XCmail 2.2 review
DownloadXCmail is a MIME and multi POP3 server capable mailtool for X11 using the Xclasses layout library
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XCmail is a MIME and multi POP3 server capable mailtool for X11 using the Xclasses layout library. XCmail was designed completely object orientated and by this may be improved easily.
The main purpose of XCmail is to read and write mails which may have any kind of data added (attached). For this XCmail can handle MIME types and has so called "helpers" to show different types. And XCmail offers "encoders" which encode and decode binary data into ASCII to allow the transport as mail over the Internet.
The GUI (graphical user interface) was designed to be mostly self explaining but of course there may be some things which are not explaining them self like settings or standard names that are unknown to first users.
The GUI was designed to be as simple as it can be and self explaining. Though, there are a few buttons which are not so easy to understand fo first users because are not standard.
XCmail also offers "encoders" which encode and decode binary data into ASCII to allow the transport via mail over the Internet.
The program works with a local mailbox (eg. /var/spool/mail) and multiple POP3 servers. With POP3 XCmail uses the faster UIDL function of POP3 servers (may be disabled if servers don't support this) and has a so called "UIDL history": If you get mails from your POP3 server but don't want to remove them there and later remove them only locally other mailers will read this mails again. Not XCmail! The UIDL history keeps a history of the mails read from the server so it won't read them again.
XCmail supports multiple mailboxes, has an address book for your favority email addresses and XCmail may start external programs to encode mails or handle MIME types.
XCmail also supportes PGP within PGP MIME (RFC 2015)!
Here are some key features of "XCmail":
allows the user to add multiple parts on one mail, eg. send files together with a text (called attachment)
get mails from multiple remote mail servers
send mails to a remote mail server using simple message transfer protokol (SMTP)
authenticate on SMTP servers - is sometimes required on SMTP servers to stop spammers from relaying
authenticate at POP3 server before sending mails via SMTP - this is required by some mail servers if they don't offer SMTP AUTH
encrypt mails so unwanted persons can not read them
encrypt complete MIME mails - including the attachments. This is a standard specified in RFC 2015
send a nice and small picture of yourself with any mail - this is shown if the mail is read
speedup for POP3
this avoids XCmail from reading the same mails multiple times from the mail server
to send files (eg. binaries) with a mail they must be encoded - XCmail offers various encoders, from standard uuencode and base64 to Mac HQX
because not all attached files are programs XCmail offers an open interface to handle those data - eg. open an external viewer for pictures
with plugins XCmail may be tuned - eg. some encoders and helpers are plugins so they may not be installed if a users doesn't need them - this required less space on disk and memory
ever send a mail and later seen that it had some words misspelled? With ISpell this is no longer a problem. ISpell offers checks in many langauges!
Put extra headers in every mail you send, eg some more information on you or some extra settings for mail agents
put your favorite recipients in XCmail's addressbook
keeps an second internal addressbook for faster choosing an email recipient
searches your addressbooks for a matching name or address during you type the recipient
group different folder to one visible vfolder - for better overview
Don't understand the language of a mail? XCmail may translate it for you by using altavista's babelfish service!
You want to archiv many or every mail? This takes a lot of disk space?! Use XCmails folder archiv which compresses archived folders using GZIP standard
sort or remove your mails before you "must" read them
put are your favorite addresses in the addressbook
don't know how to translate a word? use the dictionarys in the Web within the XCmail GUI
using Spam Bouncer as spam filter plugin
delete selected mails from your POP3 server
big mails can be transfered explicitely from your POP3 server
vCards can be read and a personal or official (from your job) vCard can be sent with every mail (you may choose which of them)
mails of the incoming folder may be moved to a received folder automatically by many options (after reading, replying, forwarding a mail or if it is some days old)
helps first time users to setup XCmail
Requirements:
Xclasses 1.3.0 or later
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