Re: [h-e-w] Re: Gnus, anyone?

[Peter Davis]

At 04:40 AM 12/21/2001, Galen Boyer wrote:
> On Thu, 20 Dec 2001, address@hidden wrote:
>
> > 1) *Much* easier to configure and get running.
>
> Gnus is notorious for causing one fits as a newbie.

... where "newbie" = "less than several years e-lisp hacking."


> > 2) Much faster overall (download time,
>
> I don't know why this would be any faster based on the
> downloading program.

I don't know either, but it's definitely faster.  For one thing, I have VM 
dump all new messages into one inbox, whereas gnus does the split-fancy as 
it's importing.  Also, I have to use epop3mail with gnus to get the "leave 
on server" behavior, and that may introduce some additional overhead.


> > message display time,
>
> Other than when Gnus needs to display htmlized messages, it is
> very fast.  I would assume the html slowdown would happen with VM
> as well.

The speed difference here seems apparent.  Just typing 'n' or 'p' in vm 
seems to go to the next (previous) message almost instantly.  With gnus, 
there's a perceptible delay in painting the new message.  I don't know why 
this is.  One factor may be that gnus (nnml) has to open and read a new 
file, whereas VM has all the messages in one file.


> > switching folder/group time, etc.)
>
> Gnus sets alot of stuff up before actually showing you your
> summary buffer.  So entering a group can take a little longer.  I
> certainly don't notice that it is slow though, unless I'm
> entering a group with hundreds or more unread messages.

I usually only have a dozen or so unread messages, but it's very 
evident.  Come to think of it, switching folders in VM is pretty slow, too, 
so I don't really know if I've compared them fairly in this regard.  With 
VM, I read all my new messages and then sort, so I don't have to switch 
folders as frequently.

(I've also had VM folders so large that they simply can't be opened.  This 
is a *major* flaw in VM, in my opinion.  I'm not sure what the problem is, 
but I guess monitoring my folder size, and archiving (manually) to other 
folders is what's required.


> > 3) UI is more like other mail readers.
>
> gnus-add-configuration is the function you should take a look at.

Yes, this sounds very useful.  However, by UI, I'm not just talking about 
screen layout.  I also mean the metaphor of having mail messages that are 
always visible when you open a folder, having 'delete' instead of 'expire', 
etc.


> > 4) Flexible support for "leave on server" functionality.
>
> I believe they finally got this debugged with 21.1.

I've been working on this.  It requires the use of an external package, 
epop3mail, which was originally written for rmail.  It seems to work at the 
moment, though it could easily break again with a new emacs or gnus 
release, and I don't think it's being actively maintained anymore.  I would 
seriously like to see this functionality built into gnus.

Re/ Jason's comment:  My apologies if I've breached some list rules or 
etiquette.  Personally, I don't understand how suppressing relevant 
information that is not fsf-blessed helps anyone, but I'll try to abide by 
the rules.


-pd



--------
                                Peter Davis
                 Funny stuff at http://www.pfdstudio.com
                 "The artwork formerly shown as prints."
           Resources for children's writers and illustrators
                   http://www.pfdstudio.com/cwrl.html