Re: [binc] So what's so great about IMAPdir, anyways? [was: Re: Compatibility with other programs]

On Saturday, May 14 at 06:33 PM, quoth Casey Allen Shobe:
>But I must ask what the purpose of IMAPdir is at all, anyways.  I 
>switched our internal server over to dovecot yesterday because of some 
>outstanding bincimap issues (periodic problem with errors in mail 
>clients and timeouts in webmail that I need to bug Andreas about with 
>details), and found by surprise that out of the box it *felt* like I 
>was using IMAPdir, because all of my folders appeared at the same level 
>as my INBOX in my MUAs.  Additionally, in it's subscriptions file, the 
>folders are listed without the INBOX prefix, like so:
>
>Clients.Zonar Systems
>Financial.eBay
>INBOX
>Sent Items

Well, obviously - it would be easy to redefine what Maildir++ mailbox 
names mean. The idea with the distinction between Maildir++ and IMAPdir 
was, at least in part, to allow for "Courier-style Maildir's" and "a way 
to do everything else", to make migrating from Courier-IMAP as easy as 
possible. If Dovecot does things as you describe, then going from 
Courier to Dovecot will cause folders to jump up a level in the 
hierarchy, and will either confuse or irritate users -- especially ones 
that may have had user-end filters that move mail from INBOX to 
subfolders.

IMAPdir, on the other hand, supports all sorts of things, including 
mixing mbox folders in with Maildir folders (for example, IMAPdir/INBOX 
*could* be a symbolic link to /var/spool/mail/username if you wanted it 
to be). It also happens to be the only depot style that Binc currently 
supports (unsurprising, given that there are only two) that allows you 
to define root-level folders.

Now, it's a valid question whether or not Binc could have a 
Dovecot-style depot. If Dovecot-style Maildir's are internally 
consistent, I think Binc could definitely have a "Dovecot" depot, and 
probably without a whole lot of work (not that I have looked into it 
much, so take that with a grain of salt). Next question is if there's 
enough actual demand to make it worth Andreas's time, rather than making 
1.3 stable.

Andreas?

~Kyle
-- 
Testing can show the presence of errors, but not their absence.
-- E. W. Dijkstra

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