Re: Why article numbers?

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org>]

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

> If the user asks for "all unread articles", then Gnus can ask the
> backend for "all unread articles".  If the user asks for "the last 200
> articles, whether read or unread", then Gnus can ask the backend for
> "the last 200 articles, whether read or unread".  If the user asks for
> "the last 5 read articles", then Gnus can ask the backend for "the
> last 5 read articles".

That means that the backend must have intimate knowledge of all these
things.  That's certainly not the case now -- nntp.el, for instance,
has no knowledge what-so-ever about these things.  (nnml.el is
getting to know more about these things, but the volume in nnml
versus nntp is on a different plane.  And Gnus is a news reader.  :-)

> I won't argue with that.  It might even be so much work that it will
> never happen, unfortunately.  But my claim is that it is possible, and
> if done right, would not cause performance hits.

This kind of added complexity almost invariably causes performance
hits, in my experience.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen