send-mail-function / mailclient

[David Reitter]

Back when we introduced mailclient.el, we used it as default for OS X,  
because there, the built-in postfix mail sending function did not work  
right and led to e-mail being swallowed.  In recent OS X versions,  
this has been fixed.  Postfix is started on demand without the need  
for user configuration.

Second, there are issues with mailclient's "mailto" URL method of  
invoking the mail client application in connection with the popular  
Gmail service (the helper application that passes the mailto URL on to  
the web service does not accept long URLs).  This is a bug in Google's  
software, not ours, but users are struggling with it.

Third, the mailclient method would be more convenient if mail was  
composed by Emacs, but then passed on to the mail client to be edited  
there.  This is the normal intention of the "mailto" method.  Right  
now, the message is edited in Emacs and then passed on to the mail  
client, where it is edited (or editable) again, before being sent  
off.  I think this is inconvenient.

It may therefore be sensible to revise the default for send-mail- 
function in Emacs 23, given that it was a workaround for the lack of  
Postfix configuration.  The workaround is not needed any more, and we  
could use the local mail server in all cases (maybe not on Windows).

On the downside, I find that sending mail Postfix-style does not work  
as well as it used to, due to crippled mail servers that refuse to  
accept mail from dynamic IP ranges (i.e. home broadband) as a spam- 
defense.

So, the whole thing is debatable.  The argument is less dependent on  
the specific system now.  Quite possibly, a choice of `mailclient' for  
all systems (sans Windows?) may be in order.

In order to ensure that Emacs bug reports always reach the  
destination, one could also use a `mailclient' variant that sends e- 
mail directly to a CGI running on Savannah.  That would require online  
connectivity, of course.