Progressive mail part downloads, was UX- download messages upfront, or as needed?

[John C. Welch]

(replying whilst reading thread online)

Download all the headers and such first, and once that's done start
downloading the bodies? Is this what the iPhone does?

This is more the "IMAP way". You initially get a list of headers. If you
want to read the message body, you select the message and the body is
downloaded. From there, you can download any attachments or ignore them.

Advantages: It's *fast*. I think in Netscape 4.5 on a 33.6Kbps modem, I
could download 3000+ headers in under 5 minutes. Well under.

It's useful in bandwidth constrained situations, like hotels.

It saves on disk space. If you can tell by the header it's spam, it never
reaches your hard drive at all. This is minor for many, but if you have
network accounts with quotas, this can be an issue.

Disadvantages:

It creates unavoidable latency.

If the attachment download isn't threaded right, the application is slow if
not unresponsive until the download is done.

It can make rules that act on the body, or even the attachment not work
well, or at all.

It shouldn't be the only option, but as an IMAP wonk, I heartily support an
"IMAP Strict" option for receiving messages.