http://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=578019 http://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=578019#c18 --- Comment #18 from Eduardo Chappa <chappa@washington.edu> 2010-07-20 15:17:58 UTC --- Jan, If what you are looking for is a replacement for Alpine, at this moment I think Re-Alpine is your only alternative. What Re-Alpine lacks is direction (I really have no idea where they want to go - there are no future plans that anyone is actively working on). Re-Alpine has some branches, some of them seem as they have been finished, but there are others that are competing among each other, some code that is clearly a hack, etc. I would say that Re-Alpine is really in a "Version 0.1 stage". It is just beginning, and their developers have to learn the code. It is clear that none of them have the expertise that is required to lead this project to its next step, so that we will have a non rusting Re-Alpine for the coming years. I do not know the state of the code in Alpine. I think they are concentrating in developing the web version, since the University of Washington is going to use it officially. The old version WebPine is being retired, and WebAlpine will take its place. At this moment it does not make sense to start a new project unless that project starts with huge improvements over Re-Alpine. The community might question why that improvement was not added to Re-Alpine. I think it's too early to try to find a replacement for Re-Alpine, since it is still maintained. My hunch is that it is going to take a while for the code in Alpine and in Re-Alpine to differ substantially. I have tried the Alpine svn code and in general it is reasonable. If I were you, I would test that code and release as an update of Alpine. In regards to contributing to Alpine, i do not know if it makes sense, since they have not made a release, nor there are news about when one might come. In my ideal world, I would continue with Alpine since I know that the Alpine Team writes good code, and they know the internals of their program. I hope that Re-Alpine takes off some day (in a real way). I know you are worried about adding features that the community wants. What are those? at this time I can think of maildir, and PGP support. The former exists and is reasonable. The latter does not exist, although many people have tried. Maybe you need to try find someone to help with what is missing to do there, so you can have it too. You can simply decide if you want to add it to Alpine or distribute it as Re-Alpine. Can you think of any other features the community wants? I do not know what the future might bring, but probably people will try to contribute them to Re-Alpine. At this time there is so little difference, that the move from Alpine to Re-Alpine makes no difference. You can patch Alpine if needed. I hope this makes sense. -- Eduardo -- Configure bugmail: http://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug.