Mail first, news second

Mail first, news second

[Hrvoje Niksic]

I would like some advice in the following matter.  I would like Gnus
to be a mail reader first and a news reader second.  That is, I would
like my primary "select method" to be nnml.  I would also like to read
news from one or more news servers, which should be "secondary select
methods".  Since Gnus is a competent mail reader, that seems like a
much more logical setup than what was traditionally recommended.

I accomplished it by using the following:

(setq gnus-select-method '(nnml "mail")
      gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nntp "busola")))

However, it doesn't work as well as I'd like it to.  For example,
there seems to be no easy way to add a group -- I always have to go
through the procedure of `G m <group name, no completion> RET nntp RET
busola RET'.  It somehow feels suboptimal -- I'd like the news groups
to be valid citizens, but it seems that the
`gnus-secondary-select-methods' line isn't accomplishing that.

What is the best way to make Gnus primarily a mail reader?  Has anyone
else attempted that?

Re: Mail first, news second

[Alexander Kotelnikov]

>>>>> On 14 Oct 2005 16:07:59 +0200
>>>>> "HN" == Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@xemacs.org> wrote:
HN> 
HN> (setq gnus-select-method '(nnml "mail")
HN>       gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nntp "busola")))

I believe, you should tell gnus more about your nntp, like
	(nntp "busola"
	      (nntp-address "localhost")
	      (nntp-port-number "nntp")
	      )

HN> However, it doesn't work as well as I'd like it to.  For example,
HN> there seems to be no easy way to add a group -- I always have to go
HN> through the procedure of `G m <group name, no completion> RET nntp RET
HN> busola RET'.  It somehow feels suboptimal -- I'd like the news groups
HN> to be valid citizens, but it seems that the


To add a group I got to the *Server* buffer ('^' from *Group* ),
select server there (using RET) and subscribe ('U').

-- 
Alexander Kotelnikov
Saint-Petersburg, Russia

Re: Mail first, news second

[David Z Maze]

Alexander Kotelnikov <sacha@myxomop.com> writes:

> I believe, you should tell gnus more about your nntp, like
> 	(nntp "busola"
> 	      (nntp-address "localhost")
> 	      (nntp-port-number "nntp")
> 	      )

The short form '(nntp "news.example.com") works fine without
explicitly specifying nntp-address and nntp-port-number, but you will
wind up with longer group names
(nntp+news.example.com:gnu.emacs.gnus).  I don't know off hand if you
can have servers with different backends but the same name, but in
that case you could have a setup like

(setq gnus-select-method '(nnnil "")
      gnus-secondary-select-methods
        '((nnml "")
          (nntp "" (nntp-address "news.example.com"))))

to be able to refer to both nnml:mail.spam and nntp:gnu.emacs.gnus.  I
just suck it up and use the long name; tab-completion is easy.

  --dzm

Re: Mail first, news second

[Hrvoje Niksic]

David Z Maze <dmaze@MIT.EDU> writes:

> The short form '(nntp "news.example.com") works fine without
> explicitly specifying nntp-address and nntp-port-number, but you
> will wind up with longer group names
> (nntp+news.example.com:gnu.emacs.gnus).

Yes.  I don't mind the long names all that much, though.  What I do
mind is that I can't add a new newsgroup by just pressing `j
<groupname> RET'.

> I don't know off hand if you can have servers with different
> backends but the same name, but in that case you could have a setup
> like
>
> (setq gnus-select-method '(nnnil "")
>       gnus-secondary-select-methods
>         '((nnml "")
>           (nntp "" (nntp-address "news.example.com"))))
>
> to be able to refer to both nnml:mail.spam and nntp:gnu.emacs.gnus.
> I just suck it up and use the long name; tab-completion is easy.

That's exactly the problem: I *don't* have tab completion for any new
group on that server.  I get it only for existing groups, adding new
groups is harder.