[ale] mail spool check?

[vinson.lists at charter.net (Jason Vinson)]

Anyone know how mail apps that use a spool can tell how many new messages there are?  I am not seeing any tags for notification in my spool file, but mutt and bitchx seem to pick up the new mail. 

I thought they could count message id's but that still isn't the best method.

Any ideas?
Jason