[dev] Revamp of MIME_Structure/IMP mime objects

[Michael M Slusarz]

Hoo boy, here we go.
http://bigworm.colorado.edu/imp-patches/pgp-diffs/rfc2045.diff.txt

As Chuck suggested/remarked a bit ago, MIME_Structure now returns a 
MIME_Message object.  In turn, this MIME_Message object uses MIME_Part 
objects to store each of the MIME parts.  It would make much more sense to 
look at an example...

Here is the return from MIME_Structure using the old method:
http://bigworm.colorado.edu/imp-patches/pgp-diffs/rfc2045_b.txt

And here is the return from the new class:
http://bigworm.colorado.edu/imp-patches/pgp-diffs/rfc2045_a.txt

To facilitate this, there have also been mucho changes to MIME_Part and 
MIME_Message.  MIME_Message is now a general all-purpose module to use for 
either constructing or manipulating a MIME message.  MIME_Part has been 
greatly improved also - as with MIME_Message it is now fit for use for both 
creating new MIME parts and manipulating existing MIME parts.

All things relating to this move have (hopefully) been changed in IMP 
also.  Once again, I tested using the MIME torture test message and it 
renders perfectly (it actually renders better than the current IMP since it 
filters out an alternative part in one of the Parts that the current IMP 
mistakenly displays).

I didn't set out to change the world :) but the old system did not appear 
workable for the PGP stuff that needs to be done.  Namely, IMAP will not 
return MIME headers for individual MIME parts :(  imap_body() strips all 
this information away.  However, when verifying signatures, all of these 
MIME headers MUST be displayed (RFC 2015).  The only way I can figure to do 
this is to download the entire MIME Part and strip off the boundary 
elements.  However, with the current system there is no way to determine 
what these boundary elements are.  The new framework provides the boundary 
elements for each and every MIME part so this should help immensely.

let me know if you have any questions.

michael

______________________________________________
Michael Slusarz [slusarz@bigworm.colorado.edu]
The University of Colorado at Boulder