[Info-vax] Real-time new mail notification

[FrankS]

On Oct 29, 9:12 am, DAV... at ecr6.ohio-state.edu (Michael T. Davis)
wrote:
> Even if we could work out a way to notify them via terminal broadcast,
> since most of them are undergrad. students, they would be hard pressed to
> understand the concept of a command line, given the popularity of (if not
> preference for) systems like Gmail.  We also don't have the resources to
> maintain simultaneous interactive terminal sessions for each and every user,
> or even a majority of them.
>

You started out (in the original post) stating that "long-time" users
wanted the functionality of VMS mail notifications, which as we know
required a terminal session.  Now, you're saying that the users are
undergraduate students, and terminal sessions are no longer in vogue
for them.  You also say that you couldn't support terminal sessions
for each user, which has me wondering how your "long-time" users
managed to get so comfortable with VMS mail in the first place.

Perhaps you see the confusion that we're dealing with on this end of
your question.

Let me speculate that you are working to eliminate terminal sessions
for all users, and that access will be via POP or IMAP.  That means
that users aren't connected to their mailbox for long periods, unlike
when terminal sessions were connected all day long.  You also point
out they are setting their polling interval very small in order to get
near-real-time notification of mail arrival.

If you don't want them polling too frequently, then the problem
becomes how do you even know their workstation (or laptop) is even
available for them to receive a notification?  Coupled with firewall
issues and outbound traffic to DHCP addresses, I don't think you'll
find an out-of-the-box solution.  I suspect you will need to roll your
own, or wait for Process Software to come up with something that will
work with all your potential client environments (Windows, Linux, Mac,
and possibly OpenVMS via DECwindows).