Re: Gnus docs questions/notes

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

David Abrahams <dave@boost-consulting.com> writes:

> I realize that _some_ of what I'm asking for may be outside the charter
> of this document as described in 15.4, "On Writing Manuals," but it's
> the only comprehensive document we have AFAIK, so it may make sense to
> improve it rather than wait for someone to write something that's more
> like a "user's guide."

Well, there have been quite a few "user guide" style documents that
cover various parts of Gnus on the web.  my.gnus.org collects quite a
few of these.

It's apparently easier to write HTML than TeXinfo.  :-)

> Section 1.1 Finding the news
>
> - Page numbering is restarted somewhere in gnus-manual-standard.pdf, so
> that the reference on page 2 to the Terminology section points to page
> 113, but there's no indication of the restart.  That's confusing.

Generating the pdf is a pain, but I'll give it a go...

Hm...  there doesn't seem to be any text on my page two.

> - p.2 mentions "the local spool."  What's a spool?  It's not covered in
> the terminology section

Added..

> - p.2 mentions "Leafnode."  It would be nice to have at least a short
> footnote that says what that is.

I've added a parenthesis.  I'm not really sure it's necessary; if you
don't know what it is, you're not running it, and you definitely
don't need that advice.  (Which really belongs in a FAQ instead.)

> - p.3 mentions "active files." I realize this is defined in the
> terminology section, but it would be nice if newly-introduced terms
> could be cross-referenced to their definitions.

Yes...  but I think this sort of thing really would be better handled
if an editor(ish) type of person would read over the manual and just
rearrange things and add links.  It's less work doing that than
describing what the problem is.  

(TeXinfo is really quite easy to work with.  Hint, hint.  :-)
Patches welcome.)

> It isn't clear whether the active file is typically stored on the
> machine where Gnus is running or on the server; the answer could
> greatly affect how I decide to make many Gnus settings, since active
> files can grow so large.

It all depends on how your setup is like.  If the (nntp) server is
local, then the active file is.  If not, then not...

> Section 1.2 The First Time
>
> - By "startup files" do you mean .gnus et. al?

Yes.  There's a section called "Startup Files" that talks about all
this.  I've added a reference to that.

> - "If gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups is t, Gnus will just use the
> normal functions for handling new groups, and not do anything special."
> This is too vague.  It's unclear what these normal functions might be,
> nor what special things might have happened otherwise.

It's a very vague section, meant to give a brief, readable overview
of what's supposed to be happening.  I was trying to write a user
manual at the time.

> 1.5 Fetching a Group
>
> - why might this be more useful for someone who writes code than for users?

Because you have to know what the group name is.  That section
shouldn't be in chapter one at all.  I'll move it.

> - does it start Gnus?  If not, and you can read a group without starting
> Gnus, what does it mean to start Gnus?

That's also not something that's really well defined.  The function
in question can't really be said to meaningfully start Gnus.

> 1.6.1 Checking New Groups
>
> The news servers I use have so many groups on them, and I have so much
> incoming traffic, that it's hard to imagine anyone wanting to have Gnus
> automatically subscribe them to new groups.  Is this really a common
> usage pattern?

No, I think not.  But back in 1987, it probably was.

> From reading the docs, it seems like there's a lot of
> expensive computation and storage devoted to being able to do that in
> Gnus, and it's all turned on by default.

Gnus makes new groups into zombies by default, which is quite cheap.
And it doesn't read the entire active file by default, so I think it
might be doing the right thing.

> 1.8 Startup Files
>
> - Begins, "Now, you all know about the `.newsrc' file."  Well, not
> really.  I don't know much about it at all yet.  The statement makes me
> wonder what I *should* know about it at this point, and where I ought to
> go to find that information.

Heh.  That shows my geeky bias.  When I started doing Gnus, I don't
think anybody who read news wouldn't have known what the .newsrc file
was.  But times change...

I've changed this to

---
Most common Unix news readers use a shared startup file called
@file{.newsrc}.  This file contains all the information about what
groups are subscribed, and which articles in these groups have been
read. 
---

> - "You can turn off writing the ‘.newsrc’ file by setting
> gnus-save-newsrc-file to nil, which means you can delete the file and
> save some space, as well as exiting from Gnus faster. However, this will
> make it impossible to use other newsreaders than Gnus."
>
> This baffles me.  How could telling Gnus not to touch .newsrc prevent me
> from using other newsreaders?

Well, they wouldn't know what articles you've read, or what groups
you're subscribed to.  That's not impossible, but it's certainly
painful... 

> - "Similarly, setting gnus-read-newsrc-file to nil makes Gnus ignore the
> ‘.newsrc’ file and any ‘.newsrc-SERVER’ files, which is convenient if
> you have a tendency to use Netscape once in a while."
>
> Why is that convenient for people who use Netscape once in a while?

Because Netscape writes those files, and have a tendency to write
totally bogus info there.  But it's probably outdated info by now.
I've changed it.

> - "You should always set gnus-check-new-newsgroups to nil or ask-server
> if you set this variable to nil (see “New Groups” on page 5). This
> variable can also be a regular expression. If that’s the case, remove
> all groups that do not match this regexp before saving."
>
> Is this an instruction to me, the user, or is it really telling me what
> Gnus will do if gnus-check-new-newsgroups is a regexp?  Before saving
> what?  Remove the groups from where?

It's talking about `gnus-save-killed-list', so the "remove" is from
the variable that's controlling.  I.e., the list of killed groups.

> - The gnus-startup-file variable says where the startup files are. The
> default value is ‘˜/.newsrc’, with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup file
> being whatever that one is, with a “.eld” appended.
>
> What is El Dingo?

A joke.  :-)  

> 1.10 The Active File
>
> I'm trying to figure out how to set gnus-read-active-file for my primary
> select method, which will be an IMAP server.  I assume that's neither
> Leafnode nor INN, so none of the information here applies to me.

I don't think you have to do anything in particular for that, really.

(setq gnus-select-method '(nnimap "your.imap.server"))

The defaults should be OK.

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