Project dream

[Michael Hudson]

Paul Rubin <http://phr.cx@NOSPAM.invalid> writes:

> hwlgw at hotmail.com (Will Stuyvesant) writes:
> > What would your favorite be?
> 
> A CVS-like system for email.  You'd receive all your messages on a
> server somewhere.  You'd then be able to connect your laptop to the
> internet, download ("check out") your mail, and read and reply to it
> offline (not necessarily all of it).  When you dial up again, the
> replies get sent out and stored ("checked in") on the server, the
> messages that you read get marked as read, the ones you didn't read
> don't get marked, etc.  The CVS-like aspect is that you can do the
> same thing from your office computer, your friend's computer, etc., so
> you have the same messages checked out on multiple clients at the same
> time.  

Up to here, this sounds like the idealized IMAP experience.  Using
Apple's mail.app offline isn't so different from this -- there are
some bogosities in the implementation (in Jaguar), but the intent is
clearly there.

> The server automatically merges the "change sets" when you check any
> in.  Finally, the server shouldn't need any special protocol to
> check messages in or out.  It should be able to create a single
> tarball or zipfile that you download, and accept a single tarball or
> zipfile when you upload

Mail.app can import from most formats and will upload on sync... of
course, I like to have my mail on a machine where I have a shell too,
which makes all this a little bit trival (it also means that when I'm
online -- as now -- I use ssh + screen to acheive something a litle
bit like what you describe).

Cheers,
mwh

-- 
  It's an especially annoying American buzzword for "business use, 
  as opposed to consumer, research, or educational use".
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