Re: Making Gnus ask my IMAP username and password after the recent auth-source changes

[Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org>]

Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:

> It should have said "Password for [any user]@foo:imap?" and I guess
> that's a bug (fix just went in) .  The "any user" and "any port" part is
> necessary IMO to make the intent clear.
>
> If the port is numeric your proposal is not so good: 
>
> "143 password at foo: "

But it'll never be "143 password" -- since "imap" is first in the list.
It's a good point, though -- I think it would be way more readable if
there's a parameter to auth-source that lets the caller specify what
we're asking the user for.

So a :service "IMAP" would be nice, and then you can just drop showing
the port number at all.

> I disagree.  You can make it an option to bypass that prompt if you
> like, but I really want to show it by default.  It's a rare event and
> when it happens, the user should know it's going to modify a netrc file.
>
> The user doesn't necessarily know to edit the .authinfo file.  He may
> not even know what that is.

The prompt asks whether to save it to the .authinfo.gpg file, so the
user knows that it exists.  It's a very easily readable file, so 1) the
user knows it exists, 2) the user can open it all they want, and 3) they
can edit it trivially, if they so choose.

Instead they're faced with this rather complex choice where any normal
user will surmise that they're somehow supposed to edit the line for
Gnus to work.  And that's not good.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen