Re: Adding function to pop3.el, and calling a backend from elsewhere

[Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@peorth.gweep.net>]

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>>>>> "SB" == Steinar Bang <sb@metis.no> writes:

SB>    i. is it possible?

Anything is possible. :)  The reason I did not implement TOP is because it
requires something for which to implement, and at the time I had none.

SB>   ii. is it stupid?

I am not exactly sure what you are trying to do, so I will refrain from
commenting on that.  nnpop3 is stupid, though; I am convinced of this.

SB>  iii. is pop3.el a regular back end?  Why, and how, use it, rather
SB>       than POP with movemail (which is what I do today, appearently)

No, it is not a backend at all.  It is more of a shim, an interface layer
between GNU Emacs and a POP3 server, serving a purpose similar to movemail,
but being implemented in Emacs-Lisp.  Hypothetically, quite a few things
could be written using pop3 as a generic library (which was my intent when
I wrote it).

To use it, you should be able to point nnmail-movemail-program at
nnmail-pop3-movemail and everything should just work.  nnmail-pop3-movemail
is a wrapper that should Do The Right Thing, so long as you are not using a
funky authentication scheme like Kerberos (which I am *NOT* going to
attempt to write in Emacs-Lisp :).  You may need to fiddle with the value
of pop3-authentication-scheme if you use APOP authentication.

SB>   iv. *can* pop3-retrieve-headers be added to pop3.el?

Certainly it could... unfortunately there is no standard POP3 command to do
so.  There is TOP, but it is not part of the core protocol, not all servers
will implement it, and it does not retrive headers but the first <n> lines
of the message starting with the headers.

SB>       What about message numbers, and where should they be stored?

That is one problem with an nnpop3 backend: they are not stored anywhere.
The POP3 server generates them on the fly every time you open your maildrop
through the server.

SB>       I assume the back end, and the POP daemon would have different
SB>       message numbers...?

That is another problem... there is no way to keep them in sync because
nothing is stored on the server side.  The Post Office Protocols were never
intended for this kind of use.  They are nothing more than a simple way to
get at your system mailbox on a remote server.

Now, what I would like to see happen is the use of pop3 to bypass the
crashbox stage entirely.  A sort of pseudo-backend if you would, one that
retrieves messages from the POP server and pipes it through the filtering
process.

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