Re: NOV code in Gnus

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

Jan Rychter <jan@rychter.com> writes:

> Ah, yes, my description wasn't very good. I was thinking about something
> the other way around. Say I'd like to provide another implementation for
> storing NOV data. There seems to be no easy way to do this, as the
> knowledge about the implementation of NOV storage is scattered around,
> and there are many functions that assume that it's just going to be text
> files.

Well, that is what NOV files are, isn't it?  :-)

But, yes, the NOV parsing/generating code is somewhat confused, both
for hysterical reasons and for reasons of efficiency.  For instance,
`nnheader-parse-overview-file' just, well, parses a NOV file, while
`gnus-get-newsgroup-headers-xover' parses a NOV file while doing
threading, gathering, washing and making a nice 5-course meal for the
entire family.

> So, I'm thinking about a unified interface for storing and accessing NOV
> data.

The actual number of places that NOV files are stored/accessed is
also quite large, but most of them use the nnheader functions for
generating/parsing the files.

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