mail notification tools (i.e., biff)

Here is a listing and description of Tcl-based mail notification tools. This is not a comprehensive list. Please don't add last night's hack. Indeed, many people have written biffs - it's so trivial to write a simple one. But few are truly professional, robust, flexible, etc. Here are several that appear to be worthwhile.

[L1 ]
GUI: Shows message headers. Click to show messages.
User-definable action upon new mail: Message-dependent.
OS: Windows, UNIX, MacOS
Access: IMAP, POP, APOP, SSL, UNIX mbox and maildir.
  • tclbiff
(included with tkbiff - see above)
UI: "You have mail from ..." on stdout.
User-definable action upon new mail: Message-dependent.
OS: UNIX
Access: IMAP, POP, APOP, SSL, UNIX mbox and maildir.
  • xbiff2
[L2 ]
GUI: Shows icon for no mail or new mail.
User-defineable action upon new mail: Message-independent.
OS: Windows, UNIX
Access: IMAP, POP, UNIX mbox
  • mbiff
BROKEN LINK - [L3 ]
GUI: shows mailbox names containing new mail.
User-definable action upon new mail: No.
OS: UNIX
Access: UNIX mbox
Requires: TclX
  • tkgoodstuff
BROKEN LINK - [L4 ]
GUI: Shows icon or count of messages in multiple mailboxes. Click to show messages.
User-definable action upon new mail: No.
OS: UNIX
Access: IMAP, UNIX mbox and MH.
Status: Development ceased as of Oct '97.
  • tkpostage
[L5 ]
GUI: shows count of messages. Click to show message headers.
User-definable action upon new mail: No.
OS: UNIX
Access: UNIX mbox
Status: appears orphaned, last release: 1.3b, Dec '95