Personal mail habits [was Blackberry-like device, MacOS X, and/or IMAP?]

[bscott at ntisys.com]

On Sat, 18 Oct 2003, at 11:01am, p.lussier at comcast.net wrote:
>>> there are also a lot of things I can do with my e-mail in mh-format,
>>> that I can't do if it were stored under an IMAP format, but I digress

In a message dated: Mon, 20 Oct 2003 20:30:46 EDT bscott at ntisys.com said:
>> Clarification: IMAP is not a mail storage format.

On Tue, 21 Oct 2003, at 1:50pm, p.lussier at comcast.net wrote:
> I never said it was.

  I took "stored under an IMAP format" as an implication that IMAP was a
storage format.  If that was a misunderstanding, I do apologize for jumping
on you.  But in that case, I really do think you could have been a bit more
clear.  :-)

> I said I could not connect to my e-mail via IMAP.  Which is perfectly
> true.  My e-mail is stored in a format which no known IMAP server is
> capable of parsing correctly.

  Oh?  I thought UW-IMAP supported mh mailboxes.  Or is your use of
"correctly" especially significant here?

>> Of course, as has been noted before in this forum (between you and me, I
>> think),
> 
> Yes, most definitely, ad nauseum.

  Sorry.  I didn't feel like going back and checking if it was you or
somebody else when I wrote my reply.  Given what I thought was a public
mis-statement, I wanted to correct it.  You see, IMNSHO, IMAP is a vastly
under-utilized and under-appreciated technology (kinda like Linux is/was).  
I thus tend to evangelize it whenever the opportunity presents itself.  
Sometimes with undesirable results.  :-(

>> if one desires an mh-style presentation, one would need to write an IMAP
>> client that is also a filesystem driver for your operating system(s).
> 
> Actually, it would need to be an IMAP server, since all the e-mail is
> stored remotely.

  Actually, both.  :)  I had thought your objection to IMAP was that using a
traditional IMAP client would lose all the benefits of the mh style of mail
usage.  I also thought that an IMAP server that could handle mh folders was
already available.

> Now, can we put this discussion/debate between protocols and message store
> formats to rest?

  All horses will continue to be beaten until revived.  ;-)

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
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