Re: [Pan-users] Thinking out loud about task management

[Barthel aus Pennswald]

On Thu, 2002-08-15 at 12:04, Charles Kerr wrote:

> And here's the big change -- running decode and header tasks could be
> stopped, while running, in order to make way for body downloads.  When
> the body downloads are done, the other tasks would resume.
> 
> Comments?

I have but two concerns:

1) I'm a bit wary of actually stopping running tasks. Some news servers
don't seem to handle interruptions very well--in which case your task
either fails or hangs on resume. It might be safer to allow the current
task to finish first, then process the highest priority task next.

2) Decoding isn't a major overhead item IMHO. But if decoding has a
lower priority than getting bodies, wouldn't it be very easy for
articles to expire from the cache before being decoded while in leech
mode? (OTOH, if "decoding" refers to downloading for saving, whereas
"body downnloads" refers to downloads for immediate reading, then my
only concern would be to prioritize "decoding" if the body is already
cached.)

Cheers!

Barthel

P.S. Count me among those who use different fonts in different panes, as
well as those who miss marking selected threads read with a single
keystroke.
-- 
      address@hidden | http://geocities.com/ld_barthel
       Organization: The Pennswald Group -- Linux powered!!

Change is the essential process of all existence.
     - Spock