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What precisely is shitty and broken about gmail's IMAP implementation? Gmail's IMAP implementation implements three RFCs I wrote; I haven't noticed anything wr
by Arnt 8y ago
What precisely is shitty and broken about gmail's IMAP implementation?
Gmail's IMAP implementation implements three RFCs I wrote; I haven't noticed anything wrong in those areas. Are my RFCs unusual or am I overlooking something?
- frutiger 8y agoNot the GP poster, but the most frustrating thing for me is that GMail labels are implemented as IMAP mailboxes instead of IMAP flags.
- Arnt 8y agoYou might be more frustrated if they'd done it the other way; IMAP clients have a terrible habit of downloading the entire mailbox. If they were to expose all mail in one mailbox with flags as the usual case, users with such clients and a lot of mail would suffer.
- michaelmior 8y agoI'm sure that's true, but I assume that many of these clients either wouldn't have been written this way or would have adapted by now if Gmail did things differently.
- Arnt 8y agoPossible. But until those changes are done and deployed, users on mobile connections would do gigabyte-sized downloads and Google's servers would suffer. If a lot of clients do SELECT * FROM *, the DBA will complain a lot until it stops, one way or another. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches; it must have been a nasty choice to make.
- michaelmior 8y agoSure, can't argue with that :)
- lucideer 8y agoI'm curious if you've actually used an IMAP client witha Gmail account; if so, which one(s). A sibling comment has already mentioned the folder/flags mixup issue, but while it sounds like one small feature, that one thing is so fundamentally broken that I really can't see how any user of Gmail IMAP would overlook it. I get duplicate notifications for the same mail in INBOX and [Gmail]/All Mail and actions on one copy don't affect the other unless clients implement Gmail-specific hacks (which many/most do). What RFCs are you referring to?
- izacus 8y agoI used Thunderbird and am still using Airmail and they're working without issues for me. Faster, more responsive and better UI than any web crap.
- lucideer 8y agoI've never used Airmail, but the Thunderbird guys have put a lot of years[0] of work into specifically supporting Gmail's weirdness. It's still not as polished as something like macOS Mail (see commenter above)—you can still run into pitfalls syncing all folders/"labels" with special names, or moving emails from one folder/"label" to another, but it works ok. [0] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/showdependencytree.cgi?id=402793&hide_resolved=0 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/showdependencytree.cgi?id=40279...
- jghn 8y agoI try using pine here and there. Every time I try, whenever I attempt sending a mail it locks my account for suspicious activity
- avhon1 8y agoSame thing happens with my phone (using the K9 email client) whenever I get or send email over a cellular connection.
- mcv 8y agoI use Mail on OS X. I've never had any problems with Gmail. Folders work fine. I never use flags. Notifications work fine. When I delete a message, it's gone. Sometimes it takes a while for the deletion to propagate from one device to another, but I've never had a message survive deletion long term.
- josteink 8y ago> What precisely is shitty and broken about gmail's IMAP implementation? Sent emails for one. I’ve written various email integration components and have to make special safe-guards for Gmail-specific crap.