Re: [Bug-mit-scheme] imail question

[Taylor R Campbell]

   Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:49:57 -0400
   From: Julie Sussman <address@hidden>

   I expect that this is a failure of my mental model,
   not of imail, but ...

   I filed a message in a new folder under inbox
   (imagine inbox/foo).  I looked there, and the message
   was there.  Emboldened, I filed a bunch more messages there
   and deleted them (but didn't expunge them yet) from where
   they originally were.

   But when I looked in the new folder, only that first message was there.
   I tried 'g' in case I had to ask it to find any recently added
   messages, but nothing happened.  I was afraid to expunge the messages
   from where they originally were until I knew they were really in the
   new place.  Eventually, they appeared in the new folder.  What is this
   time delay?  Is it necessary?  It is pretty scary, and requires
   keeping track of when it feels safe to expunge the original messages.

It is up to the IMAP server to inform the clients when new messages
are added to folders.  When you ask IMAIL to file a message, IMAIL
requests the server to copy the message to another IMAP mailbox.
IMAIL does not (and cannot correctly) reflect the update in the folder
it presents to the user until the IMAP server tells IMAIL that a
message was added to the other IMAP mailbox.  There may be an
arbitrary delay between when the IMAP server accepts the initial
request and when the IMAP server informs IMAIL of the new message in
the target folder.

It's suboptimal, and it's the fault of the IMAP, not of IMAIL,
unfortunately, so that there's not much I (or the author of any mail
reader) can do about it.