INTRO

This version of mailagent has been written by Raphael Manfredi based on
previous work from Larry Wall, published in dist-2.0.

HISTORY

The mailagent history is somewhat linked to the dist package history. When
I discovered dist-2.0 in August 1990 and began extending metaconfig and the
pat tools, I also began extending Larry Wall's mailagent, which was included
in dist-2.0 along with the mailpatch command.

I started adding mailhelp, maildist and maillist because I needed them, and
then left France in March 1991 to go write an Eiffel compiler until March 1993.
Since I was getting a lot of mail at ISE, I felt the need for a real mail
filter and not just an @SH command processor. Moreover, I was getting tired of
having "Command mails" showing in my mailbox. The only mail filter I knew at
that time was ELM's, and it was not meeting my requirements.

Therefore, I started extending mailagent late 1991 up to the point where it
became a real and flexible mail filter (according to my standards anyway)
and since I thought others would like to play with it too, I released it
as a beta 3.0 (known as version 2.9) on comp.sources.misc in July 1992 after
7 months of hard work.

I got a lot of positive feedback on this program, and therefore I continued
to extend it. I also began to see some limitations in the 2.9 version and
started adding new features (like perl escapes, user-defined commands,
etc...). I originally intended to make version 3.0 part of dist-3.0, but
mailagent was starting to get a life of its own and not really a part of dist.
However, @SH commands like ``package'' are meant to be used in conjunction
with metaconfig, one of dist's components.

In March 1993, I left ISE and returned to France to join A.C.R.I.. Although
mailagent-3.0 was virtually finished by that time, I needed to release dist-3.0
first due to some intensive user-pressure ;-). It's only late October 1993 that
I found the time to finalize the manual page and add all the small features
stacked in my TODO list...

CREDITS

My first thanks will go to Larry Wall <lwall@netlabs.com> who wrote perl
in the first place. I would never have dreamed of implementing mailagent
from scratch if perl had not been invented.

Then I'd like to thank all the early mailagent users for their useful input,
suggestions, encouragement, contributions, constructive criticism or bug
reports, and especially (by alphabetical order on the first name):

	Akihiro Hashimoto <cik1a03@dominic.ipc.chiba-u.ac.jp>
	Andrew Hardie <ash@cellar.demon.co.uk>
	Andy Glew <glew@ichips.intel.com>
	Arthur Siffert <siffert@spot.Colorado.EDU>
	Bertrand Meyer <bertrand@eiffel.com>
	Bill Campbell <billc@sierra.com>
	Bill Wohler <wohler@hw1175.sap-ag.de>
	Bjoern Stabell <bjoerns@stud.cs.uit.no>
	Brent Chapman <brent@GreatCircle.COM>
	CJ Canon <Clement.J.Canon@arp.anu.edu.au>
	Charles A. Lind <lind@eng.umd.edu>
	Chris Lewis <clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca>
	Christian Bertin <bertin@acri.fr>
	Christoph von Stuckrad <stucki@math.fu-berlin.de>
	Christopher Davis <ckd@eff.org>
	Dan O'Neill <dano@Cadence.COM>
	Dan Pierson <pierson@kukri.enet.dec.com>
	Darrell Schiebel <dschieb@muse.cv.nrao.edu>
	David Giddy <d.giddy@trl.oz.au>
	David Vincenzetti <vince@dsi.unimi.it>
	David W. Tamkin <dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com>
	Edward Feustel <efeustel@ida.org>
	Eric M. Carroll <eric@enfm.utcc.utoronto.ca>
	Erland Unruh <Erland.Unruh@malmo.trab.se>
	Forrest Aldrich <visgraph!forrie>
	Geoffrey Hart <ghart@ems.cdc.com>
	George Entenman <ge@mcnc.org>
	George Smith <gbs@stratus.swdc.stratus.com>
	George W. Wood <wood@ibmoto.com>
	Graham Stoney <greyham@research.canon.oz.au>
	Henry Kautz <kautz@research.att.com>
	J. Mark Noworolski <jmn@crown.Berkeley.EDU>
	JJ Lay <csjjlay@knuth.mtsu.edu>
	James Ault <aultj@rpi.edu>
	Jan Polcher <polcher@lmd.ens.fr>
	Jan-Piet Mens <jpm@Logix.DE>
	Janna Wemekamp <jw@cxcbr.cx.oz.au>
	Jean-Marc Calvez <calvez@acri.fr>
	Jean-Marc Eurin <eurin@acri.fr>
	Jim McCoy <mccoy@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu>
	John Plate <plate@infotek.dk>
	Jost Krieger <x920031@rubb.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de>
	Harald Koch <chk@enfm.utcc.utoronto.ca>
	Keith Pyle <keith@ibmoto.com>
	Keith Rose <rose@ultryx.com>
	Kent Landfield <kent@imd.sterling.com>
	Khalid Sattar <khalid@harlequin.co.uk>
	Kresten Krab Thorup <krab@iesd.auc.dk>
	Larry W. Virden <lvirden@cas.org>
	Mark Allman <mallman@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu>
	Mark Kristie <clueless@camelot.bradley.edu>
	Mats Lidell <Mats.Lidell@eua.ericsson.se>
	Matthew Simmons <zarthac@camelot.bradley.edu>
	Michael Elkins <michael@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
	Michael Peppler <mpeppler@itf0.itf.ch>
	NW Thomson <nige@kauri.vuw.ac.nz>
	Nigel Metheringham <nigelm@ohm.york.ac.uk>
	Ofer Inbar <cos@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu>
	Pascal Poissonnier <ppoisson@acri.fr>
	Patrick Labbaye <labbaye@acri.fr >
	Paul Raines <raines@bohr.physics.upenn.edu>
	Peter J Diaz de Leon <peter@miller.cs.uwm.edu>
	Peter N. Wan <peter@cc.gatech.edu>
	Ralf E. Stranzenbach <ralf@reswi.en.open.de>
	Richard Schneider <rschneid@erc.epson.com>
	Robert Brown <robertb@Barra.COM>
	Scott A. McIntyre <scott@shrug.dur.ac.uk>
	Scott Blachowicz <scott@statsci.com>
	Scott Robinson <shr@ichips.intel.com>
	Scott Schwartz <schwartz@groucho.cs.psu.edu>
	Sean Casey <sean@ms.uky.edu>
	Shigeya Suzuki <shigeya@foretune.co.jp>
	Soumendra Daas <dos@remus.ee.byu.edu>
	Sterling IMD <root@imd.sterling.com>
	Steve Hill <steveh@okam.corp.sgi.com>
	Syd Weinstein <syd@dsinc.dsi.com>
	Terry Hull <terry@eece.ksu.edu>
	Thomas Richter <richter@chemie.fu-berlin.de>
	Thunder-Thumbs <siffert@rintintin.Colorado.EDU>
	Tom Christiansen <tchrist@wraeththu.cs.colorado.edu>
	Tom Limoncelli <tom_limoncelli@Warren.MENTORG.COM>
	Tom Zheng <tzheng@cs.purdue.edu>
	Valery Alexeev <alexeev@math.utah.edu>
	Wes Price <ww2@bullwinkle.ssc.gov>
	Wolfram Schmidt <wschmidt@iao.fhg.de>
	Yeung Chee Wai <cheewai@uxmail.ust.hk>
	alexeev@math.utah.edu
	drw@bourbaki.mit.edu
	jim@morse.ilo.dec.com
	rschneid@callisto.erc.epson.com
	rsmith@proteus.arc.nasa.gov
	s090@brems.ii.uib.no
	sondeen@ISI.EDU

If I forgot your name, please let me know, and accept my apologies -- not
necessarily in that order ;-).

Deepest thanks go to:

	Christian Bertin <bertin@acri.fr>
	Eric M. Carroll <eric@enfm.utcc.utoronto.ca>
	Graham Stoney <greyham@research.canon.oz.au>
	Jean-Marc Eurin <eurin@acri.fr>

for their active contributions, with a special mention to Jean-Marc Eurin
for carefully reviewing the release, installing it and proofreading the (long)
manual page before my official posting to comp.sources.misc.

Finally, thank you Shigeya Suzuki <shigeya@foretune.co.jp> for hosting the
agent-users mailing list. Send mail to majordomo@foretune.co.jp to subscribe.

	Raphael Manfredi <ram@acri.fr>
	Lyon, France, December 1993
