Dear all,
I don't know if this is the appropriate group to raise/discuss
this topic. May be this topic somehow relates to internet technology.
Hope experts here give some pointers.
Currently, user mailboxes are of limited sizes. The content of
most emails are textual, thus higher compressable. Even binary
attachments, say executables and bitmaps, are also readily compressed.
Is there any mail server/reader implementation pairs proceed to
compressing/decompressing the user mailboxes?
There are several advantages:
1. save disk storage
2. save download time for users retrieving mail from their mailboxes
(although modern modems perform some compression for us)
3. reduce damage by mail bomb
(e.g. a highly compressable mail bomb makes less damage)
On the other hand, both server and reader have to perform more
task. However, such task is supposed to be standard and simple.
I think MIME can do some similar thing. For example, use a
compressed content-type. However, it has to deal with the hierarchical
content embedment problem. In addition, some users do not use/like to
use MIME.
This is just a rough idea. Thanks for your attention.
Regards,
Michael
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/_=== w (~) | ===___/ Master Student of Computer Science
| \< o >/ | Department of Computer Science and Engineering
|__ooooo_/ \_ _##____| The Chinese University of Hong Kong