Re: [Evolution-hackers] Moving from the single mbox file format for the local folders

[Martin Owens <doctormo gmail com>]

On Wed, 2009-12-16 at 13:56 +0100, Patrick Ohly wrote:
> On Wed, 2009-12-16 at 18:07 +0530, chen wrote:
> > I also come across another issue, even if we start using maildir format,
> > we cannot assume that multiple applications would access the data
> > especially since local folders belong to evolution and would be used
> > frequently. (see https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=592310 )
> 
> So you intend to go to a proprietary format because it prevents other
> tools from meddling with the internal data while Evolution runs? Sure,
> that's one way of solving this "problem". But remember, for several of
> your users being able to have one maildir storage shared between apps is
> a valuable *feature*.

I quite agree, the last thing we need is more proprietary data formats.

If there is a problem with other applications accessing the data, then
you must bring the access API lower. Instead of insisting that Evolution
client be the only privileged user of the information.

Think of emails like pictures taken with your webcam (cheese) you
wouldn't want cheese storing your photos in some configuration directory
~/.cheese/nih_database.db where no outside application could possibly
get at them. Even when cheese stored photos in it's config folder, it
still used the jpeg format.

Emails are just text files with field data. They don't need to be stored
in some database, they just need to be indexed properly by a file system
service so searching and listing is quick enough.

Think about making these systems less complex.

Regards, Martin Owens