BACKGROUND

XMailTool is an X11 based graphical interface to Mail(1) -- BSD's version of
mail.  It has been ported to a Macintosh running AUX, a Cray running
Unicos, a Sun, and an SGI machine.  It is not intended to be a port of Sun's
mailtool(1).  There is functionality in mailtool that doesn't exist in 
xmailtool and there is functionality in xmailtool that doesn't exist in
mailtool.  There are also a number of features of Mail(1) that xmailtool
doesn't support, and a number that Mail(1) doesn't support that XMailTool
does.  If you find some hidden functionality in XMailtool that isn't
documented, I would appreciate it if you bring it to my attention.

This version of XMailTool has a number of bugs fixed, a few design changes,
and a few new features.  The list of such changes is too great to document
here.  Please review the man page for information about xmailtool's features.

P:  When I iconify XMailtool after reading mail, the flag goes up indicating
that I have new mail.  When I open XMailTool to read the new mail, there
isn't any new mail.

S:  The clock on the machine running XMailTool is not in sync with the
clock on the machine with the mailbox file's file system.  When XMailTool
is iconified or the new mail button is pressed, the access time on the
mailbox file is set to the current time.  The machine that has the file
system attached to it will then set the modification time to what it thinks
is the current time.  If these times aren't correct, you will get a false
indication from XMailTool about the state of your mailbox file.

P:  I don't have an EDITOR variable set in my .mailrc so I expect to get
the internal editor.  However, I get /usr/bin/vi.

S:  XMailTool will use the EDITOR environment variable if it exists and
the .mailrc variable isn't set.  If you set an EDITOR variable in your
environment to something other than what you want in XMailtool, you need
to specify an EDITOR variable in .mailrc.

Q:  What's that funny looking picture at the top of the window.

A:  XMailTool now supports X-Face: header lines in inbound messages.  If
a message contains such a line, XMailtool tries to in terpret this line
as an encoded 48x48 bitmap and places it in that box.  If a message
doesn't contain such a line, XMailTool will display this bitmap to remind
you of this handy feature.

P:  I can't find the forward button.

S:  If you have taken the time to read this, chances are you know where
the forward button is.  Anyway... Many buttons have different functionality
depending on what modifier keys are held while pressing those buttons.  The
compose button is such a button.  If you hold the shift key while in 
the compose button, you will see that it's label changes to forward.  

Q:  What's all that garbage in a gripe message?

A:  Between versions of XMailTool, I change some but not all files.  The
"garbage" indicates what version of the files that make up XMailTool, you
have.  This allows me to determine if a bug has resurfaced, or if you are
just running an old version of xmailtool.

P:  When I press compose/reply/forward/gripe I see a window pop-up but
then it disapears.

S:  The EDITOR variable in your .mailrc file is set to something like "more".
"more" isn't really an editor but most people have this specified in
their .mailrc file.  The Mail(1) man page defines this variable as the
program to execute when editing a message.  It should be set to an editor.

P:  I've tried to edit a message I've recieved but I can't figure out
how to save it back into my system mailbox.

S:  You can't do that.  That is a feature that is only supported by Sun's
Mail(1) program for their mailtool.

P:  I see garbage in my "Directory:" entry.

S:  XMailtool tells Mail(1) to invoce the shell command pwd.  This causes
your .cshrc, or .profile to be executed.  If you have something in either of
these files that prints a message or is expecting a terminal as input, you
will see those characters.  You need to change you file to recognize that
it isn't being executed as a login shell.

P:  I have some translations specified for text widgets that don't work
with the text widgets in xmailtool.

S:  XMailtool gains some of its functionality by specifying translations.
That app-defaults file specifies the resources that control these translations
fairly specificly.  If you want your translation to take affect you need to
specify your resource at least as specificly as in the app-defaults file.

P:  When I start xmailtool, all I get is very small window with garbage in
it.

S:  You've specified the geometry as though it were the old xmailtool's
"Icon" window.  XMailtool is ICCCM compliant meaning that it lets the
window manager handle iconifying and de-iconifying.  As a result the "Tool"
window is now the top level window and therefore named "xmailtool."  You
need to change you resource to reference xmailtool.iconX, xmailtool.iconY
and xmailtool.geometry.

P:  I want to change the sound that XMailtool makes when I get new mail.

S:  There is no solution.  This can't be done.  Since not all machines handle
sounds other than "beeps" and there isn't a standard way for a machine to 
handle sound, xmailtool doesn't support anything but a "Beep."

P:  The flag doesn't pop up when I get new mail.

S:  You are probably using either olwm or the MacX desk top window manager.
These window managers (and many others) aren't truely ICCCM compliant
as they don't track the IconPixmap window property.  (Tv)twm and Mwm
work correctly.  Call your window manager vendor.

P:  I get an error message about a bad implementation haveing to do with
SetSelectionOwner.

S:  There seems to be a bug in Openwindows 3.0 such that selection p
operites other than "PRIMARY" doesn't work.  Since XMailtool tries to
be friendly and use a "SECONDARY" selection property, it doesn't work
under Openwindows 3.0.  XMailtool Will run, but you will see an anoying
error message printed to the console window every time you try to view
a different message. You should probably redirect XMailTools output to
/dev/null, or filter out the error message.  CALL Sun Microsystems and
complain.

P:  I get an error message and Xmailtool dies when I choose the "close" option
from the window menue.

S:  You don't really want to "Close" the xmailtool window.  You want to iconify
it.

P:  I see the "about" window with the neat picture of the YMP, but I can't
figure out how to get rid of it.

S:  Just click in it.

P:  After running XMailTool for several days (maybe weeks), it suddenly
dies and dumps a core file.

S:  Unfortunately XMailTool is built on top of Xt, Xaw, and X11 libraries
which aren't bug free.  Since XMailTool is usually left running for long
periods of time, and makes heavy use of the memory management utilities
in Xt, it is suseptable to some memory leaks.  There is one particular
bug in Xaw such that the header data and message data areas are never
freed.  After several days the XMailtool process will grow to meat the
memory limits of the machine.  When this happens, one of many other
bugs is found when malloc() returns an error that isn't cought.  So there
really isn't a solution (except for fixing all of the memory leaks) but
there isn't anything to be concerned about.  You may find it to be a good
thing to check the size of xmailtool periodicly and kill it when you
notice it growing too big.

P:  The highlight (reverse video)in the header window disapears when I
press the next button or delete a message.

S:  This is a bug in either Xt or Xaw on some machines.  You should notify
your Xt and Xaw vendor and ask for a fix if there is one.



Most problems that people encounter are really either general Mail(1)
problems (they didn't read the man page very well if at all and have
specified a variable differently than expected) or general X11 problems.
If you think you have an XMailtool specific problem, I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR
ABOUT IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.  I WOULD PREFER E-MAIL AS I CAN KEEP A HISTORY
OF PROBLEMS, AND WON'T FORGET TO FIX A PROBLEM.  I am not however the X11-User,
X11-Programmer, or Mail(1) Encyclopedia.

