Re: getmail failing for messages with invalid uncode

Michael Grant <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Second, Charles, why not update to the current python3?  Is it that
> difficult?

Yes.  It is a large undertaking.  And if I'm going to migrate getmail to
Python 3, it will be a full migration and refactoring -- getmail's codebase is
TWENTY-THREE YEARS OLD.

There are a lot of things I would do differently today than I did in the
original implementation over the years; some due to my own greater experience
now, some due to changes in the tooling (many things in getmail I had to
implement myself because support for them just didn't exist in Python at the
time), and some for other reasons.

I have started that refactoring, but I do not know if I will ever complete it.
This, rather than simply just running 2to3 on it and fixing up the results, is
a HUGE project.

I have a lot less time for working on free software now than I did twenty-five
years ago.  And to be honest, getmail is pretty stable -- it doesn't NEED
changes.  getmail v5 will happily run today, tomorrow, next year, or in 2050.
All you have to do is install Python 2.7 and continue using it.

Debian (and some other distros) basically said "we're dropping anything that
uses Python 2" and so getmail is gone from those distros' repositories even
though it does not have any security or other impact on getmail.

You can always download it from my site and run it.  It doesn't have to be in
the distro's repositories.

> Or why not look at what Roland has done in his adaptation?

I have "looked" at it, very briefly.  Not sure what you want me to say here.

> Can your two projects be coalesced into one?

I have no objections if it meets my (rather high) standards.  The fact that
these bugs in "getmail6" keep surfacing is not a promising sign, but maybe it
will improve over time.

> I don't really understand the politics here of why some people prefer
> python2.

I don't speak for others, but there's no politics for getmail.  getmail runs
fine on Python 2 and there is a large amount of work to change that to support
Python 3.  That work will bring precisely zero benefits to getmail users (or
to me) other than making it run on Python 3.

> Roland seems to have done you a favor here to help update it.

No.  The normal "favour" way to do this would be for him to send patches
adding Python 3 compatibility, which I could review and integrate.  And no,
not one huge patch -- small, self-contained, documented patches.  A huge dump
is not welcome in this project as in any other (cough Linux kernel cough).

> By keeping the name and even one upping the version number to 6 like
> you did, you've perpetuated this confusion and effectively hi-jacked
> Charles' project.

Exactly.  This is why he should change his project's name.  getmail is mine; I
have worked 23 years building up trust in it, and "getmail6" is wiping that
goodwill out.

> then I definitely think you should rename it to something else.  For example
> getmail-rp, getmail-py3, neogetmail...?

Oh god, please NO.  Roland, do not use "getmail" in the new name.  Pick a
different name.  If it has getmail in it, no matter what other changes to the
name happen, it will continue to be a huge support burden on me.

Charles

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Charles Cazabon
GPL'ed software available at:               http://pyropus.ca/software/
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