Re: Gnus and the qmail maildir format

[patl@curl.com (Patrick J. LoPresti)]

>>>>> "imarko" == Istvan Marko <imarko@pacificnet.net> writes:

 imarko> Shouldn't the maildir handling stuff be added to movemail
 imarko> instead? The maildir is just a different kind of INBOX right?

Yes, but with important performance and robustness features that using
movemail would completely defeat.

The original purpose of movemail was to provide system-dependent
locking while accessing a file in the brain-damaged Unix mbox format.
The movemail program is a necessary concession since that brain damage
is so widespread.  Qmail maildirs, on the other hand, are architected
to require no locking at all; they can be accessed simply, directly,
and reliably by Emacs lisp.  (In fact, it is even easier than I first
thought; I just noticed that the "rename-file" function does the Right
Thing whether or not the destination is on a different filesystem than
the source.)

As you probably know, movemail was later modified to support POP.
That was a mistake.  It works by connecting to a server, dragging over
all the messages, and stuffing them into a file in mbox format.  Thus
it inflicts the brain damage of mbox (">From " quoting and *potential
mail loss*) where it isn't necessary.

Abstractions are good.  But abstractions should not be chosen based on
the need to support a stupid and fragile format, then forcing that
format (with its stupidity and fragility) onto everything in the name
of preserving the abstraction.

I agree that maildir handling should be in a library accessible by
other Emacs MUAs.  But it should be written in Emacs Lisp, so that it
will 1) automatically work portably across platforms; 2) preserve the
sanity and robustness of the maildir format; and 3) be faster.

Since nobody else has volunteered to take up this task, I guess I will
have to hack it up myself.

 - Pat

P.S.  Lars, is there any chance of your including such a thing in the
standard distribution?  If not, I do not want to waste time making it
"clean"...