Subject: bug#48683: 28.0.50; [PATCH] Feature suggestion gnus-summary-toggle-mark-as-processable

From: Alex Bochannek <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 May 2021 19:04:27 -0700

Lars Ingebrigtsen <[email-masked]> writes:

> Alex Bochannek <[email-masked]> writes:
>
>> I have been missing a article process mark toggle for a while and would
>> like to propose the below patch. If "+" is not an appropriate key to use
>> for this, I am happy to accept an alternative.
>
> Hm.  A toggle command for the process mark?  I'm not quite sure I see
> the utility, and it's unusual in a Gnus marking context -- none of the
> other marking commands toggle (like setting the tick mark).

The downloadable mark is a toggle and because `@' is right next to `#'
(at least on the US keyboard), I frequently mistyped it and noticed that
the behavior is different.

Let me explain how I use the process mark and why a toggle is useful to
me. When processing a large number of messages, I sometimes mark a
region (or multiple regions) and then want to remove the process mark
from some messages in the region and add it to some other ones outside
the region. I can absolutely use `#' and `M-#`, but switching between
the two quickly when going through dozens of messages requires a fair
amount of dexterity. That's why I would rather mark the largest region
with the most messages and then pick out the ones to add/remove with a
single key that toggles the process mark.

I considered if this also makes sense for group and topic marking, but
it's an optimization for processing a large number of items, which is
why it is probably primarily useful in summary mode.

> And the `+' key isn't very mnemonic for a command that toggles the `#'
> mark.

I saw the `+' glyph as a piece of a `#', which is why I suggested it.

-- 
Alex.