Alexandre Trilla, PhD - Research Engineer | home publications
 

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-- Thoughts on data analysis, software development and innovation management. Comments are welcome


Post 29

Moving from Alpine to Roundcube webmail

15-Apr-2010

If you are (like me) still stubborn using text-based interfaces and you feel pushed to using "newer" technologies, this post may be of your interest.

A while ago the IT department of the university announced they would be ceasing support to Alpine, one of the most beloved e-mail clients, see Linus' choice at this Lifehacker interview. I was taught this fabulous application when I first came to university, and now I am forced to no longer use it. Instead, Roundcube is the candidate to replace it. Actually, Roundcube is more beautiful, it uses drag-and-drop, etc... a piece of software for the masses, but it still misses the enchanting interface of the console.

If anyone goes through the same situation, I have coded a helpful Perl snippet, available here, that takes Alpine's addressbook file and transforms it into a vCard format, ready to be loaded into Roundcube. I hope this is of help to make the transition process a little bit lighter :)



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