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A comment on A sufficiently detailed spec is code. Parent comment

Re:A sufficiently detailed spec is code by umanwizard on Thursday March 19, 2026 @03:09AM (#47435908)
Idk, a working basic email client is just not that hard to write though. SMTP and IMAP are simple protocols and the required graphical interface is a very straightforward combination of standard widgets.
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Re:A sufficiently detailed spec is code by isaachinman on Thursday March 19, 2026 @02:21PM (#47443657)
I don't mean to be contrarian, but this is completely false.

IMAP _seems_ to be a straightforward (but nasty and stateful) protocol, until you find out that every major provider ignores RFCs and does things slightly differently.

It's a hellscape.

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