> In particular for those whose mother-tongue isn't English: The RFCs are > not distinguishing between mailbox and folder, e.g. IMAP4 clients can > create, rename, and/or delete mailboxes (usually presented to the user > as folders) on the server, and copy messages between mailboxes. Multiple > mailbox support also allows servers to provide access to shared and > public folders ... > > ... since in German, we wouldn't term a folder a mailbox !? >
Hmm, semantics. In the context of mail, mailbox and folder are the same thing. Would it be easier to say mail-box and mail-folder? The logic is: a folder holds "things": files, bits of paper, homework ... so a mailbox is a folder that holds mail messages Even the mailbox icons look like folders. I think some of the confusion comes from the historical aspects of internet messaging that became email. The terminology comes from the fact that a message that was transmitted across the wires (by UUCP?) had to be placed somewhere and that was termed a "mailbox" because the USAians (who claim to have invented it) call the place the postman delivers letters (aka "mail") to the "mailbox". It was never really thought you would have many of these things, but you might have an "inbox" and an "outbox" and a "trash". Fast forward 20 years, and email is proliferating - you need somewhere to file all your old mail because your inbox is becoming unmanageable when it got to over 100 messages, so other mailboxes were created where you could "file" the messages into "folders". So in the end the naming is a hangover from trying to impose office terminology onto electronic communications - I suppose it was an attempt to make it more accessible to non-geeks. And then you layer onto the top of that a translation into German, which, even German speakers must admit, has some unique features. (aka lets just push a whole load of words together and take out the spaces to make a completely new word half a line long) Not that English is without its oddities. P. _______________________________________________ evolution-list mailing list evolution-list@gnome.org To change your list options or unsubscribe, visit ... https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/evolution-list
