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  • HERMES Mail for Mac

    From Nick Werner-Matavka@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jul 4 20:25:04 2022
    As you may be aware if you are subscribed to the Eudora Dev listserv,
    HERMES Aurora (a true continuation of Eudora for Windows) successfully compiles, links, and runs; screenshots are available, and it releases
    in a little under a month. This has freed time and resources for a serious attempt at HERMES Mail (for the Mac).

    Make no mistake, though, this will be a whole different animal. There
    was little doubt, from our side, that we'd be able to get Aurora in
    production; the questions we asked ourselves in relation to that
    product all began with the word "how". In simple terms, it was a
    low-risk endeavour. The Windows product is also qualitatively and quantitatively different from Mail for the Mac (hence the name
    change). That said, Eudora for Windows only ever was a pale imitation
    of the original Mac product, notwithstanding that its foundations have
    been rock solid rather than the shifting sands of Apple Computer
    post-Steve Jobs. It is historically incumbent upon us to give it "the
    old college try" but...

    The practical upshot of all this is, I'll be refocusing on Mail in the
    months and years ahead, but only if the price is right. This will be
    a (relatively) expensive, risky, and altogether questionable
    endeavour... which means that although the HERMES projects have earned
    ~$1,500 Am. in "pre-sales" this year chiefly from Windows users, more
    is needed to make Mail for Mac a feasible proposition. The target for
    this year (PIDOOMA) is $5,000 Can., which translates to about $3,500
    Am.

    I've published a somewhat technical, but legible roadmap of the Mac
    project at our Indiegogo page, which is here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hermes-mail-8-0-the-final-stretch#/

    Please consider contributing; you will have access to an early build
    for Mac as soon as it is written, just as we have done, or are doing,
    for the Windows half of the project.

    Cordially,

    Nicholas Edward Werner-Matavka

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  • From Hauke Fath@21:1/5 to Nick Werner-Matavka on Wed Jul 6 12:49:13 2022
    Nick Werner-Matavka <n.theodore.matavka.files@gmail.com> wrote:

    I've published a somewhat technical, but legible roadmap of the Mac
    project at our Indiegogo page, which is here: <https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hermes-mail-8-0-the-final-stretch#/>

    I looked into the fumbling attempts at developing Mac Eudora some time
    ago, and got in touch with the CHM <https://computerhistory.org/blog/the-eudora-email-client-source-code/>
    people about the state of the Macintosh source tree. They had a hard
    time seeing the problem with the resource files, and why it would matter
    - "You can look at the sources, isn't that good enough?" - and I gave up
    in the end. CHM claims a five year effort for unlocking the sources, but
    how much of that was actually spent on technical issues?

    Looking at <http://basalgangster.macgui.com/RetroMacComputing/The_Long_View/Entries/2013/3/30_Building_Photoshop.html>,
    they similarly mishandled the Photoshop 1 sources (MSDOS line endings
    instead of Mac, as a giveaway), but ResEdit didn't exist during its development, so resources were compiled from text files. IMHO, they
    should steer clear of things they don't know how to handle, and cannot
    be arsed to find somebody competent to. It's not like people who have
    written and built "traditional Mac" software have gone extinct.

    Reading the web page you linked - what makes you think there is indeed
    an original Macintosh source tree (MPW Projector VCS, maybe), that CHM
    wasn't aware of? The way I picture the handover to CHM (many years after
    Eudora development had been shut down at Qualcomm, and staff let go) is
    "take what you want, we'll scrap the rest".

    On the up side, it should be possible to manually extract resources from
    the binary of the last Eudora version (6.1.x) that supported System 9.
    That would get you started; I don't know how what formerly went into
    resources was stored in 6.2, and how accessible it would be.

    My personal interest in the Eudora sources is actually a backport to
    System 7... given enough round tuits, as always.

    Cheerio,
    Hauke

    --
    Now without signature.

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