Yes. Sorry to say, but this was a huge red flag for me - if the author is apparently unaware of a project that it is that well-known, he has no business writing mail software. (I know that he comments on this very page that he is aware of GNU Mailman...)
check the comments on his blog. he knew about it ahead of time and didnt think it was an issue because someone could just google 'ruby mailman'. apparently the idea of encroaching on another project's name never occurred to him as an extremely impolite ( to put it kindly ) thing to do.
I'm not sure why everyone's focusing on the name, but this looks like a great project. I was just wishing that something like this existed yesterday, and poof, here it is. Great work! My only suggestion would be to support imap/gmail integration and the like without requiring an extra step such as getmail.
Dealing with IMAP is tricky. In order to support it properly, and leave the messages on the server after processing, a list has to be stored on the client. I'd rather leave that to a mature MDA than implement it myself.
However, I will look into providing a easy configuration for Gmail.
Wow. When choosing a name for a new project, isn't it standard practice to look for name collisions first -- google it, check freshmeat, apt-cache search, make search in freebsd ports, etc?
Hmm, then it's going to look like you're picking a fight (whether or not that's really the case). Get creative with the name, it's more fun anyway. Maybe some HNers can help you out.
Very cool; mail handling is an area where Ruby needs work.
One question: Does it properly quote non-ASCII characters in mail headers? That's been a big pain point for me over the years, which I fixed by being lazy and using Javamail.
Good names for mail gems are hard to come by; my Javamail wrapper for JRuby ended up going through four different names because Mail, Mailer, Postman and Postal were all taken (we finally called the damn thing Postinius).
I'll at least offer my suggestion for a name; what about 'Takkyu'? Takkyubin is a very famous delivery service over here in Japan.
Mailman is very lightweight, has Rails integration, and doesn't require a database to store routes (Astrotrain does). Instead, it uses a Sinatra-like DSL to define routes and conditions.
Gmail accounts can be handled using a MDA like getmail and the built-in maildir support in Mailman.
Mailman works fully with 1.8.6, 1.8.7, 1.9.1, 1.9.2, REE and JRuby.
I think the MTA->Maildir->Mailman route is odd; why not go MTA->Mailman directly, like, say, GNU Mailman, maildrop/procmail, or any other mail filter I've ever seen?
You can use it as a local MDA/"mail filter" as well. Mailman accepts messages via Standard Input.
I don't recommend this, because you have to load and unload Ruby every time a message comes in. While this may be okay if you only have a few messages coming in, it will quickly become unbearable if you have any sort of volume. This will be even worse if you loading the Rails environment, as it can take several seconds or several tens of seconds, depending on the app size.
Side Note: There are at least three different projects using the name maildrop, and dealing with email, and I figured out which one you were talking about through context very easily.
I think you'll find that Mailman is much more lightweight (it doesn't require a database and uses Mail, not TMail), and easier to use. Obviously you had very specific requirements when writing Astrotrain, but I'd love it if you'd try Mailman.
Yeah, I tried it too. I've never been a big fan. Shared passwords for moderation, really?
If people really hate the name, I'll take suggestions, but I tried pretty hard to come up with alternatives already.
Personally I don't think it's a big deal because it's easy enough to search for 'ruby mailman', it's not like we don't have to do it for just about every other project (mustache, integrity, chef, god, etc).
Well if there are specific issues on mailman, it will make it that much hard to google for, especially since the other mailman project is similar. Your project name doesn't even make sense... a mailman delivers mail, not route incoming mail.
The one who actually routes/sorts your real-paper mail is probably just called the mail clerk at the post office. The mailman is just the guy who delivers the mail -- hence the name of the 10+ year old project.
Remember that Firefox was named phoenix, then firebird, then firefox. People take this kind of thing pretty seriously. I'm just saying it would save you a lot of trouble later.
