At 12:31 PM 3/23/99 -0800, Ned Freed wrote:
Exactly right. In my experience being able to ignore messages is one of most
commonly requested features, if not *the* most requested feature, for filters
to be able to do.
This is why I'm strongly opposed to making it optional.
I agree that discard MUST NOT generate a NDN. The needed functionality
is an automated way to press the delete button. There was no failure
to delivery, only the user's decision to delete it, automated via
a sieve script.
The problem arises if an implementation cannot implement discard
without generating a NDN. Do we say:
- The implemenation is not sieve compatible?
- Or give some wiggle room and say discard is optional?
- Or say discard SHOULD NOT generate NDN?
My preference would be stronger than SHOULD NOT but not quite
MUST NOT. I guess that means stating the discard SHOULD NOT
generate a NDN. Perhaps, with text stressing that the usefulness
of discard is greatly disminished by implementations that generate
a NDNs. The developer should try very hard to implement discard
correctly.
I think there is still value in a sieve implementation that
cannot implement discard without a NDN, but users of the
implementation would just have to live with its limitations.
Greg