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by Patrick_Devine 2989 days ago
Took me a while to realize this wasn't about the Elm email client https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elm_(email_client)
3 comments

I'm curious how you interpreted the very first sentence on the page:

> the technical trials and tribulations he faced, the euphoric and … not so euphoric bits of writing a SPA in Elm

What trials and tribulations did you picture that came with writing a single page application in an email client?

Honestly, it took digging through multiple pages to figure out what (this) Elm was about. If you come in with a preconceived notion of what something is supposed to be about, and there is nothing which even gives a short blurb on project goals, it can be a little bewildering. Clearly it wasn't about the email client (that was a bit tongue-in-cheek), but I was curious about what the project actually was for, and had to really hunt to find any information.
It's interesting how everyone thinks they're the first person to make the joke.

Not much different than going "haha, I thought it was about the Elm tree for a while!"

I'm starting to think it's just a way to signal to others that you know of an email client that last had a stable release 12 years ago that most people haven't heard of. Maybe there should be a way to wear this badge of honor in your profile instead of making the same joke, though.

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=elm%20email&sort=byPopularity&...

Seems like at least a few others have over time as well

Notice how there isn't a single submission about the Elm email client. I think I'm dead-on with my signaling hypothesis.

It died 12 years ago.

Sure, but I used Elm for email for probably close to 15 years. It, and Pine, were pretty much the only two dedicated email clients for as long as I can remember. I don't have a problem with people repurposing the name, just be somewhat sympathetic that not everyone is going to know about your web framework. Onboarding is a thing.
Yep, I wasn't so clear with what I'd posted, but I agree
I was confused about this too and thought perhaps it was about the security issues and how a command line client worked for them.