67 lines
3.0 KiB
Plaintext
67 lines
3.0 KiB
Plaintext
MBOX-Line: From mrc+uw at Panda.COM Wed Dec 30 14:07:58 2009
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To: imap-protocol@u.washington.edu
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From: Mark Crispin <mrc+uw@Panda.COM>
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Date: Fri Jun 8 12:34:43 2018
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Subject: [Imap-protocol] Childless noselect mailboxes
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In-Reply-To: <4C25BD1C-720E-46FC-B478-C4C2FEAB71FD@umn.edu>
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References: <1262106049.26478.745.camel@timo-desktop>
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<alpine.OSX.2.00.0912290938230.18442@hsinghsing.panda.com>
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<1262111858.26478.842.camel@timo-desktop>
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<alpine.OSX.2.00.0912291042070.18442@hsinghsing.panda.com>
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<1262114250.26478.864.camel@timo-desktop>
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<alpine.DEB.2.00.0912300000110.22394@Higashi-Tomobiki>
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<Gophermail.2.0.0912300657280.23421@vs-w.tc.umn.edu>
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<4218.1262179770@succubus.panacea.null.org>
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<alpine.WNT.2.00.0912301053270.2128@Shimo-Tomobiki.Panda.COM>
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<4C25BD1C-720E-46FC-B478-C4C2FEAB71FD@umn.edu>
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Message-ID: <alpine.WNT.2.00.0912301328510.2128@Shimo-Tomobiki.Panda.COM>
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On Wed, 30 Dec 2009, Brian Hayden wrote:
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> This is unfriendly; a user never expects a parent to disappear simply because
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> they deleted a child. Not only is it unexpected, but it's inconsistent; they
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> can create an empty container, but it's removed unilaterally if it happens to
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> become empty after it's had something in it?
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You just destroyed your own argument.
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The disappearing parent problem happens precisely because, and is an
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unavoidable consequence, of the attitude that there should not be such a
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thing as a \NoSelect name without children.
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If you paid attention to what I was saying, you would not have fallen into
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that trap.
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You could sink yourself in deeper, by saying that you want to prohibit
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\NoSelect names. As soon as you do that, the unavoidable consequence is
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that you prohibit deleting any mailbox that has children, and you prohibit
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creating any mailbox unless you create the parent mailbox.
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But, you say, you didn't mean that at all; rather, you claim that the
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parent simply does not exist at all. Then you have stepped on yet another
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landmine. I'll leave it as an exercise for you to figure out. Hint:
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regardless of whether or not the parent exists in your implementation,
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certain operations in IMAP require that it must exist (or more accurately
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must not not-exist) in some form.
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Before assuming that you are smarter than the old guy, you ought to make
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sure that you really understand the problem.
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The entire problem was caused because I gave in to people who thought like
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you, and allowed this half-assed copy of netnews hierarchy to happen (over
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the better judgement of my co-workers). I should have required explicit
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directories (which can not have messages) and prohibited mailboxes from
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having children. "Dual-use" mailboxes are a mess precisely because it is
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ambiguous whether to view the messages or view the children when you
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"open" it. I also should have insisted that "/" be the one, and only,
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hierarchy delimiter.
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Done right, \NoSelect would have been \Directory, and it would be
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prohibited to delete a directory with children.
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-- Mark --
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http://panda.com/mrc
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Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
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Si vis pacem, para bellum.
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