Re: Imap - special folders question

["M. Thielker" <balsa t-data com>]

Hi,

On 2002.02.15 18:49 Klaus wrote:
> Furthermore - what is the meaning/sense of "imap-mailbox", since it just
> shows the inbox, in comparisson to "imap-folders", which do produce the
> result one expects ? Tried to
> look it up but did not find anything in the provided manual.

Well, it's historic. Originally, there was only IMAP mailbox, to be able to 
retrieve email from an IMAP server. IMAP mailbox references a single 
folder, it ignores subfolders. That is the most simple way to access IMAP 
and was the one originally chosen to get up and running fast, I would guess.
Later on there was IMAP folder, which supported a folder containing 
subfolders only. Balsa was at that time unable to display folders that have 
items _and_ subfolders in them.
Finally, the ability to display items and subfolders in the same folder as 
well as show the inbox separately was added, as well as the option to have 
the special folders on an IMAP server.
Really, one of the options could be removed and the differing functionality 
of the two folded into one. At that time, centralized subscription 
management could be added as well.
Using special folders on different IMAP servers will probably have to wait 
for the often touted, but never implemented universal IMAP library.
I had a go at it myself once, but eventually found that it would take too 
much time away from my paying work.

Melanie