Re: Getting rid of the primary/secondary distinction

[Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>]

On Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:29:17 +0100 Steinar Bang <sb@dod.no> wrote: 

>>>>>> Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>:
>> That sounds like a great solution.  Many users (e.g. me) like foreign
>> groups better than select methods, so they don't even have to care
>> about `gnus-methods' but can just add a foreign server and browse the
>> groups it has.

SB> I've never quite understood the relationship between servers in the
SB> server buffer and select methods, be they primary or secondary.

SB> I started out with an NNTP server, and then later select methods for
SB> nnmh, and then nnml, and then nnimap, and eventually a succession of
SB> nnimap servers and nntp servers.

SB> Most new nntp servers I've just added in the server buffer (currently
SB> news.eclipse.org and news.opera.com), and then browsed to the groups I
SB> want.

SB> I've understood vaguely that these are somehow different than e.g. the
SB> gmane nntp server that is defined with a select method.  But to all
SB> appearances they have looked the same, so I haven't worried about it. :-)

You're using foreign servers.  "Foreign" means they are not coming from
the select methods; the select methods are a pure ELisp data structure
that defines what you want to see when you start up.  All foreign server
config and subscriptions are stored in the newsrc.eld file.

Ted