Subject: [lemonade] on protocol complexity, server compliance, and winding up Lemonade

From: Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:02:24 -0800 (PST)

Apparently, the IBM Domino server does not properly execute FROM searches 
if the string being searched is lengthy and/or contains non-alphabetic 
characters.  That is, we know that
 	tag SEARCH FROM freddy
works, but
 	tag SEARCH FROM canned-fish-examples
does not.  The FROM string is properly returned in the ENVELOPE.

This, in turn, caused the user's filters (which use the SEARCH command) in 
Alpine to fail to function properly.

I have not seen any evidence of market forces compelling the IBM Domino 
server to be fixed or removed from the market.  Nor, for that matter, have 
market forces compelled fixes in the base specification compliance issues 
in Microsoft Exchange server, or Google Gmail server.  Rather, these 
servers are growing in market share by leaps and bounds.

The market reality is that there is no such thing as a "server bug" in 
IMAP.  There are only client bugs.

How is it, then, that the Lemonade WG expects that the far more complex 
server-based and server-dependent mechanisms being discussed -- many of 
which have only the faintest relationship to mobile device requirements -- 
will ever become reliably available to clients?

Note that word "reliable".  Most client authors will abandon a 
functionality if even one server gets it wrong and causes the client to 
fail.  This has been the history of IMAP in the past two decades and there 
is no evidence that Lemonade-enhanced IMAP will be any different.

In reviewing the charter and what has been accomplished:

The trio is quite complex; but it accomplishes something that Lemonade, by 
charter, needed to do.  With the possible removal of CATENATE (to a duo 
rather than a trio), it is difficult to see how the trio can be made much 
simpler.  CATENATE gave good reason to live: it is by far the easiest part 
of the trio to implement in a server, it can be ignored by clients, and 
most importantly it provides a solution for "sent messages" for mobile 
devices.

NOTIFY is needed to provide the functionality of Push in IMAP's Pull world 
when IDLE is not good enough.  Alas, NOTIFY has also taken on more than it 
was chartered to do.  What is *needed*, as opposed to *desired*, is a 
NOTIFY that is no more than a biff.  Work on a more ambitious NOTIFY 
mechanism should be punted to another working group.

At this point, Lemonade's chartered work is done.  None of the other stuff 
being discussed now -- CONDSTORE, METADATA, LISTEXT, ESEARCH, CONVERT, and 
yes even SORT and THREAD -- are directly germane to the chartered work of 
Lemonade.

Yes, these pretty little toys make life easier for a client implementor. 
I certainly find SORT and THREAD to be lifesavers to the point that a 
server which lacks them is barely usable.  But they are NOT specific to 
the needs of mobile devices.

NOWHERE in the charter does it talk about CONDSTORE, METADATA, LISTEXT, 
ESEARCH, CONVERT, SORT, THREAD, or BOMBASTIC-BLURDYBLOOP.

Do a quick polishing-up on the trio, strip NOTIFY to bare bones, throw 
together some quick recommendation on returning a RSS pointer for 
streaming (which is all the charter really calls for), then
 	DECLARE VICTORY AND DISBAND.

-- 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.
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