RESTful email [WAS Re: MailboxManager API and session orientation was: Jsieve Configuration]

[robert burrell donkin <ro...@gmail.com>]

On 1/25/07, Serge Knystautas <sk...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 1/24/07, robert burrell donkin <ro...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 1/23/07, Serge Knystautas <sk...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > <snip>
> >
> > > I would suggest looking briefly at the raw IMAP protocol.  It makes
> > > the protocol nasty, but every command gets a unique token so that
> > > requests and responses are asynchronous.  I would presume this is why
> > > someone like Andy will question the larger scalability of the protocol
> > > given its complexity and how the asynchronous nature of rich email is
> > > built right into the protocol instead of having the client create
> > > multiple HTTP connections in a REST style.
> >
> > not just Andy :-)
> >
> > there are quite a few of us, now...
> >
> > IMAP is broken. a new RESTful protocol is needed.
> >
> > an advanced server capable of supporting both a next generation
> > protocol and IMAP would be very cool
>
> Yes, but... my company's new IMAP server provider supports the IDLE
> command, so I get alerted immediately when a new email arrives
> (http://email.about.com/od/emailbehindthescenes/g/imap_idle.htm).  I
> did a test from my gmail account last night...  I swear 0.2 seconds
> after I clicked "send", Thunderbird dinged and showed the newly
> arrived message.  I almost thought it was an error message as I had
> barely started moving my hand away from the keyboard.
>
> Ok, so it's not the killer app for email, but you would lose features
> like that if you moved to a RESTful protocol AFAICT.

yes, you'd lose server push but a web feed (RSS or atom) for email
would work adequately. it would also allow email to be more easily
federated.

- robert

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