Re: more little nnselect things...

[Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net>]

Andrew Cohen <cohen@bu.edu> writes:

>>>>>> "Eric" == Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:
>
>     Eric> I know this is planned, but it would be nice if permanent
>     Eric> nnselect groups were activated at startup. Whether or not
>     Eric> they're actually scanned at startup I don't mind (or if they
>     Eric> are set by default to a higher subscription level, etc), but
>     Eric> it would be great just not to have the little asterisk where
>     Eric> the unread count is, which always screams to me "your Gnus is
>     Eric> broken!"
>
> I'll get to it. Its just a matter of keeping a file with the groups to
> be activated in it.

Cool. I knew you would, but I've switched to using this full time, and
it's so close to done that the little things stand out.

>     Eric> Also: the `gnus-group-line-format' can't be set per-server or
>     Eric> per-group, can it? I'd really like to have nnselect groups
>     Eric> show the total message count, not the unread count. Nine times
>     Eric> out of ten I use these groups for quick reference/access,
>     Eric> meaning the messages are pretty much always read. Total
>     Eric> message count would be more useful, but if this variable can
>     Eric> only have one global value...
>
> No, it can't be set on a per-server or per-group basis. But you can
> achieve the desired effect using gnus-user-format-functions (when used
> in a summary buffer it gets passed the article header as argument; when
> used in the group buffer I believe it gets passed the group name).

Okay, that's what I figured. I guess I'll write myself a format function.

>     Eric> One other related idea: displaying select groups as
>     Eric> nnselect:<foo> isn't all that helpful -- or at least, it could
>     Eric> be more helpful. What about having an optional nnselect-label
>     Eric> group parameter, which would be used as an alternate in the
>     Eric> group format line, if present? Search groups could be labeled
>     Eric> "search:<foo>", I'd use "gnorb:<foo>" for Gnorb groups, etc.
>
> I'm not sure where you are talking about: in the group buffer? Somewhere
> else? If the group buffer I guess this means you are using the "g"
> spec---this shows the full group name. You could instead use the "G"
> spec which shows the "short" group name (it won't have the nnselect:
> prefix). And if you want something else you can easily do this using
> user-format-functions.

In the *Group* buffer, yes. On second thought, what I probably mean is
providing the "server" string to be displayed as part of the group name.
Ie:

nnselect+search:<my search group>

Packages which create select groups could provide their own string for
identification purposes. I'd have gnorb create "nnselect+gnorb:<group
name>" groups, for instance. The string would be missing for
user-created groups.

This might be a mild abuse of the "server" concept, I don't know. But I
think it's a useful idea to explore.

This reminds me that what I really want is a spec that shows
server-plus-group, not backend-plus-server-plus-group. A bit like
omitting the protocol in a browser URL bar. But that's a different
problem.

E