Re: Cache/Agent unification

[ShengHuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu>]

Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:

>> * You're right about the disk space requirements.  Maybe really old
>>   articles shouldn't be in the local cache.  Hm.
>> 
>>   Maybe it would be enough to provide a couple of commands to add
>>   articles to the cache and to remove them.  Examples:
>> 
>>   - Add each article as it is read.
>>   - Add all articles visible in the current summary buffer.
>>   - Add all unread articles.
>>   - Remove old, read, articles.
>>   - Never cache this group.
>>   - Always cache all articles from that group.
> 
> Yes, some of these are good.  But it shouldn't be too manual, it would
> be nice if the agent just did things automatically based on what
> you've told it.  It should be possible to indicate how much disk space
> you want to waste on a general level.  Three levels seems like a good
> start:
> 
>  * Cache nothing
>  * Cache headers, and manually entered (cache or agent) articles
>  * Cache everything

The idea sounds good to me.  But I'd like to think Agent as the second
level cache instead of Agent/Cache unification.  Cache and Agent is
for different purposes.  Currently, agentization requires too many
manual operations, e.g.  users have to manually *fetch* headers and
articles and Agent doesn't save read articles while plugged.  Maybe we
should make Agent more automatic and more comprehensive.  My proposal
is simple: calling Agent functions in gnus-retrieve-headers and its
friends; saving headers and articles into nnagent when users read news
in plugged mode.  Of course, users can use `J s' to fetch all news.

Any thought?

ShengHuo