Re: Gnus search

[Andrew Cohen <cohen@andy.bu.edu>]

>>>>> "Ted" == Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:

    Ted> On Wed, 27 Oct 2010 07:36:42 -0400 Andrew Cohen
    Ted> <cohen@andy.bu.edu>
    Ted> wrote:

    AC> I am considering significant changes to nnir to improve the
    AC> searching experience. I have added gmane searching but this has
    AC> exposed some weaknesses in the current interface, so I would
    AC> like to get some advice on potential changes.

    AC> Currently nnir searches are initiated from the group buffer in
    AC> one of two ways:

    AC> 1. If any groups are process-marked only these groups are
    AC> searched.

    AC> 2. If no groups are process marked then all opened servers are
    AC> searched. Some search engines (imap) are only capable of
    AC> searching a single group at a time so the search is restricted
    AC> to the group on the current line. Others (swish, freewais,
    AC> namazu) can only search the whole database, so that's what they
    AC> do.

    AC> With only one search engine available (as has been the case for
    AC> me forever) I never noticed this, and assumed that nnir was just
    AC> searching the group on the current line. But I now have both
    AC> imap and gmane searching available, and without process-marking
    AC> groups all searches now search both backends. This is usually
    AC> not what I want.

    AC> So---how about changing the behavior in case 2:

    AC> 2. If no groups are process-marked search only the group on the
    AC> current line (using the appropriate backend).

    Ted> Agreed.

    AC> and possibly adding

    AC> 3. If no groups are process-marked and no group is on the
    AC> current line, search all opened servers (which might take
    AC> awhile). The user can put point on the last line of the group
    AC> buffer for example.

    Ted> I think this could be in the Server buffer, where you will have
    Ted> a server under point.  In the Group buffer, I'd use `G M-G' to
    Ted> search specific servers, which "all" being the default (so `G
    Ted> M-G RET' will search all servers).

I think this is an excellent idea. It adds a keystroke (to get into the
server buffer) over the existing behavior, but I suspect that this
kind of searching will be rare (and probably no one is using it this way
at the moment).

    AC> So is anyone using:

    AC> swish wais hyrex namazu

    Ted> Not me.

I'm wondering if we could remove some of these? I have been using namazu
up until I switched to imap a year ago. Swish has packages as new as Apr
2009, but the freewais-sf webpage says it is no longer supported, and
hyrex doesn't seem to have any activity since 2004. So I would vote for
removing at least hyrex and freewais-sf. 

Regards,
Andy