[aklug] Re: Switched to Alpine

On Mon, 10 Nov 2008, Arthur Corliss wrote:

> On Sat, 8 Nov 2008, Christopher Howard wrote:
>
>> Following the advice of another Alpine user, I decided to use multiple
>> .pinerc files instead of roles. Once I setup some convenient bash
>> aliases, it is really easy to switch back and forth between accounts (or
>> better, keep two instances open in separate virtual consoles).
>
> Ugh. If you get the hang of roles I think you'll find it'll make your life
> a lot easier.

Yes, 'if'. Unfortunately the Alpine training session I attended ended
right before we got to that. So I'm not sure when I'll get around to it.

>
>> I'm finding that Alpine provides a very fast interface, and I feel a lot
>> more efficient responding to mail and moving it around, than when I was
>> using a GUI client. Alpine integrates with Pico, which feels somewhat
>> similiar to Emacs, my preferred editor.
>
> Pico & pilot are also in Pine, but I've always reconfigured Pine to use vim
> instead. All other editors make my skin crawl.
>

Actually, I really would like it to integrate with Emacs, or at least
Nano. But I do not know how to do that or if it is even possible.

>> The only real issue I've had so far: for some reason, Alpine has trouble
>> with IMAP authenication on one of my accounts. Sometimes it works just
>> fine, but other times the SSL authentication fails, and it has to switch
>> to plain authentication. (Which makes me a little nervous.)
>
> That seems a bit odd. What error are you seeing?
>

After entering my password the first time after turning on Alpine, it says
"Authentication information missing, attempting plain authentication" or
something close to that. Then it takes my password again, but the same
thing happens. Then it works on the third try.

Sometimes it works the first time without problems. (?) Also, this only
seems to be a problem with one of my IMAP accounts, but does not affect
another account from a different provider.

>> I thought it was pretty cool when I found out Alpine can easily pipe your
>> commands to an external program.
>
> Very useful for adding GPG signatures, etc. You'll find a lot of uses for
> that.
>
>> Alpine seems to have about 300 hundred configuration options, which
>> (thankfully) can all be set within the program interface. I'm looking
>> forward to exploring some of those, as well as setting up my own filters.
>>
>> I also really like the 'headers switch' command that allows you to
>> instantly switch back and forth between full and brief headers.
>
> I know that Alpine's the successor to Pine, but so far everything you've
> mentioned feature-wise was already in Pine. I'll have to read up to find
> out what the impetus for Alpine was in the first place.

I'm certainly no expert on the subject, since I've never even used Pine.
But I was told three things: 1) Better IMAP support; 2) More free license;
3) Some university somewhere really relied on Pine, but wanted to create a
version that would continue to be maintained and improved.

>
> --Arthur Corliss
> Live Free or Die
>

--
Christopher Howard
choward@indicium.us
http://www.indicium.us
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