Such as POP, IMAP is a way that a laptop or desktop computer can connect to a larger Internet server to view and manipulate a user’s e-mail. Whereas the capabilities of POP are rather anemicthe IMAP protocol offers such a full array of capabilities that many users store their e-mail permanently on the server, keeping it safe from a laptop or desktop hard drive crash.
This chapter will teach just the basics, with a focus on how to best connect from Python.