[MlMt] Introducing the new Gmail API

[Benny Kjær Nielsen]

On 26 Jun 2014, at 7:23, Peter Losher wrote:

> On 25 Jun 2014, at 17:33, Gary Hull wrote:
>
>> Does this solve the undocumented Gimap problem, and will MailMate 
>> support it?
>
> I don't think so for MailMate at this time...
>
> "Note: The Gmail API should not be used to replace IMAP for 
> full-fledged email client access. Instead, see IMAP and SMTP."

Just to elaborate a bit. The new API is intended for web 
applications/services to more easily/safely access Gmail messages. It is 
not intended to be used by desktop email clients. At least not yet. This 
quickly leads to some hypothetical questions. In the following, I'll 
play my own Devil's advocate (note that these are not Peter's 
questions):

> If Google creates a proprietary protocol for accessing Gmail from 
> desktop email clients, would MailMate support it?

No.

> But don't you claim that the current Gmail IMAP (Gimap) is not really 
> IMAP?

Well, yes.

> Then why not support another proprietary protocol?

MailMate tries to do as little as possible to handle Gimap differently 
than any other IMAP server. This can be tricky and it's a fact that I've 
spent numerous hours (probably months) handling Gmail-specific issues. I 
probably wouldn't have done that if it was not because Gmail is 
ubiquitous.

> You didn't really answer the question. Why not support another 
> proprietary protocol?

It's a lot of work to support another protocol and it would just make it 
easier for Google to shut down IMAP access in the future (ok, MailMate 
does not have that kind of leverage -- but in principle). Until Apple 
started supporting MS Exchange natively I also had a naive hope that MS 
Exchange would improve IMAP access.

> But IMAP s*cks, wouldn't it be better with another protocol?

No, you got that wrong. IMAP works quite well, but many IMAP servers and 
IMAP clients s*ck. In any case, a protocol created specifically for 
Gmail won't help. Any new web app/service created using the new Gmail 
API can only work with Gmail. That's a step back in my opinion.

> What if other IMAP servers (or email providers) start supporting the 
> same API?

Then I'll reconsider my position, but I find that highly unlikely. 
Google does not appear to have any intention of making their API a 
general standard. For now, it's probably more likely that we are going 
to see a lot of Gmail-only web apps/services. The only way to change 
that would be if someone somehow created a Gmail API wrapper for 
existing IMAP servers (which is probably far more complicated than it 
sounds — even if you think it sounds complicated).

> What if Google stops supporting IMAP?

I really don't think that is likely to happen anytime soon (at least not 
for many years to come). The obvious answer is that then MailMate 
doesn't work with Gmail since MailMate is an IMAP email client, but I 
think we should spend our time worrying about other issues than that.

-- 
Benny