Binc IMAP - Goals	GNU General Public License Andreas Aardal Hanssen <andreas@hanssen.name>

The Binc IMAP project is more than programming. This is a list of the main goals and visions that the author of Binc IMAP has put to ground.

• Helpful, hospitable community
  • Although it is expected that users of Binc IMAP do their homework before posting, the server author and community of the Binc IMAP mailing list will be friendly and will approach everyone with respect. The same is expected from those who post to the list.
  • There will be no RTFM on the project's mailing list. Flaming and personal insults on the project's mailing list will result in banning of the originator.
  • The community is encouraged to pay back to the project's contributors by sharing their own contributions to Binc IMAP through the GPL license.
• Security through good design
  • A well designed server is less exposed to bugs than a poorly designed server.
  • The server will strive to use every kind of security enhancing feature, while keeping the implementation details as simple as possible.
  • The source is open and downloadable. Potential bugs and/or nasty pieces of code are easily uncovered when the whole community is able to study every line of code in detail. Bugs should always be reported to the project's mailing list.
• No competition
  • Under no circumstance will this project be in market driven competition with other IMAP servers.
  • Binc IMAP is first and foremost a quality driven project.
  • This project is meant to influence the community of authors of network protocols and servers, and hopes to increase the general quality of software that is used all over the globe and beyond.
• Modularity
  • Binary modularity

    Pluggable extension support. Modules that are loaded into Binc can change a great deal of Binc's behavior. Adding your own extension or altering Binc IMAP's behavior should be as easy as it can get, and it should not require a recompile of the Binc IMAP core.

    Pluggable authentication support. By supporting checkpassword compatible authentication modules, Binc IMAP clients can authenticate against great number of authorities.

  • Source modularity

    With a modular and simple yet advanced object oriented design, it should be easy to quickly understand what every method and function does. This will increase third party developers' ability to write extensions and modifications fast.

    Development of the design and implementation of Binc IMAP will focus on extensibility, robustness and speed.

• Quality over quantity
  • Binc IMAP's releases are milestones. We strive for perfection.
  • Work on improving the existing design and extensibility will always go ahead of adding new features.
  • Through extensive module support, the community is encouraged to contribute to the adding and testing of new features. Core design and implementation will always focus on quality.

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Last updated: 2003-03-24