[Imap-protocol] IMAP MOVE extension

[Witold Kręcicki]

Here is an open letter to Mark Crispin which includes all my thoughts about 
the discussion that is happening here, I've included imap-protocol mailing 
list here as it concerns everyone that took part in this discussion.


You believe that all IMAP operations should be atomic no matter what happens, 
that even in case of fatal failure the server should respond in a consistent 
manner so that there is mutual agreement over the state of mailboxes. 

I really respect that. 

If the computer located in the tail of A380 and controlling the whole 
tailplane would not have state consistent with the state of the computer in 
the cockpit - some lives could be lost. 

But checking mail is not flying an airliner. 

If the server detects a critical failure (eg. filesystem fault) it can always 
break the connection, and user will at most be forced to click 'OK' on 'The 
IMAP server unexpectedly closed the connection' message box. If the perfect 
IMAP implementations would be run on a computer that has faulty RAM chip and 
it would crash - it's ok, it's not its fault - then why it is its fault when 
the HDD/FS fails (that is the only possibility that I can imagine in which 
move fails in a way it cannot be recovered to the previous state, at least in 
case of Maildir store)?

Putting the argument that '25 years of IMAP history would be undone' is just 
pure nonsense. During those 25 years the Internet community grew  over 1000 
times (and ~3 times since RFC3501 was published). During those 25 years the 
Web was born. During those 25 years the number of largest IMAP servers users 
grew from at most few hundred users to over few million users. 

25 years ago people were checking mails using text terminals, now they're 
checking mails using their cell phones - both using IMAP  protocol as the best 
and actually only way to do it without consuming too much bandwidth and 
resources.

What I'm saying is that it's not undoing the history, it's just simple 
evolution that has to occur as the Internet and the way people access IMAP 
servers changes. From what I've heard from people more experienced than me 
'MOVE' command issue is coming up every 2-3 years - everytime with lots of 
appreciation from community and a total contempt from You. Maybe it's finally 
time to consider it as an useful feature?

-- 
Witold Kręcicki

Grupa o2 Spółka z o.o., ul. Jutrzenki 177, 02-231 Warszawa,
KRS 0000140518, Sąd Rejonowy dla m.st. Warszawy, 
Kapitał zakładowy 377.298,00 zł., NIP 521-31-11-513