Re: [Mailman-Developers] Responsiveness
On Thu, 14 Dec 2000 16:31:11 -0800 Chuq Von Rospach <chuqui@plaidworks.com> wrote:
At 7:18 PM -0500 12/14/00, Barry A. Warsaw wrote:
It's not the MLM's problem (not to say it isn't the problem of the simple-minded qrunner script we distribute and enable by default). All I need to do is document the file format for the outbound queue files and site administrators can take it from there.
except I see this as still part of the MLM, since it's the tool doing the MLM->MTA handoff, not part of the MTA itself.
We need to define what an MLM is and does: We're entering a scary territory which goes far beyond the standard modesl of subscriber-based list to more dynamic work-flow and collaborative flow oriented entities where really the only thing the MLM does is prove a named membership list, which it will yield on query after passing some authentication mechanism such that the membership list is associated with a particular message.
Actual delivery of messages, MTAs, transports, authentication mechanisms, membership definitions, account definitions, etc, are really outside of its purview. All an MLM does is provide names which can be associated with lists of addresses, and a means for associating those lists of addresses with a message.
-- J C Lawrence claw@kanga.nu ---------(*) http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/ --=| A man is as sane as he is dangerous to his environment |=--
At 6:35 PM -0800 12/14/00, J C Lawrence wrote:
except I see this as still part of the MLM, since it's the tool doing the MLM->MTA handoff, not part of the MTA itself.
We need to define what an MLM is and does:
Here's how I define the MLM: it has access to a subscriber database, and when a piece of email is received it is in charge of deciding who it is sent to, and generating the content necessary to have ti delivered. Optionally, it manages the subscriber database.
that means that the MTA sees that the mail is addressed to a list and hands it off to MLM. The MLM owns it until it hands the outbound mail to the MTA for delivery. it does everything except acceptance into the system and delivery back out.
Actual delivery of messages, MTAs, transports, authentication mechanisms, membership definitions, account definitions, etc, are really outside of its purview.
The MLM is really an overriding architecture that handles content flow from reception through delivery (but not including delivery), and all of the support subsystems to make that possible. The key one is subscriber maintenance, but archival, digesting, bounce processing are all also part of the MLM archictecture, even if they're managed by external subsystems through a defined API. what's internal and what's external comes down to needs and how strongly you want stuff integrated. As we webify everything (even email), integration and (dare I say it! I dare!) convergence tend to encourage that strong integration (and that we're even thinking of using Zope pieces here shows how far that integration is infiltrating real life already...)
-- Chuq Von Rospach - Plaidworks Consulting (mailto:chuqui@plaidworks.com) Apple Mail List Gnome (mailto:chuq@apple.com)
We're visiting the relatives. Cover us.
participants (2)
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Chuq Von Rospach -
J C Lawrence