Does article prefetching work on IMAP?

Does article prefetching work on IMAP?

[Pankaj Jangid]

Does article prefetching work with IMAP backend? If yes, then why it is
required to have an active internet connection when reading article?

-- 
Regards ~Pankaj

Re: Does article prefetching work on IMAP?

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Pankaj Jangid <pankaj@codeisgreat.org> writes:

> Does article prefetching work with IMAP backend? If yes, then why it is
> required to have an active internet connection when reading article?

No, right now it only works with nntp. In the past I've looked into
adding it for nnimap and it wouldn't be that hard, I just haven't gotten
around to doing it.

Re: Does article prefetching work on IMAP?

[Pankaj Jangid]

Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:

> Pankaj Jangid <pankaj@codeisgreat.org> writes:
>
>> Does article prefetching work with IMAP backend? If yes, then why it is
>> required to have an active internet connection when reading article?
>
> No, right now it only works with nntp. In the past I've looked into
> adding it for nnimap and it wouldn't be that hard, I just haven't gotten
> around to doing it.

Thanks for the information. 

Re: Does article prefetching work on IMAP?

[Pankaj Jangid]

Pankaj Jangid <pankaj@codeisgreat.org> writes:

> Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:
>
>> Pankaj Jangid <pankaj@codeisgreat.org> writes:
>>
>>> Does article prefetching work with IMAP backend? If yes, then why it is
>>> required to have an active internet connection when reading article?
>>
>> No, right now it only works with nntp. In the past I've looked into
>> adding it for nnimap and it wouldn't be that hard, I just haven't gotten
>> around to doing it.
>
> Thanks for the information. 

Eric, could you please point me to a place where this should be
done? With some guidance, I should be able to do it.

Re: Does article prefetching work on IMAP?

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Pankaj Jangid <pankaj@codeisgreat.org> writes:

> Pankaj Jangid <pankaj@codeisgreat.org> writes:
>
>> Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:
>>
>>> Pankaj Jangid <pankaj@codeisgreat.org> writes:
>>>
>>>> Does article prefetching work with IMAP backend? If yes, then why it is
>>>> required to have an active internet connection when reading article?
>>>
>>> No, right now it only works with nntp. In the past I've looked into
>>> adding it for nnimap and it wouldn't be that hard, I just haven't gotten
>>> around to doing it.
>>
>> Thanks for the information. 
>
> Eric, could you please point me to a place where this should be
> done? With some guidance, I should be able to do it.

You mean write the code? That would be very welcome!

Async/prefetching works by opening multiple connections to a single
server. Those connections are stored and tracked in
`nntp-connection-alist', for nntp, and `nnimap-connection-alist', for
nnimap. nnimap.el has the code to handle multiple connections, but that
functionality isn't currently used.

The problem is in gnus-async.el, which is hard-coded to only work with
nntp. I believe the only function that would need to be changed would be
`gnus-async-wait-for-article', which currently calls
`nntp-find-connection' and `nntp-accept-process-output': these calls
would have to be abstracted to work with any server.

Ideally we'd make *-find-connection a deffoo, and then add a
`gnus-server-find-connection' function to gnus-int.el. I'm not sure how
to handle getting rid of the `nntp-accept-process-output' call.

Finally, you'd have to add:

(deffoo nnimap-asynchronous-p ()
  t)

to nnimap.el, in order to set the whole thing in motion.

I'm happy to help with further review or troubleshooting.

Thanks!
Eric

Re: Does article prefetching work on IMAP?

[Pankaj Jangid]

Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:

>> Eric, could you please point me to a place where this should be
>> done? With some guidance, I should be able to do it.
>
> You mean write the code? That would be very welcome!
>
> Async/prefetching works by opening multiple connections to a single
> server. Those connections are stored and tracked in
> `nntp-connection-alist', for nntp, and `nnimap-connection-alist', for
> nnimap. nnimap.el has the code to handle multiple connections, but that
> functionality isn't currently used.
>
> The problem is in gnus-async.el, which is hard-coded to only work with
> nntp. I believe the only function that would need to be changed would be
> `gnus-async-wait-for-article', which currently calls
> `nntp-find-connection' and `nntp-accept-process-output': these calls
> would have to be abstracted to work with any server.
>
> Ideally we'd make *-find-connection a deffoo, and then add a
> `gnus-server-find-connection' function to gnus-int.el. I'm not sure how
> to handle getting rid of the `nntp-accept-process-output' call.
>
> Finally, you'd have to add:
>
> (deffoo nnimap-asynchronous-p ()
>   t)
>
> to nnimap.el, in order to set the whole thing in motion.
>

Yes. I meant to write code.

Thanks for sharing these valuable pointers. This should be okay to get
started.