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List:       imap
Subject:    Re: Previous Post / Client Issues
From:       Mark Crispin <mrc () CAC ! Washington ! EDU>
Date:       2002-03-18 18:59:33
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On Mon, 18 Mar 2002, Paul Goodyear wrote:
> Is there some commands that Outlook or UWIMAP does not like with each
> other?

It is not a matter of commands.

UW IMAP is a fully compliant implementation of the IMAP protocol, written
by the inventor of IMAP.  If something else has a problem talking to UW
IMAP, it is almost always a problem with the non-UW program.

Outlook does many things that are syntactically valid in the IMAP protocol
but do not make sense and/or are sub-optimal.  Chief among these is its
habit of opening multiple connections to the same mailbox at the same
time.  Another one abuse of the subscription mechanism.

Note that Outlook and Outlook Express are two different programs, with
very different behaviors.  People seem to have somewhat better success in
getting OE to play ball than full Outlook.

Unfortunately, Outlook isn't alone; certain other programs (including
Netscape and Eudora) have similar problems.  So, it's not a Microsoft
problem, or at least it is not just a Microsoft problem.  The one thing
that stands out in common with most of these programs is that they were
originally POP clients that were modified to talk IMAP.  Apparently it is
very difficult to convert a POP client to be a good IMAP client.  You have
to go to some effort to configure these programs so that they don't do
these things.

Fortunately, there are good IMAP clients in the world.  Such as Pine.

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.

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