Plans for 4.x

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello:

Here are the plans for 4.x:

 1. Fix all outstanding bugs that were introduced in 3.99.x (so the result
is no worse than before)
    ** IF YOU HAVE A BUG THAT NEEDS FIXING BEFORE 4.0, SPEAK NOW **

 2. Release 4.x

 3. Rewrite the imaplib

 4. Release 5.x

A bit about that rewrite.  I'm currently using imaplib from Python, hacked
up with a few bugfixes and feature additions.  imaplib stinks.  It's really
nasty and is the source of a number of limitations and ongoing frustrations.

The IMAP protocol is both stateful and complex.  Therefore, basic
regexp-based parsers (like the existing imaplib uses) are unmaintainable,
and lex/yacc parsers are unworkable (due to the statefulness).

I recently stumbled upon Yapps, a stateful Python parser generator that
looks perfect for this project.  I am able to more-or-less directly map the
syntax from the RFC to a parser and wrap around that.

The API exposed to OfflineIMAP will, of course, change -- and this will
effect huge parts of the code.

The result will be something that is a lot more solid and actually reduce
the size of the code overall.

-- John