[Kolab-devel] kimap (imap library) Re: annotations patch in c-client what is the status?

[Bernhard Reiter]

Am Donnerstag, 5. November 2009 10:34:38 schrieb Thomas Jarosch:
> Here comes the troublesome part (sorry Bernhard for not replying earlier):
> The library is written in C++ while PHP uses mostly C. We would need a lot
> of wrapper glue here. The new library also depends on Qt and some KDE
> libraries, this is quite a heavy dependency for a PHP module.

The KDE dependency is optional and responsible for SSL certificate handling
if I remember correctly. Qt as a general-purpose library is non-gui and quite 
small (thanks Richard for making this point better then I've could).

> Maybe all the added wrapper glue kills the speed advantage, if any?

As PHP is also an object oriented language, C++ should wrap easier than C
(at least with python mapping and object oriented language usually leads to 
something more pythonic.)

> Just think of the needed string conversions QString <-> PHP string type
> which are needed every time you access a message header/body etc.

Yes, this could be an issue. On the point a pure PHP implementation might just 
outperform libkimap. I am no expert on wrapping C++ in PHP, maybe there is a 
different way to shortcut the string handling and delay conversation until a 
string is actually needed.

> At least there is already a way to interface Qt/KDE libraries
> with PHP as there a Qt bindings for PHP:
> http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Languages/PHP-Qt

It's worth a try I guess, thanks for the pointer.
It will even get more interesting if Akonadi is directly used. :)

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