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On Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:43:50 -0500, Eik wrote:
> On Google's side... you can't properly delete emails.
"If you want to delete a message from all folders,
move it to the [Gmail]/Trash folder." [quoting Gmail help]
> They remain in the 'bin' folder
> no matter how many times you delete them
> and keep showing up as 'new' mails the next time I start Opera
> and check the account.
> I think that's purely down to Google's non-standard
> implementation of IMAP, rather than an Opera problem.
Gmail can't quite be like standard IMAP, because, like M2/Opera,
there actually are no "mailboxes," just one common "store,"
with "labels" making the items show up (or not)
in various different "views," in which "removing a label"
should not mean the same as "delete from all views
and never see it again" (just as Opera distinguishes
"remove from view" from "delete from all views and move to Trash")
The following guides seem to "map" IMAP concepts
to the reality of how things exist within Gmail,
which is, after all, an application
designed from the ground up for web-based use,
onto which simulated POP/IMAP services have been grafted:
"How do actions sync in IMAP?"
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=77657
"Recommended IMAP client settings"
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=78892
"Deleting IMAP messages"
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=78755
Other IMAP info and links:
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=75725
The fact that Gmail "messages" are grouped into "conversations"
(in which certain actions, such as labeling,
can not be more granular than entire conversations)
further affects the attempt of Gmail to masquerade as IMAP.
The POP simulation also has to make compromises
to match the reality of Gmail, the most significant of which
is the fact that POP was designed for holding small amounts
of recent mail temporarily on a server, each time downloading
a complete list of what's currently sitting there,
whereas Gmail is designed to accumulate mail over a lifetime,
in which such a "complete list" would be prohibitively huge.
IMAP also faces the same burdens, in which "synchronizing"
could involve an overwhelming amount of traffic,
particularly on a "first visit."
Perhaps it's a shame that Opera doesn't have a direct interface
with Gmail, on its own terms, because Opera's own mail store
is the most like Gmail's of any mail client I've ever seen,
but no Internet protocol has been designed with this in mind.
Rather, the existing mail protocols belong to a "client-oriented" era,
while Internet life continues evolving into a single web application :)
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