From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.4 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_SIGNED,DKIM_VALID, DKIM_VALID_AU,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_MED,RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_H3,RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_WL, T_SCC_BODY_TEXT_LINE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 23904 invoked from network); 23 Mar 2022 15:00:50 -0000 Received: from mx1.math.uh.edu (129.7.128.32) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 23 Mar 2022 15:00:50 -0000 Received: from lists1.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.208]) by mx1.math.uh.edu with esmtps (TLS1.3) tls TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (Exim 4.94.2) (envelope-from ) id 1nX2Tf-0064D8-27 for ml@inbox.vuxu.org; Wed, 23 Mar 2022 10:00:47 -0500 Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.math.uh.edu) by lists1.math.uh.edu with smtp (Exim 4.94.2) (envelope-from ) id 1nX2Te-006DpA-Ht for ml@inbox.vuxu.org; Wed, 23 Mar 2022 10:00:46 -0500 Received: from mx1.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.32]) by lists1.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 4.94.2) (envelope-from ) id 1nX2Td-006Dp4-Lv for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Wed, 23 Mar 2022 10:00:45 -0500 Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([95.216.78.240]) by mx1.math.uh.edu with esmtps (TLS1.3) tls TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (Exim 4.94.2) (envelope-from ) id 1nX2TX-0064Ck-VX for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Wed, 23 Mar 2022 10:00:45 -0500 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gnus.org; s=20200322; h=Content-Type:MIME-Version:Message-ID:In-Reply-To:Date: References:Subject:Cc:To:From:Sender:Reply-To:Content-Transfer-Encoding: Content-ID:Content-Description:Resent-Date:Resent-From:Resent-Sender: Resent-To:Resent-Cc:Resent-Message-ID:List-Id:List-Help:List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe:List-Post:List-Owner:List-Archive; bh=CpTLKamVG+LCnYoL7L/BKA1265GXwtSvadJo9PKSEQ8=; b=CoWvPcT7bmy6LNlJ8WHxofPI/8 cPsm0Uz7mGSy/jQtjFrvRVP86Y1bNS/HnUX9RXZbpiCXKSUdxUv0/P7SgdMpgeFJcLSm0JUYK0Qj7 d97jPJzOabIXxXStCvyyq8lBfqNRj3ToLz/NxaSsBVOrp1hPWmdZt+37U0Jhmf7AyIMQ=; Received: from mail.ericabrahamsen.net ([52.70.2.18]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtps (TLS1.3:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1nX2TR-0005BJ-5M for ding@gnus.org; Wed, 23 Mar 2022 16:00:35 +0100 Received: from localhost (c-71-197-232-41.hsd1.wa.comcast.net [71.197.232.41]) (Authenticated sender: eric@ericabrahamsen.net) by mail.ericabrahamsen.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 2053CFA02C; Wed, 23 Mar 2022 15:00:29 +0000 (UTC) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=ericabrahamsen.net; s=mail; t=1648047630; bh=CpTLKamVG+LCnYoL7L/BKA1265GXwtSvadJo9PKSEQ8=; h=From:To:Cc:Subject:References:Date:In-Reply-To:From; b=JEyOiGN7WZq9LXei5fBVlJLMtIZuutWKU10SXj9bTkrJ3BOA/+eUVzh8ZcOYeqUXa GgARNl1O4cVEdrszwt69rNriewAXUEBvdkS+up4IcY7ChL+TYF3lULE2chOv6bK3f8 P9FH7JPHVZ+ijrU/EA3ASBkGzyzmqJj7edci/q7Q= From: Eric Abrahamsen To: Eric S Fraga Cc: ding@gnus.org Subject: Re: virtual nnvirtual References: <87v8w51oq7.fsf@ust.hk> <87mthguba3.fsf@ucl.ac.uk> <87mthghlu9.fsf@ust.hk> <87a6dgst4w.fsf@ucl.ac.uk> Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2022 08:00:28 -0700 In-Reply-To: <87a6dgst4w.fsf@ucl.ac.uk> (Eric S. Fraga's message of "Wed, 23 Mar 2022 13:19:59 +0000") Message-ID: <87sfr8iuib.fsf@ericabrahamsen.net> User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/29.0.50 (gnu/linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain List-ID: Precedence: bulk Eric S Fraga writes: > Hi Andrew, > > thank you for the long response to my queries. Very helpful. > > Regarding /o, now it makes sense (the cycling nature of the retrieval) > and, yes, it seems to be working just fine. Because some of the groups > in the virtual collection have not had any recent activity, I was > confused by seeing significantly old articles in the list provided. I > now know that I need to multiply the number of messages, M, to retrieve > by N, where N is the number of groups in the virtual collection, to > ensure I get the M most recent emails I'm looking for. Simple enough, > especially if I then sort by date. Thank you for explaining this! As Andy mentioned, this is also kind of a philosophical/design question. We can choose how this algorithm works, it just happens to work this way right now. Personally I would find it less surprising if you didn't get any messages from long-inactive groups until you "dug all the way back" in time to them, but that would require a different code approach (and probably would be less efficient).