Thu, 15 Jun 2006
libgmail gets props from Jon Udell
I think it's considered unseemly in New Zealand to toot one's own horn, but I made a pleasant discovery today I thought I'd share with the world in a wanton display of immodesty.
I've always been amazed that libgmail -- a Python binding for Google's Gmail service has lived on as long as it has--it'll be two years old next month. It certainly seems like longer than two years ago that I established it. As it happens I'm no longer involved in its maintenance and development but it was still nice to see some comments written earlier in the year by Jon Udell at InfoWorld:
"This is possible thanks to libgmail, a third-party Gmail API that's so nicely done I consider it a work of art." link
"...I found libgmail, an elegant Python library that makes it a snap to do all kinds of stuff with your Gmail account..." link
"I think Gmail should hire the libgmail team, make libgmail an officially supported API, and tie it in with all the extraordinary Greasemonkey work that's been done for Gmail. The combination of these things is as potent in the email domain as the mapping stuff is in its realm." link
"In this case the useful outcome was a new appreciation of the value of libgmail. I'd originally seen it as just a way to archive messages. I've since come to see it as one of several enablers that combine to make Gmail the most productive (and strategic) email platform going." link
"With the still-unsupported libgmail API, for example, I've illlustrated how easy it can be to issue a complex Gmail query, gather all the messages in the found threads, and combine them." link
"It was another user who created libgmail, an API that's making me more productive while at the same time giving me ideas for follow-on innovations that leverage programmatic search." link
The fact it still works is of course thanks to the current maintainers and is the beauty of Free/Open Source software--if something's useful it'll still get maintained even if the original developer gets distracted by...ooo, shiny!
Posted at: 03:20 | category: / | Comments ()