Re: Announce: nnwarchive

[Eric Marsden <emarsden@mail.dotcom.fr>]

>>>>> "ZSH" == Shenghuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu> writes:
>>>>> "ecm" == Eric Marsden <emarsden@mail.dotcom.fr> writes:

  ecm> So I am wondering if there is scope for a generic "wash.el"
  ecm> which would take as an argument an URL (which is dynamically
  ecm> generated in certain cases), a parser function which returns
  ecm> matches, operating on the raw HTML, and provides automatic or
  ecm> semi-automatic update services which connect to some trusted
  ecm> web site where washing-authors can put updates.

  ZSH> A generic "wash.el" is not easy. Different pages need different
  ZSH> wash. Some pages need rebuild headers, some others need dissect
  ZSH> a page into several articles. A generic "wash.el" would have to
  ZSH> use callback functions or so. However, a "wash-util.el" may be
  ZSH> possible.

I was thinking of an interface something like

  (wash url-generator washer)

where URL-GENERATOR is a function which takes `&rest args', and WASHER
is a function which operates on the current buffer and returns a list
of items (of arbitrary type, to be interpreted by the caller).

But the area where there's the most scope for reuse IMO is in the
semi-automatic updates. The current state of nnweb.el shows that there
is a need for auto-updates, and I think it would be easier for users
to trust a single module (which connects to a trusted server) to
download new code to be run in their emacs.
 
-- 
Eric Marsden
It's elephants all the way down