Re: compctl whitespace changes

[Bart Schaefer <schaefer@brasslantern.com>]

On Aug 10, 10:59am, Phil Pennock wrote:
} Subject: Re: compctl whitespace changes
}
} On 2001-08-09 at 03:07 -0700, Will Yardley wrote:
} > I think it's created by a POP or IMAP client usually.
} 
} Yeah.  It's all because IMAP uses dot as a hierarchy separator.

IMAP can use almost anything it likes as a hierarchy separator.  Don't
make claims for the whole protocol based on the courier implementation.
It is also notorious for taking assorted liberties with the protocol
that most of the other IMAP server writers are unhappy about.

} But enough people are using them that it makes sense for zsh to
} understand it.

I have a certain ambivalence about this, having worked on both email
clients and IMAP servers.  If the file structure is being created by a
local delivery agent for use by an IMAP server, then it's that server
(or a local user agent designed to work with the same structure) that
should interpret the folder names, not your shell.

Suppose Company.Management decides to change to the Cyrus server.  Then
all your mail files will disappear and you'll have a database interface
to deal with.  A lot of people use that, too -- probably a lot more than
use Courier IMAP.  That's not, by itself, a reason.

If your mail system uses ordinary files and leaves you in complete control
of what they're named and where to put them, then it makes sense for the
shell to understand it, because obviously the designers of the mail system
*intended* other programs to understand it.

Nevertheless, if someone can actually find me a reasonable description of
"Maildir++" (the description on the courier pages didn't say anything
about hierarchy, for example) I'll think about how _mailboxes might be
adjusted to cope with it.

-- 
Bart Schaefer                                 Brass Lantern Enterprises
http://www.well.com/user/barts              http://www.brasslantern.com

Zsh: http://www.zsh.org | PHPerl Project: http://phperl.sourceforge.net