On Thu, Feb 09 2006, David Reitter wrote:

> The send-mail-function defined specifically for the message package  
> doesn't work on systems where no sendmail is running.
> That's why we added the `mailclient' package a while ago.

`message.el' is supposed to work with Emacs 21 as well.  Do you know
whether `mailclient.el' works with Emacs 21?

> The patch below fixes the problem analogous to what has been done in
> the `sendmail' package.

Your patch contains several unrelated changes (make-frame-visible),
wrapped lines and mixed context/unified hunks which makes is hard to
read and to apply.

How about the attached patch.  It includes some additional checks
(partly taken from `message.el' in the development version of Gnus).

I'm not sure (and I can't test) if
  (custom-reevaluate-setting 'message-send-mail-function)
in `startup.el' is necessary.

Bye, Reiner.