User:Slaurel/MUSH (e-mail client)

MUSH was written in the pre-WWW era of the Internet, and before the GPL license was created. It's first release was in 1985{{cite book|author=Hanna Nelson|title=The Z-Mail Handbook|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=t4ZFAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1991|publisher=Oreilly & Associates Incorporated|isbn=978-0-937175-76-7|page=2}}. It was originally known as "frankenmail"{{cite book|author=Hanna Nelson|title=The Z-Mail Handbook|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=t4ZFAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1991|publisher=Oreilly & Associates Incorporated|isbn=978-0-937175-76-7|page=2}}. Its existence can be noted in the historical record of discussions in Usenet in the dedicated newsgroup comp.mail.mush{{cite book|author=Kenneth H. Rosen|title=UNIX System V Release 4: An Introduction, 2nd Edition|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=4YIZAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|date=1 January 1996|publisher=McGraw-Hill Osborne Media|isbn=978-0-07-882130-1|page=357}}https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.mail.mush/SeulsDVLx6o which was created in 1989. Only Elm competes for role of first full-screen text email application. Elm, released in 1986 achieved greater widespread use. MUSH included a CLI interface that Elm did not. In 1990, Heller and Shaefer created a commercial product, 'Z-Mail', by extending the functionality of Mush{{cite book|author=Hanna Nelson|title=The Z-Mail Handbook|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=t4ZFAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1991|publisher=Oreilly & Associates Incorporated|isbn=978-0-937175-76-7|page=2}}.

MUSH innovated features which inspired later mail clients. The MUTT documentation notes in the explanation of its own name: "features found in other popular clients such as PINE and MUSH have been added, the result being a hybrid, or "mutt."http://www.mutt.org/

The original MUSH project was later enhanced as a commercial product named Z-Mail. The rights were later bought by NCD, transfered to NetManage Inc. and later, at the author's urging, the full source code was released back to the publichttp://www.danheller.com/zmail/README.

Mush included built in end-user help text that could be displayed on demand{{cite book|author1=Linda Lamb|author2=Jerry Peek|title=Using email effectively|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7dQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1995|publisher=O'Reilly & Assoc.|isbn=978-1-56592-103-0|page=16}}, as did the commercial variant, Z-Mail{{cite book|author1=Linda Lamb|author2=Jerry Peek|title=Using email effectively|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7dQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1995|publisher=O'Reilly & Assoc.|isbn=978-1-56592-103-0|page=17}}.

As an example of a feature which is not generally available in modern mail clients, when replying to a message, the user could optionally include the text of the original message, or any other message{{cite book|author1=Linda Lamb|author2=Jerry Peek|title=Using email effectively|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7dQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1995|publisher=O'Reilly & Assoc.|isbn=978-1-56592-103-0|page=27}}.

Mush and Z-Mail both used the mbox mail file format{{cite book|author1=Linda Lamb|author2=Jerry Peek|title=Using email effectively|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7dQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1995|publisher=O'Reilly & Assoc.|isbn=978-1-56592-103-0|page=36}}.

The message selection mechanism in mush is particularly powerful, allowing selection of sets of messages by message header and contents, or specific fields only, as well as allowing filtering by field types, such as 'pick -ago -2m' to select messages sent more than 2 months ago{{cite book|author1=Linda Lamb|author2=Jerry Peek|title=Using email effectively|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7dQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1995|publisher=O'Reilly & Assoc.|isbn=978-1-56592-103-0|pages=36–38, 40, 41}}.

Mush supported a convenient mechanism for inserting the contents of a file into the body of a message{{cite book|author1=Linda Lamb|author2=Jerry Peek|title=Using email effectively|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7dQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1995|publisher=O'Reilly & Assoc.|isbn=978-1-56592-103-0|page=45}} (this predated MIME encapsulation standards).

Mush includes personal address-book functionality, allowing a user to define aliases{{cite book|author1=Linda Lamb|author2=Jerry Peek|title=Using email effectively|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7dQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1995|publisher=O'Reilly & Assoc.|isbn=978-1-56592-103-0|page=47}}.

Mush supports filing email into folders{{cite book|author1=Linda Lamb|author2=Jerry Peek|title=Using email effectively|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7dQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1995|publisher=O'Reilly & Assoc.|isbn=978-1-56592-103-0|page=54,55}}.

Mush allows editing of received messages{{cite book|author1=Linda Lamb|author2=Jerry Peek|title=Using email effectively|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7dQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1995|publisher=O'Reilly & Assoc.|isbn=978-1-56592-103-0|page=56}}.

Mush and Z-Mail support configuration of initialization parameters through the files .mushrc and .zmailrc in the user's home directory{{cite book|author1=Linda Lamb|author2=Jerry Peek|title=Using email effectively|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7dQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1995|publisher=O'Reilly & Assoc.|isbn=978-1-56592-103-0|page=92}}.

Mush and Z-Mail support configuring signatures to be sent to local users or remote users separately{{cite book|author1=Linda Lamb|author2=Jerry Peek|title=Using email effectively|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7dQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1995|publisher=O'Reilly & Assoc.|isbn=978-1-56592-103-0|page=94}}.

Mush supports saving a copy of all outgoing mail{{cite book|author1=Linda Lamb|author2=Jerry Peek|title=Using email effectively|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7dQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1995|publisher=O'Reilly & Assoc.|isbn=978-1-56592-103-0|page=95}}.

Mush supports selection of a preferred file editor{{cite book|author1=Linda Lamb|author2=Jerry Peek|title=Using email effectively|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7dQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1995|publisher=O'Reilly & Assoc.|isbn=978-1-56592-103-0|page=96}}.

Mush supports supressing the display of selected header fields{{cite book|author1=Linda Lamb|author2=Jerry Peek|title=Using email effectively|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7dQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1995|publisher=O'Reilly & Assoc.|isbn=978-1-56592-103-0|page=98,99}}.

Mush allows customization of the user prompt to include fields of the users' choosing{{cite book|author1=Linda Lamb|author2=Jerry Peek|title=Using email effectively|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7dQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1995|publisher=O'Reilly & Assoc.|isbn=978-1-56592-103-0|page=102}}.

Mush allows the creation of custom commands{{cite book|author1=Linda Lamb|author2=Jerry Peek|title=Using email effectively|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7dQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1995|publisher=O'Reilly & Assoc.|isbn=978-1-56592-103-0|page=104}}.

Z-Mail includes features copied from functionality in the C-Shell, such as command history, filename completion, command-line aliases, and the ability to execute UNIX commands from within the program{{cite book|author=Hanna Nelson|title=The Z-Mail Handbook|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=t4ZFAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1991|publisher=Oreilly & Associates Incorporated|isbn=978-0-937175-76-7|page=xix}}.

While MUSH predated the major surge in the popularity of open-source, its license may have been a factor in limiting its widespread use. The license does not fall into one of the common open source license categories. The author allowed redistribution of unmodified source code only.

Mush is copyright (c) 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 by Dan Heller.
All Rights Reserved.   This software is not in the public domain.
Redistribution of the unmodified source code is permitted as long as all
copyright notices remain intact and all other identifying notices remain
in the code and in the binary.  This includes message headers on outgoing
mail and the startup message.  Future releases may extract the release
version from the message headers of mush-originated messages to aid in
implementing features and providing backwards compatibility with previous
versions.  Modification of the source for personal use is permitted.
Modifications sent to the authors are humbly accepted and it is their
prerogative to make the mods official.  Only the "official" sources may be
redistributed and no sale of the code or any part thereof is permitted
without written consent from the authors.  Further, no part of the code
may be used in any other product, free or otherwise, without consent from
the authors.  Distribution of sources containing adaptations of the SunView
interface to XView or to any X11-based interface is expressly prohibited.
MUSH IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT WARRANTY.  AUTHORS HEREBY DISCLAIM
ALL WARRANTIES INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

An enhanced, commercial version of mush called Z-Mail was released, and won the UNIX World magazine's "Product of the Year Award" in 1991{{cite book|author=Kenneth H. Rosen|title=UNIX System V Release 4: An Introduction, 2nd Edition|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=4YIZAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|date=1 January 1996|publisher=McGraw-Hill Osborne Media|isbn=978-0-07-882130-1|page=357}}. The commercial product added an X-Windows OPEN LOOK GUI interface{{cite book|author=Kenneth H. Rosen|title=UNIX System V Release 4: An Introduction, 2nd Edition|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=4YIZAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|date=1 January 1996|publisher=McGraw-Hill Osborne Media|isbn=978-0-07-882130-1|page=357}}.

Notable users of Z-Mail (circa 1995) included Tim O'Reilly{{cite book|author1=Linda Lamb|author2=Jerry Peek|title=Using email effectively|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7dQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1995|publisher=O'Reilly & Assoc.|isbn=978-1-56592-103-0|page=13}} and the staff of O'Reilly Media{{cite book|author1=Linda Lamb|author2=Jerry Peek|title=Using email effectively|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7dQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2013|year=1995|publisher=O'Reilly & Assoc.|isbn=978-1-56592-103-0|page=102}}.

The full set of shell commands:

?              exit           map            replysender    uncmd
alias          expand         map!           save           undelete
alternates     fkey           mark           saveopts       undigest
await          flags          merge          set            unfkey
bind           folder         my_hdr         sh             unignore
bind-macro     folders        next           sort           unmap
cd             from           pick           source         unmap!
cmd            headers        pipe           stop           unmark
copy           help           preserve       top            unpreserve
curses         history        previous       type           unset
delete         ignore         print          un_hdr         update
echo           lpr            pwd            unalias        version
edit           ls             quit           unbind         write
eval           mail           replyall       unbind-macro

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.well.com/user/barts/mush.html Apparent Homepage]
• [http://www.danheller.com/zmail/README Announcement of availability of MUSH and Z-Mail source code]
• [http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/mail/mush/README.html The NetBSD Pkgsrc Readme for the MUSH package]

{{Email clients}}