tired of bulky mail clients?

[mp303]

stuff I could contribute for a PB mailer:

- the database stuff - I have worked with a number of different SQL engines on larger projects, and I could easily implement structures and support-functions for mail storage, searching, archival, import/export, address books (import/export/search etc.).

- encoding/decoding routines for Base64, UUencode/decode (for attachments), MIME stuff etc. - it's all standard stuff which I could easily translate from sources in other languages, I have all this stuff lying around already.

- the POP3 and SMTP stuff - no past experience with this, but I gave it a quick lookover, and it seems pretty straightforward.

I am inexperienced with GUI stuff in PB, and I don't know how much time I could make for a project like this, but if someone else is interested in working on the GUI...? ... I could then start by writing structures and support functions for mail storage and transfer - we'd already be on the way then, next I could write attachment support functions, and those could be integrated into the GUI etc... anyone interested? :)

[mp303]

ricardo,

"You can code an email client capacble to send and receive html e mailsthat dosent eat all memory and dont run so slow"

I don't know any HTML parser/renderer that doesn't need a megachunk of memory. Do you?

Of course, since the IE component is built into every windows OS, and since it's nearly always already loaded anyways, it wouldn't require any significant extra processing power to support it, yes... so that would be possible, although personally I would still want an optional filtering function which strips the HTML to plain text and displays that; I don't want HTML messages, it's not just a matter of virus vulnerability of memory usage (as if that wasn't enough ;)

[mp303]

Btw, I found the address book menu in Pegasus - it's of course buggy, piece of junk :/ ... I wasted probably around an hour looking for that stupid menu, and it finally turns out, if you have the mailboxes child window maximized within the application, for some reason the menu doesn't show up - not even after you de-maximize, you actually have to close the address book and then open it again, THEN the stupid menu appears ... cripes.

[Num3]

The POP3 protocol is super easy to implement (has well has FTP)

I've done it in visual basic, so in purebasic it should be erh... 1000x easier

For more info about it please read the RFC document at:

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1939.txt

[fsw]

I am inexperienced with GUI stuff in PB, and I don't know how much time I could make for a project like this, but if someone else is interested in working on the GUI...? ... I could then start by writing structures and support functions for mail storage and transfer - we'd already be on the way then, next I could write attachment support functions, and those could be integrated into the GUI etc... anyone interested?

Sounds good for me - if nobody jumps in (because he has more time to work on it...) and you don't need the GUI tomorrow...

Don't know if you know the 'Mail Warrior', but the usability is simple and mostly straight forward and clean.
That's what I would do also - keep it clean and simple.

I would contribute my GUI EVENT PureLIB (static LIB not DLL) that I'm working on (final stage of testing, should be finished in the middle of the month).

[tinman]

Sorry you found it a hassle. I've never had problems with it, but as I said some people just don't like it. Hope you find a mail client more to your liking.

[Fangbeast]

Because it's fun and easy to use (at least for me it is). And there is even a version that comes on a usb memory chip, that is fun.

As for install and uninstall, I can reinstall the program if it gets dinged up and copy all the data over it no problem.

[mp303]

fangbeast,

Pocomail, yes ... I can't remember exactly what was wrong with it, but I tried it about half a year ago, and kicked it before the trial even ended ... it crashed and wiped all my mail, as far as I remember.


fsw,

your GUI EVENT lib, what does it do? magic tricks? or something useful for a mail client? :)

that's another thing we'll have to deal with, by the way - crash recovery/backups, something most mailers don't bother with ... I wonder what sort of features/options SQLite has for post-crash recovery of it's database, I'll have to look into that ...

I'll see if I can find a night soon and start coding something - you're subscribed to this thread, right? so I'll just post here when I get somewhere :)

[ricardo]

I don't know any HTML parser/renderer that doesn't need a megachunk of memory. Do you?

Just use the webgadget, whats the problem?
You can edit the emails there and of course look at them there too.

Im not a html-email user, but i can understand that today is a MUST for a capable email client.

In first place links are a must in emails and many visual things that we use in this forums and we use it because it give us the chance to be more expresive and let us

be more clear when try to remark something

And if we use it here to write, why don't access to them in an email?

Just a little work to get a good editor and you are on with email capable client.

Just MHO

[Fangbeast]

fangbeast,

Pocomail, yes ... I can't remember exactly what was wrong with it, but I tried it about half a year ago, and kicked it before the trial even ended ... it crashed and wiped all my mail, as far as I remember.

Sorry you had that problem. With the millions of computer configurations out there, I am not surprised it can have problems but then the same is true of any software. Of all the people I know of that have PocoMail, it works well, runs fast, doesn't use much memory and the email filters are to die for. And it also has configurable backup.

But, then again, I don't know millions of people :)

[mp303]

ricardo,

"Im not a html-email user, but i can understand that today is a MUST for a capable email client"

how so? ... when have you ever actually seen HTML mail used for something USEFUL?

there are two major groups of HTML mail users:

1. Advertisers/spammers ... this is by far the major group of HTML mail users, and I wouldn't be surprised if this is the REAL reason that HTML mail was invented in the first place - so they can send you colorful advertisements with pictures and junk.

2. People who don't know the difference ... this is undoubtedly the second-largest group of HTML mail users - people who simply press "compose" in outlook, accepting the default behavior of composing in HTML; they don't care about HTML features, they don't even use them, they just write in HTML because that's what the mailer does by default.

And then there is (or so I've been told, I honestly don't know anyone) a third group - ordinary users, who actually bother using HTML formatting features in their mails, like fonts and colors and background, in emails to their friends ... usually with horrifying results ... cluttering the communication, wasting their own time and the recipient's.

Face it: HTML email is a CURSE.

It's a waste of time for sender AND recipient, it's an invitation for hackers and virus programmers to ruin your day, it's a mailslot for advertisers to waste your time with colorful garbage and waste your time and your bandwidth, and it's usually outright EMBARASSING for the person who sends it; usually the same kind of person who applies their "skills" in Frontpage and puts up a web site with pictures of their car and their pets, but that's another story...

My point is, HTML email is EVIL. Even if it does enable one or two people in every million to "communicate creatively", it's certainly not worth the TERABYTES of wasted bandwidth that goes out on this every day all over the world. HTML email is litter in cyberspace. Keep your cyberforests clean! Say NO to HTML email! :P

[Berikco]

Of course, there is also the OE clone but with built in adverts Eudora. Never liked it much.

lol eudora an OE clone
M$ just stole the outlook bar from eudora, eudora got this bar already +/-10 years ago in version 1.52, wich i still use on my TS
I used it on windows 3.11, outlook did not yet exist
I also use the full version Eudora PRO , no advertising.

[ricardo]

@mp303

You are a little radical!!

Well, im not part of MS, so don't get angry with me

Just one point:

My experience (im talking about marketing) shows me that saying "people do that..." or "people don't like that..." are commonly wrong and not a good practice. Numbers are the only way to measure behaviors to buy/use, etc.

Code: Select all

See the number in CNET downloads ranking for e mail client:

Incredimail   12,083,249
Eudora              739,475 
Pegasus            546,978 
The Bat             153,498 
Group Mail Free   74,579 
Mail Bomber        58,722 

Pretty eloquent, huh?:twisted:

*I understand you point and don't want to argue, just want to say that usually numbers shows something different.

[mp303]

ricardo,

it wasn't meant as an attack, I'm just putting the facts on the table ... I know the meaning of numbers, I was in advertising myself for some years - but the only thing these numbers tell you, is how the existing mailers compete. I'm not sure what you wanted to show by that?

[GedB]

If you check the figures for programming languages you'd see that Java, VB or C++ are the way to go. Who would want a small, perfectly formed, basic compiler?