[Zope3-dev] Re: [Zope3-checkins] CVS: Zope3/lib/python/Zope/App/OFS/Services/SmtpService/Views - __init__.py:1.1 configure.zcml:1.1

[Barry A. Warsaw]

>>>>> "GvR" == Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> writes:

    GvR> Hm.  I really don't think that using email as a way for
    GvR> *programs* to communicate is a good idea -- the protocol is
    GvR> too braindead.  And for *people* to talk to an object, a web
    GvR> browser seems to be a better solution than typing commands in
    GvR> an email message.  Email is for human-to-human communication
    GvR> or occasionally for program-to-human communication; it's no
    GvR> good for human-to-program communication.

OTOH, you've been pining about having an email interface to a bug
tracker, a la Jitterbug.  So there are some use cases where this is
handy.  But in general you're right -- it's too hard to build
foolproof human-to-program protocols using email because it's just too
free form.

    GvR> Do you really want to create e.g. a mailing list manager that
    GvR> accepts commands via email, like mailman or listserv, using
    GvR> Zope?  And if you do, does it really make sense to have the
    GvR> SMTP server integrated in the Zope server, rather than having
    GvR> the mail piped into a little helper program that parses the
    GvR> mail looking for commands and then makes some calls to Zope
    GvR> (e.g. using XMLRPC)?

We have solid existing applications for many of these problem domains,
so we should be looking at ways of improving the interfaces between
then, and for integrating them.  It doesn't make a lot of sense to
keep re-inventing the same wheels with slightly different mountings
for each of them.

-Barry