Re: miscellaneous Gnus problems/questions

[Jason L Tibbitts III <tibbs@hpc.uh.edu>]

>>>>> "JW" == Joe Wells <jbw@cs.bu.edu> writes:

JW> This is a list of random assorted problems with Gnus and questions
JW> about Gnus.

I'll give it a whirl.

JW> I am using the version of Gnus that comes with the latest Emacs, so
JW> these may be known and/or fixed already.

You should look at 5.2.x.  It's nice.  It's not just a little bug-fix
release, either.  There's major new stuff.

JW> 1.  In the summary buffer, "X v u" seems to be refetching the article
JW> even if it is already in the article buffer.  Why?

I believe it's to get a pristine copy of the article, before any
destructive decoding has been done.  5.2.x saves the original article
in a separate buffer, and can also store copies of the last n articles.  In
any case, it no longer refetches the article.

JW> 2.  Using "o" on a pseudo-article in an attempt to save it doesn't seem
JW> to work.

This seems to work in 5.2.x.

JW> 3.  It would be nice if there were an option to create the
JW> pseudo-article in the summary *AND* to immediately view it.

Hmmm.  You might be able to do something with
gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions.  You could probably also write it in a few
lines of code.  I can see why this isn't in there: there are way too many
key bindings as it is.  But hey, Red gnus will start up soon.  Bug Lars and
get it on the ToDo list.

JW> 4.  What does the name "eething" mean?  Why "ee"?

We couldn't think of a better name.  Really.  Lars probably has some
rationalization made up just for this occasion, though.

JW> 5.  In summary, "I ?" splits the windows really funny.  Pressing C-g to
JW> abort does not clean up window split.  Only proceeding all the way
JW> through cleans up the windows.

Still does.  This could be considered a bug.  A non-recognized key will
escape and clean the display, though.

JW> 6.  The help text for "I a ?" lists match types that are not legal in
JW> combination with "a".  It also has a duplicate description for match
JW> type "r".

Still does.  Most likely a left-out feature (have to write bunches of help
texts to fix it).

JW> 7.  For an "eval" keyword in a score file, how often is the form
JW> evaluated?  Once per entering into the group?  Before or after the
JW> group select hook?  This needs some documentation.

I agree that it's poorly documented.  The documentation for
gnus-score-alist says:

eval:    Sexp to be evaluated when the score file is loaded.

>From the code, gnus-possible-score-headers, which eventually loads the
score file, is called soon after gnus-select-group-hook is run.

JW> 8.  The "P" command at beginning of buffer does not work in a group
JW> read via the "nndir" back end which uses a directory reached via
JW> ange-ftp.

This seems to work fine in 5.2.x.  (Just tried it.  Getting to
ding-list-recent is quick from my machine!)

JW> 9.  nnmail-request-post-buffer ignores its follow-to argument if its
JW> post argument is non-nil.  This happens when using the "a" command in a
JW> mail group.  This prevents the user's setting of
JW> gnus-followup-to-function from having any effect for mail groups.

nnmail-request-post-buffer doesn't exist anymore; the entire mail-post
dichotomy has gone away.

JW> 10. In the summary buffer, if you use "x" then "T T", the removed
JW> article lines come back.

Seems to work in 5.2.x.

[Can't comment on splitting since I use Procmail.]

JW> 14. It would be nice if threading did not use garbage subjects like
JW> "(none)", "hi", or "hello".  Is there a garbage-subject regexp which I
JW> can set to tell the threading to ignore those subjects?

`gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject'
     Since loose thread gathering is done on subjects only, that might
     lead to many false hits, especially with certain common subjects
     like `' and `(none)'.  To make the situation slightly better, you
     can use the regexp `gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject' to say
     what subjects should be excluded from the gathering process.  The
     default is `^ *$\\|^(none)$'.

Also, `gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function' can be use to do gathering
by the references header instead of by the subject.

JW> 16. Editing a SCORE file directly doesn't get noticed.  What does one
JW> have to do to get the changes noticed by Gnus?

`V R'
     Run the current summary through the scoring process
     (`gnus-summary-rescore').  This might be useful if you're playing
     around with your score files behind Gnus' back and want to see the
     effect you're having.

JW> 17. gnus-followup-to-function can be called with a argument of nil when
JW> the "a" command is used in the group buffer.  This should be
JW> documented.  Even better, use the group whose line point is on.

Hmmm.  gnus-followup-to-function doesn't exist anymore.  Ah, it's
message-followup-to-function, which seems to get called with no arguments.
I'm not quire sure how this works.

JW> 18. I have noticed when reading the group

JW> nndir+/ftp@ftp.hpc.uh.edu:/pub/emacs/ding-list-recent/:ding.recent

That's me.

JW>     that some of the read marks often get lost when I revisit the
JW> group.  I can't figure out why this is happening.

Odd.  Nobody else has reported it anywhere I've seen.  I don't renumber the
articles, just delete the old ones, so I can't say.  Anyone else seen this
one?  If upgrading doesn't cure it, let me know.
-- 
      Jason L. Tibbitts III - tibbs@uh.edu - 713/743-8684 - 221SR1
System Manager:  University of Houston High Performance Computing Center
                1994 PC800 "Kuroneko"      DoD# 1723