Here at Barcelona we are serving (or  will do in the future) three kinds
of  lists:  international lists  (for  which  the information  mailfiles
should  be written  in English),  Spanish lists  (for which  the Spanish
language would be  better) and Catalan lists (for which  we need Catalan
mailfiles). Its a pity (and a  nuisance, not to speak of maintainability
problems) to  have to  duplicate MAILFORMs for  each Spanish  or Catalan
list  -- note  that,  in  principle, all  Spanish  or Catalan  MAILFORMs
sould  be identical:  a single  Spanish list  could have  to be  further
customized, but always from the main Spanish mailform.
 
(A  similar  kind of  problem  can  be found  if  a  LISTSERVer is  used
to  maintain  several local  lists  pertaining  to different  University
departments).
 
I  think the  problem could  be  (easily) solved  by the  addition of  a
new  list-header  keyword,  say  'Language='  of  'Mailform=',  so  that
a  list L  could  be  adscribed via  'Mailform=Spanish'  to an  *unique*
SPANISH  MAILFORM,   and  still  be   customized,  for  example,   by  a
L  MAILFORM containing  only the  ADDREQ1 template.  Maintainability and
modularity would  be enhanced,  and the postmaster  could offer  to list
owners  to use  one of  a set  (instead of  only one)  of pre-customized
forms.
 
What do you think about that?
 
J. M. Blasco