From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/59584 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Abrahams Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Gnus docs questions/notes Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 18:54:27 -0500 Message-ID: <41E9AD33.5010306@boost-consulting.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1105833623 28538 80.91.229.6 (16 Jan 2005 00:00:23 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 00:00:23 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen Original-X-From: ding-owner+M8124@lists.math.uh.edu Sun Jan 16 01:00:16 2005 Return-path: Original-Received: from malifon.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.13]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1Cpxq3-0003zI-00 for ; Sun, 16 Jan 2005 01:00:16 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.math.uh.edu ident=lists) by malifon.math.uh.edu with smtp (Exim 3.20 #1) id 1Cpxlh-0007dr-00; Sat, 15 Jan 2005 17:55:45 -0600 Original-Received: from util2.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.23]) by malifon.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 3.20 #1) id 1CpxlY-0007dj-00 for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Sat, 15 Jan 2005 17:55:36 -0600 Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by util2.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1CpxlR-0001nC-KK for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Sat, 15 Jan 2005 17:55:29 -0600 Original-Received: from main.gmane.org ([80.91.224.249]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1CpxlQ-0008NU-00 for ; Sun, 16 Jan 2005 00:55:28 +0100 Original-Received: from list by main.gmane.org with local (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1CpxlQ-0000Tr-00 for ; Sun, 16 Jan 2005 00:55:28 +0100 Original-Received: from 146-115-127-135.c3-0.smr-ubr2.sbo-smr.ma.cable.rcn.com ([146.115.127.135]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sun, 16 Jan 2005 00:55:28 +0100 Original-Received: from dave by 146-115-127-135.c3-0.smr-ubr2.sbo-smr.ma.cable.rcn.com with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sun, 16 Jan 2005 00:55:28 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-To: ding@gnus.org Original-Lines: 107 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 146-115-127-135.c3-0.smr-ubr2.sbo-smr.ma.cable.rcn.com User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 (Windows/20041206) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en Precedence: bulk Original-Sender: ding-owner@lists.math.uh.edu Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:59584 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general:59584 Hi, I am going through the Gnus documentation from beginning to end, to try to get a grip on this beast that I've never been able to quite understand. Many questions and a few problems are popping up, which I'm posting here. I hope that my postings will be used to clarify the documentation. If not, please let me know, as posting them is a significant effort. I realize that _some_ of what I'm asking for may be outside the charter of this document as described in 15.4, "On Writing Manuals," but it's the only comprehensive document we have AFAIK, so it may make sense to improve it rather than wait for someone to write something that's more like a "user's guide." Section 1.1 Finding the news - Page numbering is restarted somewhere in gnus-manual-standard.pdf, so that the reference on page 2 to the Terminology section points to page 113, but there's no indication of the restart. That's confusing. - p.2 mentions "the local spool." What's a spool? It's not covered in the terminology section - p.2 mentions "Leafnode." It would be nice to have at least a short footnote that says what that is. - p.3 mentions "active files." I realize this is defined in the terminology section, but it would be nice if newly-introduced terms could be cross-referenced to their definitions. It isn't clear whether the active file is typically stored on the machine where Gnus is running or on the server; the answer could greatly affect how I decide to make many Gnus settings, since active files can grow so large. Section 1.2 The First Time - By "startup files" do you mean .gnus et. al? - "If gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups is t, Gnus will just use the normal functions for handling new groups, and not do anything special." This is too vague. It's unclear what these normal functions might be, nor what special things might have happened otherwise. 1.5 Fetching a Group - why might this be more useful for someone who writes code than for users? - does it start Gnus? If not, and you can read a group without starting Gnus, what does it mean to start Gnus? 1.6.1 Checking New Groups The news servers I use have so many groups on them, and I have so much incoming traffic, that it's hard to imagine anyone wanting to have Gnus automatically subscribe them to new groups. Is this really a common usage pattern? From reading the docs, it seems like there's a lot of expensive computation and storage devoted to being able to do that in Gnus, and it's all turned on by default. 1.8 Startup Files - Begins, "Now, you all know about the `.newsrc' file." Well, not really. I don't know much about it at all yet. The statement makes me wonder what I *should* know about it at this point, and where I ought to go to find that information. - "You can turn off writing the ‘.newsrc’ file by setting gnus-save-newsrc-file to nil, which means you can delete the file and save some space, as well as exiting from Gnus faster. However, this will make it impossible to use other newsreaders than Gnus." This baffles me. How could telling Gnus not to touch .newsrc prevent me from using other newsreaders? - "Similarly, setting gnus-read-newsrc-file to nil makes Gnus ignore the ‘.newsrc’ file and any ‘.newsrc-SERVER’ files, which is convenient if you have a tendency to use Netscape once in a while." Why is that convenient for people who use Netscape once in a while? - "You should always set gnus-check-new-newsgroups to nil or ask-server if you set this variable to nil (see “New Groups” on page 5). This variable can also be a regular expression. If that’s the case, remove all groups that do not match this regexp before saving." Is this an instruction to me, the user, or is it really telling me what Gnus will do if gnus-check-new-newsgroups is a regexp? Before saving what? Remove the groups from where? - The gnus-startup-file variable says where the startup files are. The default value is ‘˜/.newsrc’, with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup file being whatever that one is, with a “.eld” appended. What is El Dingo? 1.10 The Active File I'm trying to figure out how to set gnus-read-active-file for my primary select method, which will be an IMAP server. I assume that's neither Leafnode nor INN, so none of the information here applies to me. Thanks in advance for your attention, -- Dave Abrahams Boost Consulting http://www.boost-consulting.com