Re: Imap split, does not work (of course)

[Michael Welsh Duggan <md5i@md5i.com>]

Richard Riley <rileyrg@googlemail.com> writes:

> If someone could explain the concept of "backend slots" vs using "setq"
> it would help me a lot.

Well, in the manual they are not called "backend slots".  They are
called "server variables", or "server parameters".  There is even an
info page devoted to describing this, section 6.1.5.

Their purpose is as variables that can differ from server to server if
your setup contains multiple servers.  These variables are set as part
of the `gnus-select-method' or `gnus-secondary-select-method's.  A
select method is a list consisting of a symbol, a name, and then an
optional set of "server variable" pairs.  An example from the docs:

     (nnml "public"
           (nnml-directory "~/my-mail/")
           (nnml-active-file "~/my-mail/active")
           (nnml-newsgroups-file "~/my-mail/newsgroups"))

The `nnml' symbol is the actual select method.  The name of the server
is "public", and it set three server variables associated with this
server.  

> I have been unable to see when something should be set with setq and
> when things are passed as a parameter to secondary-methods call.

Now, the `gnus-select-method' is usually set using `setq'.  For the
above example:

(setq gnus-select-method 
      '(nnml "public"
             (nnml-directory "~/my-mail/")
             (nnml-active-file "~/my-mail/active")
             (nnml-newsgroups-file "~/my-mail/newsgroups")))

On the other hand, `gnus-secondary-select-method' is a set of servers,
so it would set there like this:

(setq gnus-select-method 
      '((nnml "public"
              (nnml-directory "~/my-mail/")
              (nnml-active-file "~/my-mail/active")
              (nnml-newsgroups-file "~/my-mail/newsgroups"))))

Note the extra pair of parentheses.  A second would be added like this:

(setq gnus-select-method 
      '((nnml "public"
              (nnml-directory "~/my-mail/")
              (nnml-active-file "~/my-mail/active")
              (nnml-newsgroups-file "~/my-mail/newsgroups"))
        (nnbogus "bogus"
                 (bogus-var-1 "string value")
                 (bogus-var-1 symbol-value))))


All this probably went into more detail than you actually needed, but I
feel it is better to give too much information than too little.  (I now
wait for someone to tell me that I am mistaken about what was meant by
"backend slots" in the first place.)

-- 
Michael Welsh Duggan
(md5i@md5i.com)