Gnus-Topic ideas

Gnus-Topic ideas

[Jack Vinson]

Now that I have gnus topic working with v0.16, I'd like to make some
suggestions for more improvements.  (Or should I say "more improvements to
this already excellent code?"  :-)

- The documentation for the variable gnus-group-prepare-function needs to
  be revised to not mention gnus-group-prepare-topics.  Maybe the variable
  should be eliminated completely, since the only value it can take is
  'gnus-group-prepare-flat.  Alternatively, if it is
  'gnus-group-prepare-topics, then maybe the gnus topic mode should be
  turned on automagically.

- gnus-topic-kill-group should mention that if you kill a topic that all
  its groups will go as well.  And when you yank it back, the groups come
  with it.

- On a related note,  there seems to be no easy way reorder topics at the
  Gnus level.  (Why is that level there, anyway?)  For example:

  Gnus
     Alt
     Emacs
     Computers
        Programming
        Breaking
     Misc

  If I want to swap Comp and Emacs, how do I do it?  If I kill and then
  yank, the topic always gets inserted as a subtopic of the topic under the
  cursor.  Maybe a prefix argument to C-y to tell Gnus to insert the topic
  at the same level as the current topic.

- Killed topics are never really removed.  If I kill a topic and forget to
  yank it back, it returns as the last Gnus subtopic.  This is a good
  thing, since it is the only way to rearrange topics at the Gnus level.
  However, how would one remove a topic permanently?  Removing it from the
  gnus-group-topics should be a start.

- I'd like to see a way to go to the next topic via key strokes.  It would
  be nice to be able to jump between topics without having to hit n many
  times.  Maybe N to jump to next topic and P for previous topic.  How
  would this work with a full hierarchy?  Prefix argument could tell it to
  jump to a same-level topic, rather than the nearest neighbor.

-- 
   (      "Mmmmmm - coffee"               (   
   ))     Jack Vinson                     ))  
 C|~~|    jvinson@cheux.ecs.umass.edu   C|~~| 
  `--'                                   `--' 

Re: Gnus-Topic ideas

[Steven L. Baur]

>>>>> "Jack" == Jack Vinson <jvinson@cheux.ecs.umass.edu> writes:

    Jack> Now that I have gnus topic working with v0.16, I'd like to
    Jack> make some suggestions for more improvements.  (Or should I
    Jack> say "more improvements to this already excellent code?"  :-)

Gnus topics is looking very nice.  I'd like to add the following
suggestions to Jack's.

- gnus-group-topics should be advisory only.  That is it should only
be applied to a group that has not previously been assigned a topic.
As it stands right now, it will override manual reorganization.  As a
bonus, this would make a good default method of assigning new groups
to topics.

- It would be nice to have a set of operations extended to work with
topics.
 * M-g is perhaps the most useful.
 * Narrow to topic (although that may be doable already with hooks).

- A topic should have an assigned score file, topic.SCORE.  In the
score file hierarchy, it should come just ahead of all.SCORE.

- You should be able to assign a face per topic.  All groups for that
topic will appear in that face in the group/topic buffer.  Now that
could look interesting. :-)

For the last two suggestions, it would be acceptable to have them
apply when showing the flat display if the implementation required
it.

-- 
steve@miranova.com baur

Re: Gnus-Topic ideas

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

There are lots of quite interesting things that can be done with
gnus-topic.  However, I think I'll be doing further reorganizations of
the code to decrease .newsrc.eld size and improve speed.  This means
that the `topic' group parameter will in all likelihood disappear, and
might mean that other things will be changed as well.  So I wouldn't
recommend creating really intricate topic topologies just yet.  

Experiment all you want, but all your hard work may be totally in
vain.  I'm evil, me.  

(Evil Lars -- Now Extra Blond(e).  I really do have to kill my
hairdresser.  I look like nazi swine.)

-- 
Home is where the cat is.