Re: email question (was The HTML Experiment)

[Dick Smith <rsmith@gulf.net>]

Sam Held wrote:
> Jmaes,
>         There is a solution to your problem that avoids downloading mail
> onto your current machine. My advisor has implemented it and I am soon
> (later this summer) moving to it.  It involves setting up an IMAP server
> instead if a POP server. 

Sam is exactly right, though we have no way of knowing whether the IMAP
solution is available to James.  IMAP is designed exactly for what James
needs, and is used widely by people with laptops on the road (um, er, I
think they call them notebooks these days) as well as desktops to check
the same mail.  What's downloaded are the headers only, and then you
read (and delete if wanted) the corresponding messages one at a time. 
So your entire mail file is maintained on the server, just as in John
M's PINE solution.  It's an online solution, unlike the offline approach
of POP.  You can set up directories on the server and then filter mail
based on message headers, so that the right mail ends up (on the server)
in the right directory.. or if you like, you can filter into folders on
your desktop as well. 

I use POP most of the time, since I like the offline mode, but this past
weekend, when Listproc went berserk and sent me 7000 (!) phys-l error
messages, I switched to IMAP so I could delete them all right on the
server without having to download the whole furschluginer mess.

==> Dick

-- 
Richard C. Smith, Ph.D.		Voice: (850) 476-9352  
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