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Re: very annoying problem [only for Gmail]

Subject: Re: very annoying problem [only for Gmail]
From: "John H Meyers" <jhmeyers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:03:35 -0500
Newsgroups: opera.mail+news

On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:48:00 -0500, Andrew Rybenov wrote:

> 1) I use IMAP channel

That detail could have some significance to analyzing what's happening;
sorry that I assumed POP, in absence of any prior mention about IMAP :)

The first "synchronization" for IMAP is going to take
a very long time, if you have a lot of messages at Gmail;
subsequent synchronizations may also be a workload,
since IMAP is just by nature more demanding.

> 2) The event sequence was the next:
> I registered at a site, they said me they'd send me activation letter.
> I waited, and waited with Opera in my tray - nothing came.
> After about an hour I decided to check with OE, and voila,
> I've got the mail.

Were you repeatedly checking for new mail all that while?

I can't fill in certain missing details here;
for example, OE could have been the first
to do a "check for new mail" after it arrived,
and could have done something to convince Gmail
not to make the same message available to Opera
(or perhaps to any other client); there's a lot
of past history about which non-eyewitnesses can only speculate.

At any rate, you seem to be describing a "one time" (or "one off")
event; all that matters from now on is whether IMAP works now,
without interference by any conflicting action (POP or IMAP)
on the part of other clients.

> for whatever reason, after I had reverted to 9.27, "recent" trick doesn't
> work any more - it's just endlessly "authenticating".

> I am going to test one thing: at GMail prohibit pop3, leaving IMAP protocol 
> only.

All that I can glean from these few remarks is that both POP and IMAP
were used at some points, and I can only suspect that whatever occurred
was likely a normal phenomenon, relating to how Gmail simulates POP and IMAP,
and the fact that another client (Outlook Express) was the first
to retrieve a particular message.

"Simulates" is the important word -- Gmail is fundamentally a web-based system,
which fits neither the operational model for a POP server nor the operational
model for IMAP (e.g. "labels" do not really correspond to "mailboxes,"
Gmail's unit of work is a "conversation" rather than an individual message, 
etc.),
so that many compromises are necessary to make it look like either POP or IMAP
to a personal mail client, although it can accept the POP and IMAP
protocol commands and do reasonable things in response to each of them.

Personally, I don't see why I would ever be tempted
to even try using IMAP with Gmail from a personal email client,
because the "web view" of Gmail already has everything I could get using IMAP,
and works better in its own "native" mode for me.

"To each his own," and best wishes.

-- 

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