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

[Guido van Rossum]

> 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.

OK, you've convinced me now.  RoundUp supports this and it's actually
quite handy for simple interactions (the body of your message gets
added, and the subject contains some magic cookies that tell it to
which issue and perhaps other actions).

If someone wants to build a tracker in Zope, it should be able to
receive email if they want to.

> 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.

Is this an argument for or against integrating an SMTP server in Zope?

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)