XBuffy
				
Xbuffy is based on Xmultibiff by John Reardon.  Xmultibiff can be found
at ftp.midnight.com.

Xbuffy was written by Bill Pemberton (wfp5p@virginia.edu).

I was looking for a replacement for XBiff.  I use the filter program
(it comes with elm) to seperate my mail into several different 
mailboxes.  I looked at a lot of replacements for XBiff until I 
found Xmultibiff.  Xmultibiff was very promising, but it didn't
do quite what I wanted it to do, so I modified it to create XBuffy.

Basically, XBuffy (and Xmultibiff) is a XBiff-type program with a lot
of new options.  With XBuffy you can watch multiple mailboxes.  When
new mail arrives, you can have a pop up window showing the From: and
Subject: lines.  You can also set it up to launch your favorite mail
reader when you click on a box.

This version also incorporates a new feature which will let you monitor
newsgroups in the same way you monitor mailboxes.  It parses your
.newsrc and uses NNTP to monitor any given group or groups.  It will
keep constant track of how many unread articles are in a specified
newsgroup(s).  Also, when new articles come in, it will pop up the From
and Subject lines of the article just like it pops them up for
mailboxes.  Note that this feature won't be able to see new incoming
articles if you are using a version of NNTP prior to 1.5.11t5 (the
problem is with the NNTP server, not Xbuffy).

Xbuffy uses the Athena Widget library and the libDyn package (libDyn
is included here).

To build:

	% xmkmf
	% make

The Makefile may need to be edited to fit your system.  If you want to
install the program, the application defaults file, and the man page in
the places appropriate for your system (and you have the permissions)
try:

	% make install
	% make install.man

If all goes well, you will get the program xbuffy.  To run it read
the man page to find out which of the extensive options you like and
then type:


	% xbuffy <options> -mail <mailboxes> -news <newsgroups>

I would also suggest that you look at and possibly customize the file
XBuffy.ad before you install it in the application defaults
directory on your system.  You may also want to keep your own custom X
resources in your personal X resources file (usually .Xdefaults).

To learn of the usefulness of multiple mailboxes and incoming mail
processing, check out procmail written by S.R. van den Berg.  It can be
used to sort your incoming mail into separate files, start programs when
mail arrives, and a host of other things.  A recent version can be
gotten from ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (137.226.112.172) in
pub/unix/procmail.tar.Z.

I personally use filter to process incoming mail.  Filter comes with elm
and is much simpler to use then procmail.  Some mailers (including elm) 
cause a problem with xbuffy.  When you read a mail message, a Status: header
is added to the message to show that the message has been read.  Many 
mailers (like elm) will only add this header to message in your real 
mailbox.  This means that xbuffy can not tell if you've read mail in 
other folders.  Some mailers have configuration options that force it to
add Status: headers, elm doesn't.  I've made a patch to elm to create a
mode that DOES add Status: headers.  This is known as Magic mode.  Look
in the directory elm.patch for information about this.

Please e-mail all added features (and any problems you may have) to
wfp5p@virginia.EDU.