VMS PINE available on our VMS cluster

A version of PINE ported to VMS has been made available on our
VMS cluster, in the PD software package area.  Note that we 
offer this software as it is, without any guaranteed support.  
If you are not willing to encounter a few loose ends, and cope 
with some features that either don't work or behave oddly, 
then this package is probably not for you.

This news item gives you a brief introduction to the package.
You may refer to the web document

http://www.alanflavell.org.uk/vms-pine.html

for a more detailed narrative.


WHAT IS IT?

PINE is a popular mail interface for Internet mail on unix 
systems, PCs etc.  It is supported by Washington University for 
a range of systems, but the "port" to VMS comes from Yehavi
Bourvine of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is _not_
supported by Washington U.  Any reference to "VMS PINE" in this
news item means this particular "port" of the package.

You can use this VMS version as a kind of alternative to the 
VMS MAIL command.  BUT PINE CAN ONLY SEND MAIL TO INTERNET
ADDRESSES - you can NOT send mail to DECNET or CBS (UK Greybook)
addresses.


WHY WOULD I WANT TO USE IT INSTEAD OF (VMS) MAIL?

PINE supports MIME format.  Thus, you can read mail that has
been sent to you in MIME format (including enclosures, so long
as those enclosures make sense on a VMS system).  VMS MAIL
displays such mails without interpreting the MIME format, which
is messy (for quoted-printable) or useless (for base64 encoding).
PINE can also send MIME-format documents to other users (but 
please do not attempt this without first verifying that the
recipient is in a position to understand MIME-format mails).

You might also want to use PINE because you are familiar with
it from unix, or because you want to gain experience with
it in a familiar (VMS) environment preparatory to using it
in an unfamiliar (unix) environment.  PINE is available on the
PPE group unix (DEC Ultrix and DEC ALPHA OSF/1) systems as well
as on the Departmental mail server; the University-recommended
mail interface for unix systems is in fact ELM, but PINE seems 
to be popular with users.

VMS PINE works with the same mail folders as VMS MAIL, so you can
try PINE for a while alongside MAIL if you wish, and drop PINE
if you don't like it, without any harm being done.


WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS?

The principal features of PINE have been ported to the VMS
environment, but there are some discrepancies.  Many of the 
finer details have not been implemented for VMS, and if 
attempted will either report failure (e.g renaming a folder) 
or will simply not produce the desired effect (e.g printing).

VMS PINE IS _NOT_ SUPPORTED BY WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY.  PLEASE
DO _NOT_ ATTEMPT TO REPORT ANY BUGS TO THEM.  BY ALL MEANS 
REPORT PROBLEMS TO ME (A J F), BUT I GIVE NO COMMITMENT TO
SOLVE THEM.  THIS PACKAGE IS MADE AVAILABLE "AS IS". 

As already stated above: if you attempt to send mail to DECNET
or CBS addresses (or to REPLY to mail that has arrived from
DECNET or CBS correspondents) it WILL FAIL.  PINE can _view_
these kinds of mail alright, but can only _send_ mail to 
INTERNET addresses (SMTP protocol).  Although PINE can be
used on any node of the VMS cluster to _view_ mail, it can
only _send_ mail when it is running on one of the nodes that
have access to the MULTINET package (Internet TCP/IP software):
this is currently true of V6 and V2 only.

If you receive a MIME-format document that is an image, then
PINE will attempt to use the XV program to view it.  If you can
successfully execute XV from the command prompt, then you should
find that PINE can successfully view such documents via XV.
This is presently feasible on V6 (and, of course, you need to
have your DISPLAY set up correctly, and your workstation
security options set to receive X Windows from V6, etc.).


HOW DO I USE PINE?

As a preliminary, you should have the local PD library definition
included in your LOGIN.COM - if you do not already have this, then
it is

$ @DISK$DATA:[GOWDY]PD_LOGIN

To start VMS PINE, simply issue the command PINE.  The first time 
that you do this, it will invite you to have an introductory 
document emailed to you from Washington.  You may accept or 
decline this offer as you choose, but please remember that this 
version of PINE is _NOT_ supported by Washington, so in spite of 
their encouragement to report any bugs to them, you should not 
do so.  PINE has excellent on-line help (but written for the unix
environment, not customised to peculiarities of VMS).

I have an 18-page Postscript document called "Getting Started with
Pine" which might be found useful (again, it relates to the unix
version, rather than to VMS).

Once PINE has started up, you can select any mail folder, either
via the L(ist) command or by issuing the G(o) command and typing
the name of the required folder, e.g NEWMAIL.  Note that while 
you are in NEWMAIL and more new mail arrives, VMS PINE will not 
immediately see it: VMS PINE will see the new mail when you next
open the NEWMAIL folder.

PINE will create a configuration file called .PINERC in your
login directory.  From within PINE, you can make some changes to
the configuration: use S(etup) from the main menu and then 
C(onfig).

In particular I suggest that you change the following:

personal-name        - set to taste (mixed-case is nice)

customized-hdrs      - Bcc: youruserid 

(By configuring a Bcc: header and inserting your own user id, PINE
will by default automatically send a copy of your outgoing mails into
your NEWMAIL folder, just as VMS MAIL's SET COPY_SELF does it.
PINE's FCC facility does not work under VMS).

Do not change user-domain, smtp-server, image-viewer, default-fcc
and folder-collections.  There are said to be some problems if you
attempt to set inbox-path=NEWMAIL, but I have not been able to 
find out what they are.

Check the above-mentioned web document (which will be updated as
we gain experience) for fuller details of this VMS PINE package.
Note that if you inspect the automatically-generated .PINERC, you will
find comments that relate to the unix/PC implementations and may
involve features that do not work in the VMS version.

Good luck, and proceed with caution!!!

p.s PINE can be used as a usenet news reader and posting client,
but I have not investigated this myself.

A.J.Flavell