This is an alpha of a Mail::Folder module package for perl5.

This module provides an interface to email folders that is independent
from the physical folders.  The actual work on folders is done with
folder interface modules lying 'beneath' the Mail::Folder interface.

WARNING! Think twice about using this module in it's current release
WARNING! on mail folders that you consider important.  At the very
WARNING! least make sure you have backup copies.

WARNING! This code is in evaluation phase.  The interface will
WARNING! probably change in non-backwards-compatible ways.

To build and install the package execute the following commands:
	perl Makefile.PL
	make			# optional
	make test		# optional :-)
	make install

The TODO file has information on features that aren't present yet.  It
also has some general thoughts on futures.  The NEWS file has summary
information on the changes from release to release.

The following modules are required:
    MailTools	- for handling mail messages
    File-Tools	- for file copying in the mbox interface

I've included two folder interfaces:
    + Mail::Folder::Mbox - ye olde standard mailbox format (ugh).
    + Mail::Folder::Emaul - a folder interface of my own design.
	It is vaguely MHish. This serves as an example of hooking a
	folder interface into Mail::Folder.  Eventually, it will grow
	into a full-featured folder architecture, but for now it's an
	adequate example.  I have no plans to make it a 100% MH
	interface, but it should actually be able to read MH folders,
	albeit without some of the fancier features like sequences and
	the like.

Check the documentation for Mail::Folder and the provided folder
interfaces for information on using the package and adding folder
interfaces.

I'm still pondering the details of interfacing to MailTools and
MIME-parser.  Expect changes here.

It is 'highly unlikely' that Mail::Folder will ever be capable of
abstracting every folder feature of every MUA out there in a truly
transparent way.  I don't, however, think that this detracts from some
of it's more interesting potential uses:
    + 100% pure perl MUAs
    + perl scripting against mail folders (folder conversions are a snap :-)
	Expect some example scripts in the near future. Larry Virden
	mentioned how nice a filter class ala mailagent would be.
	That would make a nice addition to the suite of mail modules.
	Maybe mailagent will evolve into something like that someday.
    + accessing folders from otherwise non-email packages

Please report any bugs/suggestions to <kjj@primenet.com>.

Copyright (c) 1996 Kevin Johnson <kjj@primenet.com>.

All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can
redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.