<!--
   $FML: preface.sgml,v 1.3 2003/07/26 04:52:00 fukachan Exp $
   $jaFML: preface.sgml,v 1.18 2003/04/15 14:51:35 fukachan Exp $
-->


<preface id="preface">
	<title>
	Preface
	</title>


<sect1 id="status">
	<title>
	&fml8; status
	</title>


<warning>
<para>
&fmldevel; already implemented fundamental functions except for
editing configuration files. Several people uses &fmldevel; as hobby
and office mailing list system for a test.
</para>

<para>
&fml8; is intended to re-implement almost all &fml4; functions but not
yet enough.
So, if you are interested in the use of special features, 
please use
<ulink url="http://www.fml.org/software/fml/menu.html">
&fml4; stable
</ulink>
series.
</para>

<para>
See 
<ulink url="../../../fml/doc/ja/todo/STATUS.html">
http://www.fml.org/software/fml-devel/fml/doc/ja/todo/STATUS.html
</ulink>
for the current status of &fmldevel;.
</para>
</warning>

</sect1>


<!-- ======================================================== -->
<sect1 id="way.to.fmlng">

	<title>
	The road to the next generation of fml
	</title>

<para>
&fmldevel; is fully rewritten mailing list driver from scratch to
re-implement &fml4;. The main purpose of this project is
re-implementation of fml mailing list driver system with reflecting my
10 years experience on mailing list driver developement.
</para>

<para>
Roughly speaking, the relation between &fml4; and &fmldevel; is
similar to one between sendmail and postfix.
</para>

<para>
&fmldevel; re-implements features of &fml4; functions. We redesign fml
and clean up the function and variable naming convenstion. Also, We
reinforce guide line to the coding style for clean source codes.
</para>

<para>
For example, when you use &fml4;, you'll find that fml assumes the
list of members is found in the text file on the host.  &fml4;
inherits the assumption from version 1.0 through 4.0. It affetcts the
core part of designs. Hence, it is difficult to extend fml IO for the
use of RDBMS, redundency et.al. In fact, &fml4; supports RDBMS but the
code is ugly. We should need to fully rewrite fml core parts.
</para>

<para>
Also, I want a lot of new features. &fmldevel; should provide tiny bug
tracking system maintatined automatically. It is better to co-relate
fml with cvs log. These features help the support by mail and
developer mailing list. I need it, of course.
</para>

<para>
Firstly, we need to discuss what we should inherit from &fml4; design
and features, and discard what in &fml4;.

    <itemizedlist>

    <listitem>
	<para>
	What we should inherit into &fmldevel; from &fml4; ?
	</para>
    </listitem>


    <listitem>
	<para>
	easily customizable ?
	</para>
    </listitem>


    <listitem>
	<para>
	remove obsolete features.
	</para>
    </listitem>

    </itemizedlist>

Anyway, we should write codes for the further discussion! 
You can find it at the following URL.
</para>

<para>
<ulink url="http://www.fml.org/software/fml-devel/">
http://www.fml.org/software/fml-devel/
</ulink>
</para>

<para>
<ulink url="ftp://ftp.fml.org/pub/fml-devel/">
ftp://ftp.fml.org/pub/fml-devel/
</ulink>
</para>

</sect1>


<!-- ======================================================== -->
<sect1 id="fml.and.fmlng">
	<title>
	relation between &fml4; and &fmldevel; development branch.
	</title>

<para>
We implement new features at &fml8; branch.
&fml4; imports it if needed.
We only have to bug-fix at &fml4; branch. 
</para>

<para>
(further translation omited).

<screen>
               fml-devel
             -----------------------------> 8.0
                       A  |
                       |  | (interaction)
                       |  V
1.2 ->  4.0 ------------------------------> 4.0-current
              |      |
            4.0.1   4.0.2 .... (release / 4.0-stable release)
</screen>
</para>

</sect1>


<!-- ======================================================== -->
<sect1 id="mailinglist">

	<title>
	mailing list
	</title>

<para>
fml-users@ffs.fml.org is prepared.  
Use it for English discussion.
</para>

<para>
To subscribe it, send the mail with "subscribe YOUR NAME" in the body
to fml-users-ctl@ffs.fml.org. You will receive the reply for
confirmation. Please reply the confirmation and send back it to
fml-users-ctl@ffs.fml.org again.

For example, a subscribe mail is as follows:
<screen>
From: your-account@your-domain
To: fml-users-ctl@ffs.fml.org

subscribe Kinomoto Sakura
</screen>
</para>

</sect1>


<!-- ======================================================== -->
<sect1>

	<title>
	Please let me know your opinion ...
	</title>

<para>
Please send me the idea on &fmldevel; to the mail address:
<ulink url="mailto:fml-request@fml.org">
fml-request@fml.org
</ulink>
or myself 
<ulink url="mailto:fukachan@fml.org">
fukachan@fml.org
</ulink>
directly.
</para>

</sect1>


<!-- ======================================================== -->
<sect1>

	<title>
	On this tutorial
	</title>

<para>
For the &fml4; user, the order of chapters and sections are almost
same as the book "fml bible" publishded by O'reilly Japan (rewritten
in Japanese).
</para>

</sect1>


&sect.terms;


</preface>
