Where is gnus-simplify-group-name?

[Dave Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com>]

I was writing some code that opened groups today and I was disturbed to
find that Gnus would do something different if I spelled the same group
in two different ways.  My `gnus-select-method' is

  (nnimap "LocalIMAP" 
          (nnimap-address "localhost") (nnimap-user "dave")
          (nnimap-server-port 9143) (nnimap-stream network))

If I try to open the group as "nnimap+LocalIMAP:INBOX" instead of just
"INBOX", none of what Gnus has remembered about the group applies; it
has to fetch the list of unread articles newly, etc.  So I looked around
for something that would canonicalize group names and didn't find it.  I
ended up writing this, which *seems* to work (although I don't pretend
to know for sure):

  (defun gnus-simplify-group-name (group)
    (gnus-group-prefixed-name
     (gnus-group-real-name group)
     (gnus-group-method group)))

So, to my questions:

1. Surely this functionality exists somewhere and I've overlooked it?

2. If not, don't we need it?

3. Regardless, shouldn't more of gnus' functions do internal
   canonicalization so that handing them group names isn't so risky?

Thanks,

-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com