From: normr@coos.dartmouth.edu (Norman D. Roye)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: BlitzMail ?
Keywords: nope, noway, nah
Date: 9 Oct 92 04:51:01 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

dauter@terminator.cc.umich.edu (Michael Dautermann) writes:

>In article <1992Sep9.210630.17541@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov> sgrenander@NASAMAIL.JPL.NASA.GOV (Sven Grenander) writes:
>>At the suggestion of an earlier poster in this forum I downloaded a
>>copy of BlitzMail from the Dartmouth ftp site. It does indeed look
>>interesting, but the ftp version doesn't have what is needed to set
>>up a server (or whatever keeps addresses and passwords). Thus I
>>never got past the "enter name & password" dialog.
>>
>>Does anyone have an e-mail address for the Dartmouth folks who
>>implemented this potentially nice application ? 


>somebody uploaded a copy of Blitzmail to mac.archive.  It turns out
>that Blitzmail was programmed solely for Dartmouth and when I asked
>"postmaster@dartmouth.edu", I got a response that it was only put
>up on the a Dartmouth FTP site to allow Dartmouth students to check
>their mail when they are at home/away from school.


BlitzMail is really a superb mail program!  It's much better than anything else
I've seen.  Of course, I have a slight bias as a Dartmouth student and a
consultant for Dartmouth's User Services Department.

The BlitzMail server uses what we call the DND (Dartmouth Name Directory) to
keep track of account names and passwords.  The DND used to live on an old
machine which was running a custom database, so BlitzMail, though an excellent
program, was of no use to anyone outside of the Dartmouth community.  Within
the past year, the mail servers and the DND were ported to newer machines, and
I believe the custom database was ditched for something more flexible.  Exactly
what the something is, I don't know.  At anyrate, BlitzMail was also recenlty
adapted so that it can use MacTCP as a replacement for the custom protocol we're
using here (which is actually much nicer and more user-friendly than MacTCP).

Don't quote me on this, but I believe that there are a few other sites that are
now getting set up with BlitzMail.  I think that Reed University might be one
of them.

One of the nicest things about BlitzMail is how easy the tool palette makes
checking your In-Box, composing a new message, and creating and using address
lists.  When you're composing a message, sending carbon-copies, blind
carbon-copies, replying with or without selected text from the original message
are a snap.  The incarnation that we're using on campus supports nice features
like automatic reply messages (to let people who sent you mail know that you're
away on vacation, for example), return receipts for important messages (these
only work locally), and document enclosures (these also only work locally).

By far THE BEST thing about BlitzMail is how easy the Name
Directory makes addressing and signing on for users and consultants alike.  The
directory does all the work of resolving names to addresses, so that user's
don't have to worry about it.  To get mail to someone locally, all you have to
do is type the person's name normally (eg. John Smith).  If the directory finds
more than one entry matching that name, it will tell you, list them, and let you
pick the right one.  No stupid account numbers to remember.  To send something
to someone here from the outside, all you really need is the person's name.  You
send to  "firstname.initial.lastname@dartmouth.edu"  and the initial is optional
if the name is a unique entry in the directory.  You can also give BlitzMail a
list of your nicknames, and if that nickname or a combination of nicknames is
unique in the directory, the directory will resolve the nickname to your account
name when you sign on or receive a message.  For example, I listed Norm and my
initials, NDR, as nicknames.  Now I can sign on and be addressed locally as
"Norm Roye" or "ndr" and people sending mail from remote sites can address it to
"Norm.Roye@dartmouth.edu" or simply "ndr@dartmouth.edu".  Even though I'm
forwarding all of my mail to my unix account to force myself to learn unix,
no one has to bother with remembering my unix account name or the name of the
unix machine.

Pretty nice, huh?  I've probably told you more than you want to know, but just
like most of the people here, I'm a BlitzMail junky!  (The verb "to Blitz" has
even become a regular part of the vocabulary around here.  "Blitz me tomorrow
to let me know when you're free for lunch.")

To be fair, I should also mention the two things that BlitzMail doesn't allow
you to do, that I really wish it would:  With BlitzMail, you can't use filters
(yet -?) and you can't move messages to folders other than the In-Box or
BlitzMail trash.  Maybe someday when we have more server space...

PLTC,
(Peace, Love, Truth, and Courage)

-Norm Roye
 Consultant at large
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|     Norm.Roye@Dartmouth.edu         |       Computer Resource Center         |
|     normr@coos.dartmouth.edu        |       Dartmouth College                |
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