I came across JMAP (jmap.io) this weekend, and have been looking at it in
my spare time. It looks like it intends to solve most of the problems that
I personally had with mixing mh-style and mobile-app email usage, and might
even be a (speculation warning) useful bridge to the future for nmh.
I have looked at it. It honestly seems to me like a solution in search
of a problem, but fine (or maybe it's designed for people who cannot
imagine any network protocol that is not REST). But I cannot see how it
really solves any of the fundamental problems of mixing "mh-style" and
mobile-app email usage; as far as I can tell, those core issues still
exist. But I am open to being persuaded otherwise! So, if you want
to expand on your opinion, please do!
I
certainly remember a time when skipping over IMAP would have seemed crazy,
but the people on emacs-devel are currently wrestling with the implications
of at least Google and MS both moving towards shutting down pure IMAP
access (somewhat stalled by current conditions, but clearly stated intent).
I am not aware of any effort by Google to shut down IMAP; could you
provide a link? MS, yes, wants you to use their horrible Exchange
protocol. If you're talking about how you have to enable IMAP for
G Suite users ... well, fine. My limited, imperfect understanding is
that "native" Gmail is a proprietary protocol, so JMAP isn't relevant.
If you want a protocol that is relatively universal, I think right now
IMAP is the best choice. Even the people behind JMAP provide an IMAP
server on their systems.
--Ken