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   $FML: preface.sgml,v 1.5 2005/07/23 01:58:47 fukachan Exp $
   $jaFML: preface.sgml,v 1.18 2003/04/15 14:51:35 fukachan Exp $
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<preface id="preface">
	<title>
	Preface
	</title>


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


<warning>
<para>
&fml8; has already implemented fundamental functions. Several people
uses &fml8; as hobby and office mailing list system under normal
operations.
</para>

<para>
When you configure &fml8;, you need to edit configuration files since
configuration helper tool has basic functions now. Except it, you can
use &fml8; as same as &fml4;.
</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 &fml8;.
</para>

<para>
See
<link linkend="changes">
<xref linkend="changes">
</link>
on the difference between &fml4; and &fml8;. 
</para>

</warning>

</sect1>


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

	<title>
	The Road To The Next Generation Of Fml
	</title>

<para>
&fml8; 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 our
10 years experience on mailing list driver developement.
</para>

<para>
Roughly speaking, the relation between &fml4; and &fml8; is
similar to one between sendmail and Postfix.
</para>

<para>
&fml8; re-implements almost all features of &fml4; functions. We
re-design 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 a text file on the host. &fml4; inherits the
assumption from version 1.0 through 4.0. It affetcts the core part of
the design. 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. &fml8; 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 &fml8; from &fml4; ?
	</para>
    </listitem>


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


    <listitem>
	<para>
	what obsolete features we should remove ?
	</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/fml8/">
http://www.fml.org/software/fml8/
</ulink>
</para>

<para>
<ulink url="ftp://ftp.fml.org/pub/fml8/">
ftp://ftp.fml.org/pub/fml8/
</ulink>
</para>

</sect1>


<!-- ======================================================== -->
<sect1 id="fml.and.fmlng">
	<title>
	Relation Between &fml4; And &fml8; 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 &fml8; 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>
