Re: Writing a GNOME mail client.

[mawarkus t-online de (Matthias Warkus)]

+++ Sat, Apr 17, 1999 at 10:57:18AM -0700 +++
Scott Wimer e-mails me. Film at 11. Reply right now, after the break.
> Michael,
> 
> you're not talking email clients here.  You're talking something much
> broader.  Something almost yahooish.  Organized data storage mechanisms.
> 
> Maybe that's something we need to turn our thoughts to as a group.
> 
> How can we organize the data in our life in the most flexible and easy
> to use manner?  for all sorts of different meanings of "easy to use".
> 
> Maybe an architecture like this would be a start.  This is rough, I'm
> working this up just out of the shower. :)
> 
>                            Message Storage System
> A Message is any document (email, image, raw text, URL, etc)
> 
> Each message stored is given a unique ID.

A file name?

> (Basically, a public dB key
> if you will).


> Each Message may be tagged as belonging to any number of subject areas.

That is, hardlinked into a number of directories?

> 	In the common case, most Messages will only belong to a single
> 	subject area.
> 
> An index of each subject areas will be maintained on the fly.

Directory listings?

> However,
> this index needs to be able to be regenerated from the Messages 
> themselves in the event of an index corruption.  This means we'd need to
> store the tagging with the Message.
> 
> 
> Standard dB tools

Such as a Unix filesystem?

> should let us build something like this.  We could even
> make default 'Themes' of subject areas for folks who really don't feel
> like taking the time to create their own.
> 
> We'll probably find ourselves needing to use gecko or something like it
> for the display engine of the various Messages, since it can handle a
> whole lot of data types.
> 
> 
> Am I just whizzing in the dark here?  Or does this sound like a decent 
> aproach to this problem?

It sounds like there is no need to invent a complete database system
here; the filesystem plus some metadata is good enough.

Please, please, don't reinvent the wheel. Hardlinks are really nice.

mawa
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