Re: [Evolution] options on download

[NotZed <notzed helixcode com>]

> > but if someone feels it's necessary, here's the simplest way to do it:
> >
> > send a LIST command to the pop server, record the message 
> > sizes for each
> > message, sort on size (smallest to largest) and then download in the
> > resulting order
>
> ok, the simplest way, in this case, is not the right way.  The message
> headers and bodies should be downloaded first, regardless of anything else.
> Any binary attachments should be downloaded after all of the header and
> plain-text mime portions are downloaded.  That way, I can read ALL of my
> mail, from oldest to newest, and not have the silly scheduling problem that
> you mentioned above.  

There is no way to do this.  A mime message is an enveloped structure,
if you only download parts of it, you end up with an incomplete, truncated
message.  You can't separate the parts out for pop (imap is a different
issue, as it can do this).

The attachments can come in any order and be interspersed with
additional text as well.

The only way to get only a partial message in pop is to close
(abort) the connection, and then you have to reconnect to get the next
message - which is probably slower than getting another few k'
of data (over a compressed modem link especially).  It also
stuffs up the pop server state ...

> > no need to grab a header and no need to check for mime attachments
>
> Without doing those, you don't know how to download things, and get into
> scheduling messes.  

Huh?  Dont know how to download what?  You were talking about file
sizes before, LIST provides that ...  The header doesn't even provide
that.

> > if anyone feels up to patching 
> > /evolution/camel/providers/pop3, feel free
> > but I don't think anyone here has any intent on implementing 
> > that feature
>
> No, not going to volunteer personally, nobody likes Pascal.  8^)

For a reason!