Comparison With IMAP
Clients that leave mail on servers generally use the UIDL command to get the current association of message-numbers to message identified by its unique identifier. The unique identifier is arbitrary, and might be repeated if the mailbox contains identical messages. In contrast, IMAP uses a 32-bit unique identifier (UID) that is assigned to messages in ascending (although not necessarily consecutive) order as they are received. When retrieving new messages, an IMAP client requests the UIDs greater than the highest UID among all previously retrieved messages, whereas a POP client must fetch the entire UIDL map. For large mailboxes, this can require significant processing.
MIME serves as the standard for attachments and non-ASCII text in e-mail. Although neither POP3 nor SMTP require MIME-formatted e-mail, essentially all non-ASCII Internet e-mail comes MIME-formatted, so POP clients must also understand and use MIME. IMAP, by design, assumes MIME-formatted e-mail.
Read more about this topic: Post Office Protocol
Famous quotes containing the words comparison with and/or comparison:
“Certainly there is not the fight recorded in Concord history, at least, if in the history of America, that will bear a moments comparison with this, whether for the numbers engaged in it, or for the patriotism and heroism displayed.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“When we reflect on our past sentiments and affections, our thought is a faithful mirror, and copies its objects truly; but the colours which it employs are faint and dull, in comparison of those in which our original perceptions were clothed.”
—David Hume (17111776)