On Tue, 6 Jan 2004, Richard Bang wrote: > The responses always seem to be > "The server should allow the client to do any damn thing they please, no > matter how stupid, as long as its in the protocol".
That is correct. I am glad that you finally understand how protocols work. The fact that a particular client is stupid is irrelevent. If it complies with the specification, then it is a compliant client. It is unforgivable for a server to break when it interoperates with a compliant client, even if the motivation is to punish client stupidity. Servers have no discretion on their behavior other than what is explicitly granted to them by the specification. You will notice that there are several places in the IMAP specification in which such discretion is granted to the server. Similarly, clients have complete discretion on their behavior other than what is explicitly prohibited to them by the specification. Such prohibitions can also be found in the specification. Client authors vastly outnumber server authors. That is the way it is. It's not going to change. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum.
