What do you call the layer that Cyrus IMAP fills?

[Wil Cooley]

In common parlance, we have the MTA, the LDA, and the MUA, but we don't
seem to have a name or TLA for the layer between the LDA and the
MUA--the POP or IMAP server.  At least, I don't know of one.  Or is it
really the LDA?

Hm, a little Google turned up this message[1] calling it an MPA--"mail
presentation agent".  However, subsequent searches for "mail
presentation agent" yield minimal results, and no results when searching
for both MPA and "mail presentation agent".  Searching the Zvon[2] RFC
archive similarly yields nothing related (although there are uses of the
"MPA" acronym, but in context of MPEG and ATM).

1. http://dovecot.procontrol.fi/list/dovecot/2003-August/002114.html
2. http://www.zvon.org/tmRFC/RFC_share/Output/index.html

So clearly "MPA" isn't in wide use.  Should it be?  If so, why isn't it?

Wil
-- 
Wil Cooley                                 wcooley at nakedape.cc
Naked Ape Consulting                        http://nakedape.cc
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