Elm (e-mail client)

Elm, a text-based e-mail client commonly found on Unix systems, became popular as one of the first e-mail clients to use a text user interface, and as a utility with freely-available source code. The name "elm" originated from the phrase "ELectronic Mail".

Dave Taylor (currently with Intuitive Systems) developed elm while working for Hewlett-Packard. [cite web | title=Dave Taylor's Biographical Information | url=http://www.intuitive.com/bio.shtml | accessdate=2008-02-06 ] Development later passed to a team of volunteers. The latest (as of Jul 2007) public release occurred in August 2005, version 2.5.8 (available via the site "below").

Other popular e-mail readers which followed elm and took it as an inspiration include the Mutt and Pine programs. From about 1995 elm slipped in popularity and functionality, and it now sees relatively little use.

Bill Pemberton of the University of Virginia currently maintains elm.A former Elm Coordinator was Sydney Weinstein from the Myxa Corporation.

Release history

To get an idea of the period when elm was used and developed, this is a list of major.minor releases, included the last .patch level.

* 1986-11-30 first release?
* 1987-03-08 elm2
* 1989-04-12 elm2.2
* 1990-12-16 elm-2.3.0.tar.Z
* 1993-01-05 elm-2.4.tar.Z
* 1996-01-26 elm2.4.25.tar.Z
* 1999-03-24 elm2.5.0.tar.gz
* 2004-05-21 elm2.5.7.tar.gz
* 2005-08-18 elm2.5.8.tar.gz

ee also

*Comparison of e-mail clients

References

External links

* [http://www.instinct.org/elm/ Elm homepage]
* [http://viridian.itc.virginia.edu/elm2.5.8.tar.gz The newest version of Elm]
* [http://www.guckes.net/mutt/vs.elm.html A comparison of Elm with Mutt]
* [http://www.nic.funet.fi/index/unix/packages/elm elm packages on funet.fi]