University don't > seems wish to add this feature; > alpine => said to support charset conversion but cannot find any link > for downloading it. > > Maybe there are good applications that I didn't try yet? Bearing in mind that you have relatively strict requirements (but, nevertheless, quite reasonable) for multibyte support, it may be worth considering one of the email clients bundled with or supported by GNU Emacs. I have used the Gnus news and email reader with varying levels of success to read and post multibyte, UTF-8 and internationalized messages. My impression from using Gnus to read and post multibyte text was that it works quite fine for my own needs. Running Emacs in an X11 desktop, with proper UTF-8 enabled fonts, will take care automatically of the display issues you may be having. The display support of Emacs is, to the best of my knowledge, simply *excellent* for UTF-8 text. Connecting to an IMAP server can be done for Emacs-based mailers in a number of ways: a) Through Gnus itself. Gnus supports various access modes for reaching out and pulling your email messages. IMAP is just one of them. b) Using fetchmail. You can pull email messages with fetchmail, store them in local mailboxes and point Gnus to the local folders. This is my preferred method, because I'm not always connected online. I even use the off-line mode of Gnus for NNTP reading & posting. I am not sure how well Gnus and Emacs can support your third requirement, about database lookup through LDAP. There are various plug-ins for database lookups with Emacs and Gnus, but I haven't used them. The Emacs Wiki[1] may help you here. The friendly folks at the #emacs IRC channel on FreeNode are a good bunch of people to ask too. [1] http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki