MBOX-Line: From janssen at parc.com  Wed Mar 11 10:30:23 2015
To: imap-protocol@u.washington.edu
From: Bill Janssen <janssen@parc.com>
Date: Fri Jun  8 12:34:54 2018
Subject: [Imap-protocol] If Crispin were creating IMAP today how would
	it be different?
In-Reply-To: <55006FA4.3090800@lavabitllc.com>
References: <54FAEB94.4070508@lavabitllc.com> <54FBF289.3010202@psaux.com>
	<7164.1425831184@parc.com>
	<1425907661.1215497.237833469.1EDA571D@webmail.messagingengine.com>
	<6506.1425915329@parc.com> <55005876.4070406@lavabitllc.com>
	<18002.1426091085@parc.com> <55006FA4.3090800@lavabitllc.com>
Message-ID: <20041.1426095023@parc.com>

Ladar Levison <ladar@lavabitllc.com> wrote:

> > I should admit: we're experimenting with new email MUA.  I wrote the
> > MDA to support it, and designed a custom (non-IMAP) MUA/MDA protocol to
> > support unique features of the MUA -- and it doesn't use database
> > replication.
> 
> Link? Or you keeping this piece of brilliance all to yourself?

Sorry; Xerox proprietary for the moment.  And I wouldn't call it
brilliant; I try to focus on doing simple things efficiently instead of
clever things incorrectly.  But the concept is that the MUA/MDA split is
not necessarily where things should be divided; this system is more like
the split client you see in so many Web apps, where part of it runs in
the back-end and part in the front-end.  So the protocol is about
supporting the app, rather than about email per se.

> I'm still looking for inspiration on my protocol design effort. I know
> how to handle most of the functionality, but I'm still wrestling with
> how to sync an encrypted binary file back to the server in a way that is
> safe, and not overly complex... So when I hear "replication" I start to
> think you may have the answer I'm looking for.

There's always MH on top of AFS (http://www.openafs.org/)?  Has nmh
been ported to Android/iOS?

> Of course before I worry about that problem I still need to decide which
> scheme I'm going with. Lately I've been leaning towards sticking with a
> line based protocol, aka, IMAP, but having it to send/receive JSON
> objects...

Good luck!

Bill

