At Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:21:24 +0100, Xavier Bestel <xavier.bestel@xxxxxxx> wrote: Subject: Re: Exec'ing a script from Cyrus when imapd has a client > > Do you gain anything if Cyrus doesn't > fulfill the needs of some users ? Did I ever say Cyrus should or should not meet the needs of some users? I think you've got something backwards here. Why should any one "product" meet the needs of all users? That's the "if all you've got is a hammer..." analogy. Cyrus IMAP will _NEVER_ meet the needs of all users, and that's fundamentally what I've been trying to say from the start. If you don't need it then don't try to wedge it into your implementation! We all gain if we can avoid the "all you've got is a hammer" trap, and indeed we all gain if we can help each other avoid that trap too. If I'm not too mistaken it seems most everyone who wanted to use an IMAP server as a client-level tool (by employing the likes of fetchmail) were clearly falling for the "I have this Cyrus IMAP Hammer and I want to use it to manage all of my e-mail even though I'm not running a server" trap. Certainly that seemed to me to be the OP's situation. The real fear I have is that as a result others will believe that this kind of use is condoned and approved, or worse that these folks were actually setting up such things for other groups of users. In both cases we end up with naive users who will not understand the issues involved. Issues such as mangled headers, unreliable delivery, loss of e-mail, and so on. Sure, it's all fine and dandy for someone to want to learn about a product like Cyrus IMAP (or even fetchmail) by installing and using it in some form where they can personally make use of it. However if the goal is just to make something work in the real world for end users then we really need to go back to the fundamental end-user requirements and figure out how best to meet them without creating hidden problems along the way simply because we've got this hammer in our hands and we're dying to bang away on something. If the user wants some screws installed then we'd be doing them a huge favour if we would go and find the proper screwdriver to do the job for them! -- Greg A. Woods +1 416 218-0098 VE3TCP RoboHack <woods@xxxxxxxxxxx> Planix, Inc. <woods@xxxxxxxxxx> Secrets of the Weird <woods@xxxxxxxxx> ---- Cyrus Home Page: http://cyrusimap.web.cmu.edu/ Cyrus Wiki/FAQ: http://cyrusimap.web.cmu.edu/twiki List Archives/Info: http://asg.web.cmu.edu/cyrus/mailing-list.html
