[ILUG] Re: Palm Pilot & email

[Kenn Humborg]

On Fri, Jan 14, 2000 at 02:35:36PM -0500, Jeff Rose wrote:
> Kenn Humborg wrote:
> > Is there a way to sync a Palm Pilot with an IMAP server
> > via connected to a linux box (at home) _and_ via NT (at
> > work)?
> > 
> > I'd like to have be able to keep copies of various folders
> > from my home machine and my work email on my Palm V, keeping
> > both Inboxes separate (i.e. maintaining two email identities).
> > 
> > That would be cool...
> 
> Food for thought:
> 
> How about 'indirectly' with a tool like TopGunSSH?
> http://www.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu/pilot/

Ummm, not really.  The way I see it, there are two possible
solutions:

1. Run an IMAP-aware email app on the client which connects
   directly to the IMAP server via the serial cable/cradle.

2. Run an IMAP-aware tool on the PC which syncs with a mail
   app on the Palm (similar to the way the Outlook/Exchange
   email sync works right now).

The problem with #1 is running a TCP link from the Palm via
an NT box.  (It should be no problem on Linux, just a matter
of running a pppd.)  But how do I drop the Palm into a cradle
attached to an NT workstation and connect to an IMAP server
running on another machine.  Requires IP routing and PPP.
Maybe NT's RAS can do it, but I really don't feel like fighting
with that.

#2 is closer to the way the 3Com supplied Palm software works.
However, the 3Com stuff will only sync with Outlook's Inbox
and it's always the 'Personal Folders' Inbox, rather than an 
Inbox on an IMAP server.

I'd guess that #2 would be a better starting point.  Since this
is the way that 3Com intended the Palm to work, there is probably
more built-in functionality to build on, rather than trying to
write an off-line capable IMAP mail reader all over again.
The built-in Mail app on the Palm has the guts of what I want.
All it needs is 

o  Sync more than Inbox and Outbox folders
o  Associate folders with a mail server so that I can have
   Inbox (home) and Inbox (office)
o  Define different From and Reply-To addresses for different
   folders.
o  A bit more flexibility with headers when sending.

In fact, seeing as 3Com are really making the money on the 
hardware, they really should Open Source the built-in apps.
At the moment, the Palm shareware scene seems to be getting
very DOS/Amiga-like, where there are 10+ apps for each task,
closed-source and none of which does everything right, forcing
others to start from scratch and write their pet features,
leaving out the features that are important to me.

A healthy Open Source community around the Palm would be a really
good thing.

Later,
Kenn