Re: How to manage c-client memory management?

On Tue, 14 Jul 2009, Shawn Walker wrote:
> There are companies that will not upgrade the computer regardless how cheap 
> memory is today.  I can't force the customers to buy more memory.

Their choice is stark and brutal.

Either they buy modern equipment to handle modern requirements, or they 
pay much more for the software work that will do a mediocre job of getting 
dinosaur equipment to do a half-assed job of the requirements.

A 486 with 16MB memory and Windows 95 is not a suitable platform for 
dealing with 100,000 message mailboxes.

And no, Outlook doesn't handle 100,000 message mailboxes on Windows 95.

>> 14 year old computers are suitable for tasks of 14 years ago.  They are not 
>> suitable for modern tasks.  At today's netbook prices, there is no excuse 
>> to continue using an obsolete, power-wasting, dinosaur.
> Try saying that to the customers that won't budge on upgrading.  We are only 
> forced to have to deal with what the customers are using.  Nothing can change 
> that.

If they are stupid enough to expect 100,000 message mailbox support on a 
16MB Windows 95 machine, then they are stupid enough to pay large sums of 
money forever for software that will never work.

>> 4GB of memory costs less than an espresso at Starbucks.  However, you 
>> should not need anywhere near this.  I regularly play with large mailboxes 
>> on a Nokia N800 which only has 128MB.
> I would say that Nokia N800 does not store all of you message on your phone.

It is not a phone, it is an Internet tablet; and this is using Alpine.

> I can access my 15,000 IMAP folder with my iPhone with 16 GB of memory, but 
> the iPhone does not does download all 15,000 messages, just the first 100 or 
> whatever I have it configured it for.

I am not talking about the iPhone client, or any other client written by 
people who insist upon doing things their way because they don't 
understand how IMAP should be used.

I can access my 35,000 message IMAP mailbox with a Nokia N800 with 128MB 
RAM, with full scrolling threaded view and access to all messages and not 
just 100 messages.

Think about the story of Columbus' egg.

>>  From your use of the word "download", you are not using the c-client 
>> library effectively.  If you were, nobody would ever download 30,000 
>> messages in a session, much less 100,000 messages.
>
> The users that we are dealing with will and always will download all 30,000, 
> 100,000 1,000,000 messages to their computer.  We cannot control how the user 
> want to use the product.  Unless we really cripple how the product work.

Users don't think in terms of "downloading" messages.  They think in terms 
of reading messages.

Client authors think in terms of "downloading", mostly because they don't 
understand how else to enable a user to read their mail.

The only reason that users need to "download" is if the client author is 
unable to envision any other technique for enabling the user to read mail. 
Downloading is most suitable for saving content (such as attachments) on 
the local machine.  There are other, more suitable, techniques for other 
tasks.

If the only tool that you ever use is a screwdriver, it may seem that all 
tasks are solved by using screwdrivers.

>> Look at the Alpine source code for an example of how it is done properly.
> Using Alpine source to how we need to use IMAP is comparing apples and 
> oranges.  If we could control how the application is running then we could 
> model after Alpine.

Unfortunately, you are making your life much harder for yourself.

I have given you as many clues as I can.  Unfortunately, there is a limit 
to my free advice.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
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