Data structures: Access to data, links between objects

Much of Mailpile's internal data is available through links between class instances. This is a partial list.

Instances of class mailpile.ui.Session(typically called session):

• have attribute config which is an instance of class mailpile.config.manager.ConfigManager.

Instances of class mailpile.config.manager.ConfigManager (typically called config or cfg):

• contain configuration data including the internal representation of the contents of the mailpile.cfg file;
• have attribute index which is an instance of class mailpile.search.MailIndex.

The GlobalPostingList class achieves data access differently from the Session and ConfigManager classes:

• instances of the class are not linked from other classes; instead,
• a global mailpile.postinglist.GLOBAL_GPL is used to hold the data that is used and maintained by by the class;
• classmethods are used to perform most functions of the class so that all that is needed is to import GlobalPostingList in order to make the data and methods available.