MailConverter is a utility which converts mail and mail-like files of various sorts into Eudora mailboxes.
MailConverter works on several kinds of input files: babyl. mmdf, LeeMail, MacEMail, America Online, Pine and Elm mail files; files saved from several news programs (NewsWatcher, nn, gnus); files saved from Eudora; and any other text files that have typical mail headers at the beginning. Folders of files (recursively) can also be converted. Files which appear to be digests will automatically be burst. See "Description" for all the details of using MailConverter.
MailConverter is freeware — please distribute it! But include all descriptive text files when you do.
File Format Warning
MailConverter generally figures out what kind of file it's been presented with by looking at the header. If it sees something legal, it expects the rest of the file to be legal too, in whatever format the header implies. If the header looks like good Babyl, for example, but the rest of the file isn't, don't expect the converter to work.
Settings Warning for conversion of America Online and MacEMail files
One of the settings in MailConverter is "Allow only TEXT files as input". For most kinds of source files, this is the right choice. America Online mail files are not text, so this setting must be unchecked if you want to convert those. In MacEMail, unread message files are not tagged as text files, while message files which have been read are tagged as text files. In this case too you should keep the the TEXT-only setting off (unless you don't want to convert unread messages). The TEXT-only setting is off by default (in earlier releases of MailConverter it was on by default).
Memory Warning
MailConverter uses buffers for the conversion, since direct file manipulation is painfully slow. That means it needs an input buffer and an output buffer allocated at the same time, each of which will be about as large as the file being converted. (plus a few extra k-bytes, since the resulting Eudora mailbox is typically somewhat bigger than the input file). That means that the largest file it can convert will be about half the size of whatever memory allocation you give the program to run with. The default is 384k (CodeWarrior's default). If you see an Alert saying "Insufficient memory", just quit, increase the allocation, and start again.
Finder Note
You can drag one or more files or folders onto the MailConverter icon and convert that way. This does not depend at all on the presence of the Drag Manager.
Drag & Drop
If you're running 7.0 or 7.1, you can get still get access to MailConverter's Drag&Drop support. Pick up Macintosh Drag And Drop 1.1 from ftp://ftp.apple.com/dts/mac/sys.soft/extensions. Last time I checked, this package did not include a drag-aware Finder, so you won't be able to drag to or from the Finder in the new Drag Manager style (eg, dragging files from the Finder to one of MailConverter's windows). But other inter- and intra-application drags should be fine, in particular dragging from Anarchie or NewsWatcher to MailConverter. A drag-aware Finder for 7.1 is available from eWorld and also comes with AppleScript 1.1 and CodeWarrior 4.0.
The Drag Manager is included with 7.5 - no further extensions need to be, or should be, loaded. System 7.5 comes with a drag-aware Finder.
System Limitations
MailConverter does not run under System 6 (or anything earlier)! Don't even bother trying.
Comments, Suggestions, and Bug Reports
Send any and all comments, positive or negative, to macrshap@bbn.com. Bug reports are especially welcome. If you find a reproducible bug, it would be very convenient if you could send me the mail files that are causing the trouble. Please send them as attachements, in some compressed format (eg .sit or .sea).
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Matti Haveri for organizing and cleaning up the documentation files, and adding the nice graphics!
Usual disclaimer
MailConverter is solely my responsibility. BBN has nothing to do with it, Qualcomm has nothing to do with it. On the other hand, the responsibility for *using* this program is yours and yours alone.
