[mod_python] WebMail Server in mod_python?

Hi Saiello,

> I was writing one. I stopped due to my lack of experience in writing 
> mod_python apps. A webmail app is a rather large application to be 
> writing.

Darn - I rather hoped it would just be a case of plugging together the 
standard Python mail libs with a pretty template. I should have twigged 
- there are thousands of home-build CMS, but only a few abandonned 
Webmail apps -> probably for a reason!

I found your posts to the forum last May-ish (thanks to 
grahamd at dscpl.com.au for the search hints). It sounds like you got a 
fair way with it?

> I believed I needed more experience in writing simpler apps, and 
> getting my programing standards down. I kept finding as I wrote more 
> and more of the app. I would have to go back and rewrite my past 
> functions, because I had learned better ways to go about performing 
> that task. It was very fustrating to take One step forward and Two 
> backwards.

That sounds like the story of my life!

> Another promblem was the amount of time it took to read all the RFCs 
> and then see how so many different IMAP servers differ from one 
> another. I basically got to the point of parsing the raw email and 
> dealing with MIME. I was just digging into the MIME RFCs and was not 
> looking forward to find how my everyday email somehow differed from 
> the RFC specs.
>
> It is alot of work for one person to write a good webmail app. 
> Especially for a relative programming newbie.

True, and the thought of dealing with all the potential quirks of 
implementation isn't nice.

> Though of late I have been considering starting back up again

Likewise. If I can't find/build a Python solution, I will have to 
install Horde/Squirrelmail ...and if I have to do that, then I have to 
install PHP, at which point I wouldn't be able to justify using 
mod_python too. I'm not in a hurry to go back to PHP (I like what I have 
seen of mod_python), so I'm willing to give it a go, particularly if I'm 
not going to end up all alone tilting at windmills ;)

Interested in discussing it further? (License, Scope, Framework etc.). I 
can offer some basic hosting facilities if they are required.

Best wishes,
    Ed Lucas