Hastmail 2 has kicked off with a bang. And by bang I mean a bunch of late night coding. We have svn setup for the new code at sourceforge,  and porting useful Hastymail 1 code has begun. The framework we are building from provides many basic web application mechanics, so the porting effort is focused on the back end functionality, like talking to the IMAP and SMTP servers. So far almost 1/3 of the IMAP related code has been ported, reviewed, and improved. I'm excited! I have yet to determine a satisfying metaphor to describe what it's like coding to the IMAP rfc, but when I do it will be rife with ambiguity if nothing else. Having not dug into the bowels of that dastardly document in a few years I almost washed away that clinging chill it evokes that eats away at your belief that you can read and understand the English language. Here is quick list of tips for anybody diving into the verbal quagmire that is the IMAP protocol RFC: