[nos-bbs] JNOS closer to Winlink than many realize + hf.ampr.org anyone ?

[George (Skip) VerDuin]

Maiko,  you started a significant thread here...
Perhaps it is as much about what JNOS is as what JNOS could be?


On Tue, 2006-04-04 at 11:08 -0500, maiko at pcs.mb.ca wrote:

> How many of you know the following :
> 
>  >SNIP<
> 
> In a way, the WINlink looks and behaves alot like IMAP ...

Bill, you take umbrage with this in detail, but focus on mail handling
via three things: POP, IMAP, and fetchmail.  The specs for POP
presuppose one server and one agent using "offline editing".  OK when
jnos is a stand-alone node servicing the BBS mail agent, but  jnos is
being applied increasingly in a network.  The specs for IMAP presuppose
network environment and "online management" from end users with multiple
mail agents.  

Maiko suggests(?) a great point; feature development might better be
toward an IMAP model.  IMAP shines in disconnected service and aids in
the answer to what messages to transmit and/or purge.  Implementing imap
might become a distinct technical advantage.  Furthermore, when you step
outside jnos, the new mail agents process in both POP and IMAP
environments.

> 
> A few enhancments would have to be made to JNOS in order to make it
> function in a truly *global* fashion as the winlink system does. >SNIP<
> I don't think it would be much to get a new feature like this thrown in.

HMMM - mimic winlink?  Interface with winlink for sure...  Maybe not
clone...

> 
> I have considered setting up a *centralized* server something like :
> 
>     hf.ampr.org
> 
> and going from there ...

AOL (for example) does it.  No matter where you are in the world, as an
aol customer you quickly get mail delivered from a large number of mail
servers.  From an end-user standpoint both aol and winlink have
simplicity as a hallmark, and both user models are built on an
extrapolated POP but not quite IMAP mentality.  Of course aol has the
advantage of Internet (the big bandwidth sewer pipe), whereas jnos will
struggle with RF (the small feeder bandwidth), so jnos might require
some regionalization built in to mail handling.

The down side of the POP/IMAP option is that neither addresses the
robustness of the message server.  Duplication of servers to backup
data, and regionalization to give immediate access via RF network links,
remain to be implemented.  As a far-out (not mentioned before)
consideration, find a way to install fetchmail as a daemon to move mail
around since fetchmail presupposes on-demand network links and
accommodates virtually all transport varieties?  This would be more
useful in the infrastructure that enables globalization than on a remote
desktop type node, but the tool exists now to save re-development.

> 
> Anyways, there's some information that I hope a few of you may find useful.


If this has attracted flames so be it.  Maiko you may not have intended
to go directly toward imap, and Bill your sense of humor is kewl and I
don't disparage your attention to detail.  I may be a minority of one in
viewing jnos as a network component to enable RF path alternative to
DSL, dial-up, or whatever.  Still it seems that imap has potential to
simplify mail handling from the user standpoint while at the same time
reducing bandwidth requirements.  The cost is to complicate the
administrators viewpoint.

Now in working thru the detail of just how jnos interfaces with winlink
and others,  I'd like to offer writing the "how-to" for users and
administrators...  It may be a hollow offer in the eyes of this nos
community, but there it is anyway.  I am certain that I don't want to
"make work" for developers then just look on.

To that end, is there any use for a user "how to" and mock up
configuration for admins as though imap was supported by jnos?
If there is / then I'll create one.  If not / then I'll chalk this up to
being too far off-base.

> 
> 73 Maiko Langelaar / VE4KLM
> 
> 
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73
de Skip k8rra k


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