Re: [fetchmail-devel] save_str problems.

[Matthias A. <mat...@gm...>]

Am 09.05.2010 23:02, schrieb Rainer Weikusat:
> Rainer Weikusat <rwe...@ms...> writes:
>> Matthias Andree <mat...@gm...> writes:
>>
>> [...]
>>
>>> it also pretended that someone had already fixed the complexity of
>>> the UID handling (which hasn't happened to the best of my knowledge;
>>> I have started hacking a bit on it, but not sure if I'll make it, or
>>> drop it and leave it for a later release using C++, if it turns out
>>> it's too much of a hassle to do in C).
>>
>> I am done with my last 'firebrigade' assignment which means that I
>> will now continue to work on the UID support for imap
> 
> I'm now the 'proud owner' of a fetchmail variant which works (mostly)
> like a proper 'disconnected imap client'. The number of POP3 accounts
> registered with the product I am using fetchmail for (except pulling
> my mail of my employer's mailserver) has grown to 99 and can be
> expected to increase further.

Sounds good, although I'm not quite sure if you're working on two distinct
issues here (DIMAP and POP3 improvements).

> Because of this, I'm determined to get
> rid of the present UID management code 'soon' (probably, during the
> next couple of 'Sunday shifts'). I've been a content fetchmail user
> ever since I first got 'internet' in 1999 and I would happily direct
> some useful work into it because of this. OTOH, my experience with OSS
> projects so far is a) one gets ignored, b) all kinds of ml lurkers
> start to enage in wild flaming and c) after the need has arisen, the
> powers-that-be grudingly implement the missing features themselves,
> just to ensure that only the worthy ones get any 'due credit', and this
> means some amount of additional work for me (of which I already have
> plenty). So, is there a chance for such a change to be accepted?

Hi Rainer,

yes, I think there is, the only substantial concern I have is that of copyright
and licensing.

There will be proper credit to the copyright holder in the NEWS and/or THANKS
files, and if the author is distinct from the copyright owner, this could read
"(C) Copyright 2010 ACME Software Writing, written by Corey Coder", or similar.
 As long as I don't need to include your marketing brochure or slogan, but just
company name and place, that's fine.


Given this will likely be a nontrivial contribution according to our German
Urheberrechtsgesetz, and it apparently touches interests of your employer, we need:

- to make sure that your employer either waives his copyright and allows you to
claim it, or your employer is willing to contribute under a compatible license
(GPL "v2 or later" preferred). I am not trained in law and justice sciences, but
my take of German copyright law is that even if you're doing things in the spare
time that are closely related to your employment, your employer can still claim
the so-called Urheberschaft.

- state whether coverage under the Affero GNU GPL v3 would be OK, because I plan
to let future versions use that license unless the price to be paid (in ripping
out features where no such licensing is possible) would be too high, in that
case I'd try to use GNU GPL v3 in the long run.



With respect to the concerns you've raised,

(a) we're already talking, but I've not taken your past patch because of
technical concerns (as discussed earlier),

(b) is not something that has happened in the past few years on the fetchmail
list, and I trust Rob MacGregor as list operator to politely, but also
distinctly tell people not to go into such unfruitful discussions (or
bikeshedding); and he has my full backing for that,

(c) is a concern if we cannot reach an agreement on the licenses.  I feel no
need to adorn myself with somebody else's plumes, continued maintenance for half
a decade, fixing more than 200 bugs, speaks for itself.


I'd be grateful if we could make such DIMAP and scalable POP3 possible, and I
thank you for letting me know, because I have plans to attack POP3/UIDL
scalability myself soon -- I could devote my time in other ways if I know your
work covers that and reduces complexity to O(n log n) worst-case.

Please let me know your decision, or if there are major delays to be expected
because your bosses haven't got time to decide the licensing soonish.

Looking forward to your reply.

Best regards
Matthias

-- 
Matthias Andree