3 HN users recommended this talk3 months2015–2022score 3.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN points to it whenever someone underestimates how hard email parsing, validation or building a mail client really is.
A lightning-style conference talk by Ricardo Signes about the horrors of email: its protocols, formats and decades of accumulated quirks. It is delivered with a humorous horror theme to show why handling email correctly is harder than it looks.
“If you want to read about the insanity behind some of the protocols watch that talk.” (HN, 2022)
This is an interesting read, when I saw a few of the comments here ask "how hard can it be?" I was reminded of this presentation by Rik Signes at YAPC::NA (2008) Email Hates the Living [this video]
Talk showing why building email is harder than it looks.
Here's a talk from one of the heads of Fastmail: "Email Hates the Living" [this video] Email itself is a very weird quirk filled system. If you want to read about the insanity behind some of the protocols watch that talk. That's why things like JMAP are being developed.
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