Elm (email client)

Elm, a text-based email client commonly found on Unix systems, became popular as one of the first email clients to use curses (programming library)-like screen displays, and as a utility with freely-available source code. The name elm orgininated from the phrase ELectronic Mail .

David Taylor developed elm while working for Hewlett-Packard. Development later passed to a team of volunteers. The latest (as of 2005) public release occurred in February 2004, version 2.5.7 (available via the ftp site below ).

Other popular email readers which followed elm and took it as an inspiration include the Mutt (email client) and Pine (email client) programs. ( Pine unofficially preserves the memory of elm in its name, a recursive acronym for Pine is not elm .) From about 1995 elm slipped in popularity and functionality, and it now sees relatively little use.

Bill Pemberton of the University of Virginia currently maintains elm.

=See also=

*List of email clients *Comparison of email clients

=External links=

*[http://www.instinct.org/elm/ An out-of-date Elm homepage] *[ftp://ftp.virginia.edu/pub/elm/ The newest version of Elm] *[http://www.guckes.net/mutt/vs.elm.html A comparison of Elm with Mutt]