Re: Gnomecal standards target

[doctor jest <ix maz org>]

On Wed, 13 Oct 1999, Miguel de Icaza wrote:

> What do you need besides talking to the sendmail
> program?  I am not sure on what the needs are beside
> this and being able to send mail to a SMTP server.

any gnome application should be able to take advantage of
core messaging services without being tightly coupled to a
particular user's installation preferences. for instance, i
dont have sendmail installed on my laptop, so any gnome
programs that try to speak to it directly will fail.

the camel interface is about 95% of what gnome needs for a
general messaging api. it also needs a configuration
mechanism to allow a user to specify messaging via sendmail,
qmail, smtp, mapi, whatever, and the gears to select the
correct camel transport. this messaging api could be
enhanced by adding instant messaging services, perhaps via a
similar provider interface, allowing icq, aim, ms messaging,
etc. and then there's wireless, unified messaging, the list
goes on and on.

its very important that this messaging api be separated from
the main evolution codebase. if i want to write a filter
action to digest an incoming message and forward the digest
to my mobile device, i shouldnt have to install evolution in
order to do so.

the same approach should apply to calendaring and scheduling
standards support and apis. for instance, applications
should be able to construct a scheduling request and have it
delivered via irip, perhaps falling back to imip in case of
failure, without having any explicit knowledge of the actual
transport protocols or data formats being used.

i have a lot of thoughts on this subject specifically
because at work i am an architect for a hosted, web-based
version of evolution and the supporting messaging platform.
luckily in the gnome world we dont have business
relationships (or the lack of them) to cramp our style and
creativity.

are there web sites and mailing lists related to evolution
and other topics ive discussed? ive unfortunately lost track
of all the gnome lists im on and need to (re)subscribe.