On 10 Nov 2017, at 17:23 (-0500), Michael Peddemors wrote:
Why the use of POP3 and not IMAP?
I'd guess that it is mostly because Google doesn't really want users using MUAs outside of their control. It's not intentionally evil, it just works out that way.
Also: Google can't even implement a truly interoperable IMAP *server* with the advantage of being the 800-lb gorilla in the market space. A client that works with everyone else's diversely and debatably broken IMAP servers is a vastly more complex problem. On the other hand, sucking down everything from a POP3 account would be a CS101 homework assignment, were it not for the multiple usable open source implementations available.
This is a part of why the MUA universe has devolved from dozens of mature feature-rich POP3 clients and pure mailbox twiddlers to a handful of mostly lame IMAP clients, webmail, and proprietary stuff like ActiveSync. I believe the canonical way to convert programmers into a carpenters is to assign them maintenance responsibility for a v1.0 IMAP client.
-- Bill Cole b...@scconsult.com or billc...@apache.org (AKA @grumpybozo and many *@billmail.scconsult.com addresses) Currently Seeking Steady Work: https://linkedin.com/in/billcole _______________________________________________ mailop mailing list mailop@mailop.org https://chilli.nosignal.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mailop
