Modular Mail Check

[Scott B. <br...@ri...>]

Hello.  I want to start using IMAP/SSL, but I would miss my
mail notification.  So, I'd like to patch IceWM to support
IMAP/SSL.

Of course, linking SSL libraries against IceWM is absurd (heck,
a window manager that opens network sockets is a bit strange).
So, what if I were to modify IceWM to run an external program to
check mail?  This has a number of benefits that I can see:

- Supports checking any style of mailbox anywhere on the planet.
  All you have to do is write a script.
- You can run the mail-check program manually to debug the
  connection and watch for errors.
- Removes socket code and knowledge of mbox formats from IceWM core.
- Removes sensitive passwords from the icewm prefs file.
  I think they'd be safer in a dedicated file, like netrc (5).

Drawbacks?  Well, performance I guess.  That shouldn't be an issue
though, since people typically check for new mail once a minute
or less.

I picture shipping icewm with a tiny "icewm-mailcheck" program
that would contain most of the code removed from icewm to provide
all the functionality that we have today.  However, it would be
trivial to recompile it to support SSL or replace it completely
with i.e. a custom Perl script.

Is this something that I should spend some time on?  Or, am I
completely off my nut?  Thanks,

    - Scott