Re: [MORG] POP3 LIST+ Extension: Monitoring for mailbox changes

[Mark Crispin <[e-mail]>]

On Sat, 5 Feb 2011, Steffen Lehmann wrote:
> To scan through all messages of a mailbox can be a time/CPU/memory
> consuming task for a server on big mailboxes.

This discussion is fascinating, but it begs the question:

If you care about such matters, why use POP3 and not IMAP?

POP3 does a certain specific task, and it does that task well.  POP3 was
never intended for any other task.

Each new extension (to either IMAP or POP3) creates new client/server
incompatibility paths.  You may think that you are staying on top of
things by implementing every extension, no matter how minimal the market
requirement.  You learn otherwise when your customers slam you over
interoperability problems that are fixed only by disabling the extension
in your product.

I can't help but thing that MORG has devolved into a group of people
desperate to stay on the gravy train of Building New Email Protocols,
never mind that the train has become increasingly irrelevant.

The more realistic only care about placing a veneer of "IETF approval" on
a private mechanism for their client/server products.  But then there are
the others, who live in a true Fantasy Land in which everybody will
presently implement all 69 random extensions.

This disease isn't confined to MORG either.  The entire IETF suffers from
it.  I am thoroughly enjoying the IPv6 debacle as it unfolds, and look
forward to many years of entertainment.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.