[jdev] deferred delivery

[Tijl Houtbeckers]

On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 19:29:05 +0000, milk <miruku at bonbon.net> wrote:

> Peter Saint-Andre wrote:
>> Yeah, email is a slum, isn't it? Feel free to write up a protocol and
>>  server plugin for "outbox" functionality. So far we have not written
>>  something like this since it seems like an edge case (IMHO).
>>  /psa
>
> edge case? i wouldn't have thought it was /that/ out there, especially
> when many see instant messaging as being a replacement for e-mail. imo
> stuff like finding what music track a user is listening to via pubsub is
> more 'edge case' than being able to send messages of to someone who's
> server is down temporarily.
>

Jabber is instant, near real time. So this means you're get a near real  
time "instant failure", if your message can not be delivered. This opposed  
to email where failure isn't "instant" at all, if you send a message it  
can stay in the queue for up to 2 weeks and there is nothing you can do  
about it. This is why SMTP uses a store-and-forward architecture.

It's possible to use XMPP in a store and forward fashion, you wouldn't  
need to modify the protocol for it. It's still an "edge" case though. A  
good reason for XMPP to replace email in my opinion is this concept of  
"instant" error reporting.

However, lack of standardized message tracking and reporting (knowing what  
stanzas are received and processed) makes that rather hard as well.