Re: Gnus search

[Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>]

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

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

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

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

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

AC> With only one search engine available (as has been the case for me
AC> forever) I never noticed this, and assumed that nnir was just searching
AC> the group on the current line. But I now have both imap and gmane
AC> searching available, and without process-marking groups all searches now
AC> search both backends. This is usually 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 current
AC>    line (using the appropriate backend). 

Agreed.

AC> and possibly adding 

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

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

AC> This last addition might not be a great idea, and its only relevant if
AC> anyone continues to use the relevant search engines. So is anyone using:

AC> swish
AC> wais
AC> hyrex
AC> namazu

Not me.

Ted