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From: prj@po.cwru.edu (Paul Jarc)
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Subject: Re: Some numbering problem (nnml?)
Date: 04 Dec 2000 17:25:53 -0500
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ShengHuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu> writes:
> prj@po.cwru.edu (Paul Jarc) writes:
> > But anyway, backends already report the number of articles in the
> > output of -request-group.  Gnus ignores this in favor of
> > last-first+1 (according to the 5.8.7 texinfo).  Anyone know why?
> 
> One reason is that the number doesn't help much to calculate the
> number of unread articles.

Ok, but when using C-u RET, you don't need the number of unread
articles, just the total.  Yet in that case, Gnus still prompts you
with last-first+1.

> For example, -request-group returns 3 5 9 (the number of articles,
> first, last), and you've read 5-8. What is the number of unread
> articles?  Gnus doesn't know whether number 9 is missing.

What if the number of articles reported by the backend is smaller than
last-first+1-(number of read articles)?  In that case, we can improve
the estimate by using the backend's number, even by assuming that all
of those are unread.  (This may not be a common case, but it isn't
expensive to handle, either.)


paul