Re: upgrade notes

[Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org>]

Wes Hardaker <wes@hardakers.net> writes:

> Well, you could do things like use empty variables and empty files to
> ensure that existing config at least loads even if the contents no
> longer work (and the imap-shell-variable would have a "obsolete"
> variable in the variable document text).

Yes...  reintroducing the imap-shell-variable as an obsolete variable
would make sense, but in my experience having non-used variables around
just confuses people even more.  But erroring out when starting up
certainly isn't nice, either.

>   gpg.el:
>     (error "The gpg.el file is no longer needed; please stop requiring
>     it.  In 2020 this file will be removed permanently")

I don't know what happened to gpg.el, exactly.  Anybody?

Anyway, we've removed a bazillion files (for some values of bazillion)
from Gnus in this cycle, which I think is the right thing to do.  People
shouldn't require files in that way.  :-)

>>> + My folders no longer show which folders have new messages in them.
>
> [btw, I meant the % mark in the group buffer; I may not have made that
> clear]

Oh, right.  Otherwise everything is OK?  It's showing the correct number
of messages and everything?

The % mark is something that I must admit I can't recall ever hearing
about, even though "git blame" claims that I added it in 1998.  So it's
supposed to appear on groups that have new mail after you do a `g'?
That sounds quite useful, actually.  :-)

Let's see...

Hm, it just looks up stuff in `nnmail-split-history', and that variable
is only filled when we're doing client-side splits, which explains why
it's never triggering for you.  Since you're not doing client-side
splits.  I wonder what the old nnimap did...

Ah:

		(when (> (or (imap-mailbox-get 'recent group
					       nnimap-server-buffer) 0)
			 0)
		  (push (list (cons group 0)) nnmail-split-history))

Whenever there's any messages marked as `recent' (which is the same as
unseen, in Gnus parlance), then it just pushes a dummy thing that
matches onto nnmail-split-history.

This is totally different from what other mail backends do -- the % mark
will only show up on groups that had new messages *this* `g', and not
show up on all groups that have unseen messages.

Is this correct?  The `%' would stay there over several `g' runs?  I may
be misreading the code.

The ?U spec shows the number of unseen messages.

So I don't know what the right fix here would be.

1) Ignore the issue.  "% is for client-side splits"

2) Have nnimap follow the semantics for the other mail backends, and add
a dummy thing to nnmail-split-history if a `g' registers new messages.
Simple enough to do.

3) Add a new ?W spec (or something) that would just show a "%" on all
groups with unseen messages.
                  
-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen