Why do people call it “Mail.app”?
Anonymous asks in a comment on another post:
Why do people (not just you) insist on calling it Mail.app? Every application has the .app extension. You don’t refer to Entourage as Entourage.app. We don’t call it Finder.app or Safari.app. :-) If Mail (with a capital M) is ambiguous, just use Apple Mail as you do in the sub-title of your blog.
Good question. I am familiar with this argument, put most forcefully by the universally celebrated and acclaimed Mac blogger John Gruber 
a few years ago.
Four thoughts occur to me:
First, I myself favour a varied and inclusive approach. On this blog you will find the app described as “Mail”, “Apple Mail” and “Mail.app”. I’m opposed to the prescriptive stance (“You may only call it / do / believe / support this one thing – or that one thing”) in general, including on this matter.
Secondly, the title “mail.app” is a title of affection, harking back to the origins of the app in NeXT. Safari and iChat do not have the same pedigree. I suppose I ought to call Dock (also part of NeXT) “Dock.app”, but I don’t feel the same affection towards that app as I do towards Mail.
Titles of affection are often idiosyncratic or irregular, and none the worse for it. I often call my son “little man” but do not feel compelled to call my daughter “little woman”. I have a pet name for my MacBook Pro, but don’t feel that I need to come up with similar names for the PCs in the house.
Thirdly, I find it hard to believe that people who are generally open-minded and generous in their worldview could – inconsistently (!) – be so narrow and ungenerous in their views on this issue. (I’m not pointing a finger at John here. My fingers aren’t pointy enough).
Fourthly, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald put it best in a Cole Porter George Gershwin song:
You say either and I say either,
You say neither and I say neither.
Either, either,
Neither, neither,
Let’s call the whole thing off.You like potato and I like potahto,
You like tomato and I like tomahto.
Potato, potahto,
Tomato, tomahto,
Let’s call the whole thing off.But oh, if we call the whole thing off,
then we must part.
And oh, if we ever part,
then that might break my heart.
UPDATE: Fifthly (this didn’t occur to me), lots of people who posted comments clearly find it a useful way to counter the generic title “Mail”. Using the title “mail.app” to distinguish this mail client from other mail clients or the application from the messages, makes for more productive Google searches and greater clarity in communication.
This argument may gain extra power from Microsoft’s innovative decision to call the mail client built into Vista “Windows Mail”.
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Tags: affection, Apple, Apple Mail, diversity, louis armstrong, mail, mail.app, NeXT
October 19th, 2006 at 1:51 am
As a side note, if you are doing a google search for information related to this specific application, Mail.app is far more likely to return relevant hits than searching for “mail” and “apple”.
October 19th, 2006 at 1:52 am
Fifthly, using the “Mail” moniker, as opposed to “Mail.app” makes google searches more difficult. When I am searching for Mail.app-related info, using “Mail.app” in my search provides more relevant hits.
October 19th, 2006 at 1:52 am
“I have a pet name for my MacBook Pro, but don’t feel that I need to come up with similar names for the PCs in the house.”
You have PC’s in the house? For shame! ;-)
October 19th, 2006 at 1:56 am
Dave – my wife is partial to them.
Some things are more important than consistency :)
October 19th, 2006 at 1:58 am
Great article! I love the quote.
Armstrong was a great singer, and I am told, a great person, too.
October 19th, 2006 at 1:59 am
Tim,
Thanks for the followup. I’m not trying to be close-minded – I just think it is silly to tack on whimsically :-)
You have part of your history wrong. Finder is a Mac OS 9 descendent. NeXT had “Workspace.app”.
October 19th, 2006 at 2:00 am
Tim,
Thanks for the followup. I’m not trying to be close-minded – I just think it is silly to tack .app on whimsically :-)
You have part of your history wrong. Finder is a Mac OS 9 descendent. NeXT had “Workspace.app”.
October 19th, 2006 at 2:11 am
Anonymous – thanks for the tip about Finder. It was all before my time, I’m afraid.
I’m not suggesting that you are close-minded. But I have had some scorching emails from people who are. :(
October 19th, 2006 at 2:20 am
Re the song: give some credit to Cole Porter, too, if you please!
“Armstrong was a great singer, and I am told, a great person, too. ”
So I’ve heard. Check him out on YouTube!
He recieved SOME criticism in the 60′s because the Viet Nam war was on, and he stayed pretty non-political. Ella and Armstrong were amazing performers, though.
October 19th, 2006 at 2:25 am
Jeepers, not having a good night for accuracy tonight. Thanks, Tom.
October 19th, 2006 at 2:32 am
I also refer to it as “Mail.app” to distinguish it from generically meaning “your email program”. Simply calling it “Mail” may confuse some people in to meaning any email program, while “Mail.app” is more specific.
October 19th, 2006 at 2:37 am
Many have said it here already, but I use it mostly to distinguish it from other mail programs as well as the whole searchable-ness thing. It’s easier to find “Mail.app” as a specific thing. Of course, that’s Apple doing the whole “let’s never give anything a specific name; calling it “iMac” year after year with no clue as to specifics is good!”. I would have been happy had they resurrected the name Em@iler for the program.
October 19th, 2006 at 3:11 am
I used to have a windows box that I gave a name to: “Reprehensible”. (It fit in with my desktop “Doctor Worm” and laptop “Letterbox”)
October 19th, 2006 at 3:53 am
Don’t forget: “Windows Mail” is coming soon! ;-)
October 19th, 2006 at 4:12 am
Tim,
I understand you problem. The worst though is “.Mac” Who really thought of this? Not only can’t there be a .mac, the term is difficult to search for and hard to explain to people. Why didn’t they just call it Mac.com like it actually is? I’d love to hear the rationale behind the name.
October 19th, 2006 at 4:36 am
George and Ira Gershwin wrote “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” in 1937.
October 19th, 2006 at 4:43 am
I tend to call of the NeXT apps “appname dot app” (except the ones with really long names like Project Builder, and then I make nested exceptions for the ones with common but long names, such as WorldWideWeb.app), and Mail.app on the Mac wins in that category because it is NeXT Mail.app, albeit a slightly runty descendent thereof. At least until 10.2 my NeXTMAIL-format mail could still be read, too. Similarly Terminal.app, and I sometimes accidentally call TextEdit Edit.app then have to wipe away a nostalgic tear for the Cmd-| key combo.
So because of its closer kinship with OPENSTEP, I tend to call GNUstep apps by “appname dot app” as well. Even when I’m using GNUMail.app on the Mac :-).
October 19th, 2006 at 4:45 am
In the question you based this blog on, the person asked why some called the program “Mail.app.”
When I saw the title on MacSurfer, I clicked on it because I was also interested to find out that answer myself. I started with a Mac in 1985 and progressed to each new OS as they came out, but never understood why so many referred to it as “Mail.app,” as Apple never seemed to ever use that moniker. Plus, in everyday use you don’t even see .app to associate with Mail or really anything else. It seems to be a very legitimate question, as much as if I heard the German word for Potato and asked for an English translation.
However, the majority of your response goes to explaining why people shouldn’t be closed-minded in how they refer to things. Huh? The fact that this person even asked the question shows he/she is not closed minded and wanted to learn.
Your answer to the question was that it came from NeXT and that it was a term of affection. Can you explain that? To me, that’s like saying that people loved the old Multi-Finder so much they still use the term to refer to Apple+Tab or the Dock.
Were all NeXT apps referred to that way? Why was there affection for the program. (From the link you provided, it sounds like the program wasn’t very great for receiving email.)
October 19th, 2006 at 4:50 am
And now you’ve got this post in the DF linked list. Expect to see more nerdish conjecture to come.
October 19th, 2006 at 5:08 am
Matt: The “.mac” moniker was in direct response to Microsoft’s “.NET” name that was equally as ridiculous. Steve Jobs said as much when he introduced .mac; he wanted to show that .mac was actually worth something, as opposed to .NET.
Ironically, now people are debating whether or not .mac offers any value (although it certainly does to me, IMHO). Also sort-of-ironically, it’s kind of stupid to name your product after a ridiculously named “product,” since it basically ensures that your name will be named equally as ridiculously.
October 19th, 2006 at 5:31 am
I didn’t even realise it was an issue and I don’t have an issue with calling “Mail”, “Mail”. Neither do my friends. We know what we mean when we say “Mail”.
October 19th, 2006 at 5:36 am
Chip Howland beat me to the correction, but I can confirm that Cole Porter did NOT write this song. The music was composed by George Gershwin, and the lyrics you quoted were written by his brother Ira.
Though I have four different recordings of “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” in my iTunes library, at least you referenced what I consider the definitive version — sung as a duet by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.
On the topic of Mail.app, I generally fall on the side of consistent terms (and John Gruber). But your arguments are strong enough to keep me from pressing the issue. :)
In conversations with less savvy friends and coworkers, I usually refer to it by a longer, descriptive title — “Apple’s built-in mail program.” Once I’ve said that and pointed out the icon in their dock, I’ll simply call it “Mail” from that point forward.
October 19th, 2006 at 5:42 am
This really isn’t that complicated. If I say “Mail” in a blog post, I could either be talking about actual mail — i.e. emails from people — or I could mean the Mail application. Saying “Apple Mail” is similarly confusing: perhaps I’m referring to mail I’ve received from Apple, or mail I’ve received on the topic of apples. But if I say “Mail.app” everyone knows exactly what I’m talking about. So that’s how I refer to Apple Computer’s Mail client. It may not be pretty, it may not even be “proper” but it’s clear.
Incidentally, I don’t know if I completely agree with Gruber’s stance that if you call it “Mail.app” you should refer to every other application using the .app suffix, and that, therefore, “Apple Mail” is the way to go. By this logic, you should also refer to Safari as “Apple Safari” and iChat as “Apple iChat.”
Ultimately, though, I agree with Tim that you should call it whatever floats your boat. Frankly, I’m not sure why anyone really cares all that much what other people call Mail.app. (I’m not even sure why I care enough to write this post.) I just think, personally, “Mail.app” is the clearest form. But, you know, call it what you want.
-systemsboy
October 19th, 2006 at 7:01 am
They should have just continued with the other “i-theme” apps, maybe “iMail” Guess that would have been too obvious
October 19th, 2006 at 7:25 am
When the first versions of Mac OS X came out, another thing appeared that Mac users were utterly unfamiliar with: filename suffixes. Poking around early Mac OS X — which for some strange reason did not include an Apple Menu, an Applications Menu, or a Trash Can on the Desktop, one would come across these Applications . . . Oh look! Here’s Stickies.app! Chess.app! Wait–All the applications have dot app on the end!
So, “Mail dot app” is a holdover from those early–sometimes disorienting–early days of Mac OS X.
At my tech support job for a large university, we eventually started calling it “Mac OS X Mail” which, while wordy, almost always communicated what we were talking about. (“Apple Mail” is probably just as good.) Calling it “Mail” seems to emphasize its basic utility-like nature, and also its UNIX heritage, but it’s a bit like naming your dog “dog.”
October 19th, 2006 at 8:03 am
There’s nothing wrong with name your dog Dog. In fact, my dog’s full name is “Dog.app”, but I usually address him as simply “Dog” :-)
October 19th, 2006 at 10:11 am
Your fifth reason is the primary I do it on TUAW – ‘mail.app’ turns up a lot more accurate search results than the far too generic and real-world-related ‘mail.’
October 19th, 2006 at 11:11 am
The file extension “.app” applies to all OS X Applications, not just those with a lineage to NeXTStep.
I believe that wiley is mistaken in that “Mail dot app” is a holdover from the early days of Mac OS X. Unless by early days of Mac OS X s/he is referring to NeXTStep/OpenStep/Rhapsody.
October 19th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
If you say “mail” people look at you funny as if what are you talking about. Say “mail.app” and those who use Macs know what the heck you are talking about.
Pretty easy if you ask me. . .
October 19th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
If you say “mail” people look at you funny as if what the heck are you talking about. Say “mail.app” and those who use Macs know what the heck you are talking about.
Pretty easy if you ask me. . .
October 19th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
If you say “mail” people look at you funny as if what the heck are you talking about. E-mail? which e-mail app? Say “mail.app” and those who use Macs know what the heck you are talking about.
Pretty easy if you ask me. . .
October 19th, 2006 at 9:20 pm
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October 21st, 2006 at 11:29 pm
I think when OS X 10.0 came out Mail actually appeared in the finder as “mail.app” while other applications didn’t. This may have carried through to 10.1 as well — can’t quite remember.
I’m sure that’s the actual origin of why people call it Mail.app.
I reckon it should be rebranded to “Apple Mail” … that would be a tidy name and would make Google searching easy.
October 23rd, 2006 at 5:36 pm
The explanation is simple. Some are not far away. But all of you failed to provide the main reason why it’s called Mail(.app)
It’s somewhat biblical : NeXT’s Mail.app was the FIRST EVER Unix Internet graphical mail application!
It’s the Mail Application by excellence.
It has also the affection bit on of course (and .app shows it) since it’s a respectable and friendly application and also because the NeXT people inside Apple are proud of their journey.
I wish the great Workspace Manager would return even under Finder disguise!
By the way under the NeXT system were also created the FIRST EVER graphical FTP, Usenet newsreader and of course web browser applications!!!
That’s not a small achievement!
October 27th, 2006 at 7:55 pm
Retrying without rewording:-
systemsboy: In order- “mail” (the messages), “Mail” (the program), “Apple mail” (messages from Apple), “apple mail” (fruity topic), “Mail.app” (the program). Not complicated. Not confusing.
Anonymous: Shouldn’t that be “Dog.dog” ?
Someone could call it “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” if they want, it’s fine by me. That’s “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.app”, not “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.dog” by they way…
October 29th, 2006 at 9:36 am
Microsoft originally had an App called Mail as well, but it was replaced by Outlook Express, which is going to be replaced by Windows Mail. Confusing ya?
October 29th, 2006 at 9:52 am
I don’t remember that Windows program at all. Was it part of 3.1?
October 29th, 2006 at 9:59 am
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Mail
Truth be told I don’t know the first thing about it. I just remembered coming across it when doing research on Microsoft for an essay a while back. I thought it was rather funny though because my first thought was Windows Mail in Vista.
October 29th, 2006 at 8:37 pm
Thanks for the link. I must have blacked it out. :)
October 30th, 2006 at 7:23 am
Welcome