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* [Edbrowse-dev] imap
@ 2014-03-21 13:27 Karl Dahlke
  2014-03-21 14:31 ` Chris Brannon
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 8+ messages in thread
From: Karl Dahlke @ 2014-03-21 13:27 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Edbrowse-dev

This is perhaps more thinking ahead...

The most common request from users is:
why doesn't edbrowse work on this site,
and is usually an object or method that I haven't implemented yet.
The next request is:
what about imap?
I started looking at wikipedia imap and rfc3501.
There's a lot going on here.
I think there are three options for us.

1. Access an imap server much as we access a pop3 server today.
Use port 143 instead of 110.
Many of the commands are the same, at least functionally,
and of course there are many new commands.
We wouldn't have to use all the new commands.

2. Try to use a linux imap library to help us,
the way we use curl for http and ftp.
I don't even know if such exists and is easy to use.
It has now become a requirement that any libraries we use are
in linux and free bsd, since bsd is on board with us.

3. Ask the user to use a separate stand-alone program to pull
mail off an imap server and into a local mailbox file.
Edbrowse would then read the local mailbox file and pretend it was a mail server,
and present those mail messages to the user via the same interface as today.
Delete them (from the file rather than the mail server),
or same them to other files, or save attachments, etc, as we do today.

I would lean towards 3, but I might not understand what is going on here at all,
and I'm curious what others think.

Karl Dahlke

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* [Edbrowse-dev] imap
@ 2014-03-22 10:04 Karl Dahlke
  2014-03-22 21:28 ` Adam Thompson
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 8+ messages in thread
From: Karl Dahlke @ 2014-03-22 10:04 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Edbrowse-dev

Adam raises a legitimate concern about "feature creep",
edbrowse trying to do too much.
I can see this point, but I also think edbrowse power is partly in its breadth.
Before I implemented odbc, some people would have thought that was
beyond the scope of what edbrowse should do.
And yet I have found it so helpful in my work
to be able to edit a database table the way I edit a file.
Similarly for managing a directory,
rename a file with a substitute command.
It is the same interface for many tasks.
When bringing up an email I can go to a hyperlink
within the email, the way explorer and outlook merge together
in a seamless whole.
I can also cut&paste things to and from emails as I formulate a reply.

The fact that people ask for imap suggests to me that they want
this unified experience to extend to imap, and quite honestly I probably
would too if I ever used or needed imap, if I ever had lots of email
to deal with, which I don't.

In fact you can see I moved in that direction from the outset, with my filters,
which automatically save certain emails to certain files based on subject
or sender etc.
What chris referred to in his imap settings,
a folder with all emails from me, can almost be done in edbrowse today with

fromfilter {
Karl Dahlke > kd-mail
}

My option to extend and continue this strategy is not ideal,
as chris points out, because the folders and arrangements of emails
are not on the server, and not seen in a consistent way from
all machines and devices.
That doesn't impact me because I only look at my mail from one computer,
but I know my friends at work had this concern as they viewed mail
from cell phones and many such devices, so I get it.

I guess I need to look at the imap support that is offered by curl,
since we already have curl in our product.
I would hope to present a similar email interface to the user,
close to what we have today,
but with more commands like switching folders (imap folders on the server),
or a list of all folders, etc,
and perhaps a way to reply to an email without necessarily having a copy
of it on your computer.

Karl Dahlke

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2014-03-22 21:30 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 8+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2014-03-21 13:27 [Edbrowse-dev] imap Karl Dahlke
2014-03-21 14:31 ` Chris Brannon
2014-03-21 17:11   ` Adam Thompson
2014-03-21 17:21     ` Adam Thompson
2014-03-21 18:26     ` Chris Brannon
2014-03-21 20:22       ` Adam Thompson
2014-03-22 10:04 Karl Dahlke
2014-03-22 21:28 ` Adam Thompson

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