Subject: Re: Manual should clearly define "group name"

From: Dave Abrahams <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2011 07:15:55 -0800

on Sun Sep 04 2011, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi-AT-gnus.org> wrote:

> Dave Abrahams <[email-masked]> writes:
>
>> Many times when customizing things for Gnus I have a pattern to match
>> groups, but it's never entirely clear to me against what the pattern
>> will be matched.  Will it be <method>+<server>:<group>, or simply
>> <group>?  Is the answer different depending on whether <method> is a
>> primary or secondary select method?
>
> The latter, mainly, 

the latter, meaning "secondary select method," or meaning "simply
<group>?"

> which is spelled out in the section that talks about ... that stuff.

And which one would that be?

> I say "mainly" because if you're doing something in the backends, they
> don't deal with Gnus group names, but with their own group names, which
> are un-prefixed.

Umm... so that sounds like you meant "the former" above, and not "the
latter?"

>> A general policy should be spelled out in the manual, and IMO you
>> should consider adding cross-references each time group names or group
>> name regexps come up.
>
> In Gnus, a group name is always what it is

I'd like to join your tautology-of-the-month club, Lars! ;-)

> , so I don't think that's necessary.

This is clear as mud, I'm afraid.  Here's an example from my gnus
customizations:

 '(gnus-spam-process-destinations
   (quote
    (("^\\(\\(nnimap\\+\\)?LocalIMAP:\\)?[^+]*$" "[Gmail].Spam"))))
 '(gnus-spam-process-newsgroups
   (quote
    (("^\\(\\(nntp\\+\\)?LocalNNTP:\\)?gmane\\."
      ((spam spam-use-gmane))))))

I have a strong suspicion that those regexps are at least 400% more
complicated than they actually need to be, but I couldn't tell what Gnus
was going to be matching.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com