Re: What's the difference between gnus-recent-mark and gnus-unseen-mark?

[Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com>]

Steven E. Harris <seharris@raytheon.com> writes:

> Having upgraded to Oort 0.07 yesterday, I noticed that my nnimap
> groups use a leading 'N' to indicate unseen messages, while the rest
> of my groups still use the '.' (period). I had grown accustomed to the
> more discreet '.' and find the 'N' a little noisy.
>
> Before I force these two marks back to the same character, I'd like to
> know what the difference is supposed to be. The Gnus manual alludes¹
> to guns-recent-mark being determined by the back-end, while
> gnus-unseen-mark is used otherwise. Why does this implementation
> detail yield a different user interface?

Because the semantics are different, so it is not only a
implementation detail.  I actually find this distinction useful, but
maybe not everyone does and it should be removed.

Example where the semantics differ: Usually I get N for new mail in
IMAP groups.  This is fine (but I could agree N is a bit noicy, what
about using `,' instead?).  When I have read IMAP mail using another
IMAP mail reader (I often read via Squirrelmail web mail) I don't get
the N but I do get a . instead.  This distinguish it from other read
mail.  Since I often postpone answering to some message until I use
gnus, this distinction allows me to locate
already-read-but-not-read-with-gnus mail.

I think there are other scenarios as well, although I don't use them.
E.g., in public folders which many people read, the \Recent mark
disappears once the first person reads the mail (probably depends on
server too).  In this case, having the . flag helps to locate "new"
mail.

Perhaps the documentation could be improved to convey this stuff in a
clearer way.  Suggestions?