From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/10757 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Re: asynchronous backends Date: 20 Apr 1997 22:08:02 +0200 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: coloc-standby.netfonds.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1035150574 26209 80.91.224.250 (20 Oct 2002 21:49:34 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 21:49:34 +0000 (UTC) Return-Path: Original-Received: from ifi.uio.no (0@ifi.uio.no [129.240.64.2]) by deanna.miranova.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id CAA16144 for ; Tue, 22 Apr 1997 02:23:58 -0700 Original-Received: from claymore.vcinet.com (claymore.vcinet.com [208.205.12.23]) by ifi.uio.no with SMTP (8.6.11/ifi2.4) id for ; Tue, 22 Apr 1997 11:09:15 +0200 Original-Received: (qmail 6207 invoked by uid 504); 22 Apr 1997 09:06:55 -0000 Original-Received: (qmail 6204 invoked from network); 22 Apr 1997 09:06:54 -0000 Original-Received: from ifi.uio.no (0@129.240.64.2) by claymore.vcinet.com with SMTP; 22 Apr 1997 09:03:04 -0000 Original-Received: from proletcult.slip.ifi.uio.no (larsi@ppp15.larris.ifi.uio.no [129.240.68.115]) by ifi.uio.no with ESMTP (8.6.11/ifi2.4) id for ; Sun, 20 Apr 1997 22:08:21 +0200 Original-Received: (from larsi@localhost) by proletcult.slip.ifi.uio.no (8.8.2/8.8.2) id WAA06218; Sun, 20 Apr 1997 22:08:15 +0200 Mail-Copies-To: never Original-To: ding@gnus.org In-Reply-To: Greg Stark's message of 14 Apr 1997 09:16:41 -0400 Original-Lines: 32 X-Mailer: Gnus v5.4.47/Emacs 19.34 X-Face: &w!^oO~dS|}-P0~ge{$c!h\ writes: > This would also let Gnus do some other cool things, like request > group lists from multiple servers at the same time. This makes more > sense if more than one backend is involed; if i have a slow network, > why not go poking around in my files while you're waiting for the > nntp server to answer? Or let me start reading my mail while it's > still fetching the group list from some other server. Making Gnus asynchronous in many interesting ways is certainly possible, but it's just hard. Even doing trivial stuff (like the new archie mode I slapped together yesterday (uhm, I think I may be itching to start writing new code :-) (), and it's going to be included with Emacs 19.35, it seems (and I have to do some test runs under XEmacs as well))) takes quite a bit of typing, fiddling, and means spending *much* more time programming than if one does things synchronously. And doing similar things with a behemoth like Gnus is a logistical nightmare. The results can be pretty neat, though. Archie is fully asynchronous; one just types `M-x archie RET search-string RET' and control returns immediately. Using `after-change-functions', Archie logs in on the server, sends parameters, does the search and parses/generates the result buffer asynchronously. (Emacs locks up during the final phase, though, just like Man does.) -- (domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.) larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen