MBOX-Line: From mrc+imap at panda.com  Fri Oct 22 12:43:00 2010
To: imap-protocol@u.washington.edu
From: Mark Crispin <mrc+imap@panda.com>
Date: Fri Jun  8 12:34:45 2018
Subject: [Imap-protocol] Session flags.
In-Reply-To: <4CC1E456.5050208@aol.com>
References: <4CC1E456.5050208@aol.com>
Message-ID: <alpine.OSX.2.00.1010221233060.69345@hsinghsing.panda.com>

On Fri, 22 Oct 2010, John Snow wrote:
> Why are session flags useful?  Is there a client that makes use of this
> temporary flag change.

Support you have a mailbox open read-only, either because you have chosen
to do so, or you don't have write access, or you only have access to one
flag (e.g., \Deleted in netnews).

If you read a message without using peek, shouldn't \Seen get set and show
in the index?  Why not?  The spec says that \Seen gets set if you don't
use peek.

If you reply to a message and set \Answered, shouldn't \Answered get set
and show up in the index?  Why not?

Let's consider a specific use case.  I am reading netnews with my IMAP
client.  Why shouldn't the messages that I have read show up as being
read, and the messages that I have answered show up as being answered?

Session flags guarantee the expected user experience with every IMAP
client.  The user may understand that those flags will be gone afterwards,
but if it is netnews and he deletes all messages, that doesn't matter.

-- 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.

