[Mailman-Developers] Parsing and Rendering rfc8222

[Brad Knowles]

Ethan said:

> In the interest of not reinventing the wheel, I'm looking for existing
> python (or other!) code that does the things I need. I'm also putting
> out a call for anybody who likes this sort of thing to help me out (see
> below).

Don't ignore non-Python solutions.  In particular, you should take a close
look at what Richard Barrett is doing with his ht:dig patch for the
current versions of Mailman.  At the very least, this is what most Mailman
administrators are likely to expect, and you should have some idea of what
they're going to be looking for before you throw something totally new and
unfamiliar at them.

> * mbox thread indexing on messages
>
> I plan on using [2] to generate mbox thread indexes for rapid navigation
> of lists. Any suggestions for more robust variants would be welcome;
> feedback on how to handle threading for message-id-less messages would
> also be welcome.

All messages should have message-ids -- this is one of the most basic
requirements of the Internet e-mail related RFCs.  If nothing else, the
local MTA on the Mailman server should have provided a message-id.

That said, if you still don't find one, then I think you should select a
suitable method for generating them (take a look at the code in postfix or
sendmail), and then apply that.

> * full-text indexing
>
> pylucene seems to be the obvious choice; anything else I should
> consider? Anyone know of good pylucene/web UI glue code out there?

Again, I urge you to look at the existing ht:dig stuff.  For that matter,
you should probably also look at mail-archive.com and other similar sites
to see what they've got and make sure that you either fully implement all
the same features (in a way that makes sense), or that you know which
features you're not going to implement and why.

It all comes down to knowing what the expectations are for people who are
going to be administering and using Mailman, and then being able to manage
those expectations with regards to what you're doing.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad at stop.mail-abuse.org>

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

     -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
     Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755

  LOPSA member since December 2005.  See <http://www.lopsa.org/>.