It all started when I was asked to look at a couple of oldish email programs. R&J had tried to set them up but found that the 2 programs could not forward their emails.
So I abandoned Yam and spent the rest of the day and much of the evening experimenting and trying to figure out why they could'nt get them to function properly.
After a time,I found myself enjoying this so much that I eventually ended up looking at a fairly wide variety of email programs. Some were shareware while others were offered as free.
The problem that these ppl were facing was not exactly a new one. In fact, it was the old problem of having to fill in data that on some ocassions were hard to distinguish - especially if one was not used to making distinctions between incoming and outgoing mail server syntax.
And to be honest, I could sympathise (at least on some ocassions) why it proved difficult. It was often due to the programmer assuming that all amiga users held degrees not only in Amiga OS but also in advanced analog and digital modem telecommunications.
Had they owned proper versions of these program, they could simply have referred to the instructions contained in the docs.
Looking back now, I am quite amazed how we have advanced.
Oddly enough, it seemed quite easy in the very early days, yet modem technology was in its infancy. I don't recall having to fill out reames of info back around the late 80s-early 90s, just basic items like telephone number, seria baud rates (9,000 was extreme tops then), password etc - when we pressed "connect", the modem activated and we were thrilled when our written words sped on (intact) to far away places.
But TBH, there were not all that many places one could visit then. It was mostly bulletin boards and the ocassional (keen) amiga user who braved asking newly forming internet companies for personal ISP access. Protocols such as Zmodem and words like "tosser", (yes it was a recognised term) "TrapToss", "Fidonet", CompuServe, CIX, Hayes compatible command, RS232 & parity were among some of the common lingo back then.
By the early 90s, the likes of NComm, Term & Terminous 2 had come along and these brought us an elementary form of GUI to our A500s and A2ks. Web pages from all manner of firms and sources started to appear almost overnight.
During this time, many keen Amiga programmers worked hard at code on their A500s (often through the dark hours of the night) and then offered us their newly formed beta email creations.
It was quite exciting times back then. Pity after Commodore's demise and series of takeovers it all seemed to go belly up :(
Some of the email progs I experimented with yesterday include:
- AEMail - John Zacharias
- Monsoon - Gary Colville
- NAP_Mailer - Michael Graeber (German)
- ADMail - (Simon Brown)
- Eucalyptus - Paul Schifferer - (beta version)
- NetMail - by Ricardo Solmi - uses ZedRexx.
I linked some to GoldED 4 for email writting (one or two progs offer users a choice between internal or external letter editing).
Machine used:
A2k with Blizzard 060-50mhz +PII gfx, MultiCardIII via a somewhat old 97 version of Genesis as TCP/IP stack (I normally use Miami) via an external PC 56K Aztech modem.
The Inst string I used was AT&F&D2 which attained speeds on a par with my Robotics Courier modem.
It's been an eventful day. I enjoyed setting up and using these programs (they all still appear to work well enough) but TBH, it's good to get back to Yam :)
Peter