				XBuffy
				08/20/97

Xbuffy was written by Bill Pemberton (wfp5p@virginia.edu) and was based on 
Xmultibiff by John Reardon.  Xmultibiff can be found at ftp.midnight.com.

I was looking for a replacement for XBiff.  I use the filter program
(it comes with elm) to separate 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.  Currently. xbuffy is only capable of 
watching mailboxes with the standard mailbox format (messages separated 
with a From line).

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 -a
	% make
	
	
If the make fails there are a few changes you may have to change for some 
platforms.  Look at the file config.h and change anything that is appropriate.

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.

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 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, some (like elm) don't.  I've made a patch to elm to 
create a mode that DOES add Status: headers.  This is known as Magic mode.  
Contact me if you want more information about the changes to elm.

Xbuffy has been tested on 
	SunOS 4.1.3
	Solaris 2.5
	Linux 2.X
	AIX 3.2.X
	AIX 4.X
	Irix 4.X
	Irix 5.X
	
Please e-mail all added features (and any problems you may have) to
wfp5p@virginia.EDU.  


