Subject: Re: Terry's assumptions about mailboxes

From: Steve Hole <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 17:41:57 -0600

On Mon, 18 Oct 1993 10:02:37 -0600 Chris Newman wrote:

> From: Chris Newman
> Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1993 10:02:37 -0600
> Subject: Re: Terry's assumptions about mailboxes
> To: [email-masked]
> 
> 
> > Also, how does the client know when to look for a client-maintained file
> > of private flags, e.g. .newsrc, or its mailbox equivalent for, say, a
> > remote message archive?
> 
> I believe we all agree this problem needs to be solved. This is why
> CMU has suggested that the FLAGS reply exclude non-permanent flags.
> If the flag isn't in the FLAGS reply, then the client can look for a
> client-maintained file.

How about if we were to expand the subscription database to include state
information for each of the mailboxes that the user has subscribed to.   This
is pretty much the way it works now with News.   Why couldn't we just
generalize to say that the per-user subscription database always be the 
source for this type of information.   Any implementation (driver in the 
c-client) would be required to maintain a subscription database for the
mailboxes that it managed.   News would use the .newsrc, mail would use
whatever.   If there were no subscriptions, there would be no server 
maintained state information.   It would then be up to the client to manage
state or simply ignore it.

I think it is time that we really had a look forward to the long term goal
for mailbox storage and management on the server.   One of the design goals
should be to be as backwardly compatible as possible, but we are going to
have to start cutting some strings soon.   Especially when we start talking
about mail storage without a corresponding host user account (no UNIX user
id). 

God, I hope this made sense - I am quite tired. 

Cheers.

--
Steve Hole  		        Director of Research and Communications
ISA Corporation			mail:  [email-masked]
Suite 835, 10040 - 104 St.      phone: (403) 420-8081
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada       fax:   (403) 420-8037
T5J 0Z2

---

From: Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 22:32:30 -0700 (PDT)

On Wed, 20 Oct 1993 17:41:57 -0600, Steve Hole wrote:
> information for each of the mailboxes that the user has subscribed to.

Clever idea, but what do we do for mailboxes which aren't subscribed?

One of the real ball-and-chains that c-client faces is the whole ``try to be
compatible with other crufty software'' constraints it faces.  In many ways, I
am green with envy towards the CMU guys, since they have the freedom to do
what they want without such constraints.  Even when I work on new drivers, I
still have to worry about such things; if I add some wonderful new capability
for a new driver, I have to think about how to add it for the other drivers
which have to worry about the crufties.

In other words, it's a common denominator, although I am trying to have the
highest common denominator possible.  It does mean avoiding primes...  ;-)