Re: nnml/nnfolder marks faster

[Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com>]

prj@po.cwru.edu (Paul Jarc) writes:

>> I don't doubt that back ends are _capable_ of storing the mark, but
>> I think back ends should not store marks that don't have any
>> semantic meaning in the back end.
>
> I don't think *any* marks have semantic meaning in the backend.

Maybe I chosed a poor word, I meant the marks that the back end sanely
can modify.  Read, Tick, Answered etc marks all have a well defined
meaning and can be modified, without causing harm in other parts of
Gnus, by the backend.

>> Ok, so are you suggesting that the Seen mark should be stored in the
>> backend as well?  In this case, what makes Seen different from Recent?
>
> I'm not sure I know what the semantic difference between them is.
> Tell me that, and I'll tell you how that difference can be preserved
> when storing them in the backend.

As I think it is right now:

Seen: Each Gnus instance keeps track of which articles you have seen
and displays a `.' secondary mark on "unseen" articles.

Recent: The back end keeps track of which articles you haven't seen,
and Gnus displays a `N' secondary mark of "recent" articles.

Both marks are different from the usual "unread" because the unread
mark can be set and cleared by the user.