On 11 Jun 2002 at 12:09, Mark Crispin wrote:
> So, here comes another patentable idea that I'm giving away for free
> into the public domain:
>
> Don't fetch everything. At least, not at once.
>
> Do lazy fetching instead. Given sequence/UID mapping, you know how
> many messages are before or after any particular range. Fetch just
> enough information to draw the data which is visible on the screen.
> You have enough to size and draw the scrollbars, but don't fetch the
> information for what is off screen.
This is fine in theory, but how do you handle sorting? I don't think it's
unreasonable for the user to expect to see the mailbox in a sort order of
his or her choosing, but the core IMAP protocol provides no means for
doing this (unless it's been added in the latest draft and I missed it) - the
connected client has to retrieve at the minimum the sorting field for
every message in the folder.
I know there was a proposed sorting extension, but I never found a copy
of the specification (granted I didn't look especially hard), and even if I
had, I'd still have had to code for the typical case of servers that didn't
support it.
Am I missing something here? I don't see how you can do lazy fetching
on a sorted mailbox unless the sorting can be done on the server side,
and the mathematical properties of both sequence numbers and UIDs
appear to make that impossible.
Cheers!
-- David --
------------------ David Harris -+- Pegasus Mail ----------------------
Box 5451, Dunedin, New Zealand | e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Phone: +64 3 453-6880 | Fax: +64 3 453-6612
Quote for the day
"Four-piece guitar bands are out, Mr Epstein."
-- Unnamed Decca official refusing to sign the Beatles.
