bug#38466: 26.3; Gnus setting large-newsgroup-initial to "All"/nil defaults to gnus-large-newsgroup if display is set to all

bug#38466: 26.3; Gnus setting large-newsgroup-initial to "All"/nil defaults to gnus-large-newsgroup if display is set to all

[Allen Li]

Setting the group parameter large-newsgroup-initial to nil (meaning
"All") makes the default number of articles to show when prompted to be
the max, when there are more articles than gnus-large-newsgroup.

However, the default is equal to gnus-large-newsgroup if the group
parameter display is also set to all.

This is annoying when viewing nnimap groups where I want to show all
messages by default.  Due to the way group size estimation works by
subtracting min/max article numbers, the estimate for nnimap groups is
often very inflated, so I am almost always prompted to enter the number
of articles to show, which defaults to gnus-large-newsgroup rather than
the max.

I don't want to disable gnus-large-newsgroup entirely since it's useful
for actual newsgroups.

In GNU Emacs 26.3 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.24.10)
 of 2019-08-29 built on juergen
Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.12006000
System Description:	Arch Linux

bug#38466: 26.3; Gnus setting large-newsgroup-initial to "All"/nil defaults to gnus-large-newsgroup if display is set to all

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Allen Li <darkfeline@felesatra.moe> writes:

> Setting the group parameter large-newsgroup-initial to nil (meaning
> "All") makes the default number of articles to show when prompted to be
> the max, when there are more articles than gnus-large-newsgroup.
>
> However, the default is equal to gnus-large-newsgroup if the group
> parameter display is also set to all.

Yes...  I can't quite see how this has ever worked?  In general, it's
impossible to distinguish between a parameter not being present and the
parameter being nil, I think?

So the "use all the articles" value has to be something other than nil
for this to work.  Perhaps t?

Or am I misunderstanding something here, and this really does work for
somebody?

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#38466: 26.3; Gnus setting large-newsgroup-initial to "All"/nil defaults to gnus-large-newsgroup if display is set to all

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> So the "use all the articles" value has to be something other than nil
> for this to work.  Perhaps t?

I've made the value for "All" the symbol `all' in Emacs 28.1.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no