How to adjust the windows configuration using gnus-carpal, group-carpal, and summary-carpal?

[Benjamin L. Russell]

(A slightly different version of this question has already been posted
in the thread "Re: How to adjust the windows configuration?" (see
http://groups.google.com/group/gnu.emacs.gnus/msg/c205c34f549693ac),
dated "Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:52:10 +0900," on the newsgroup
gnu.emacs.gnus, but has not received a response, so I am forwarding the
question to this mailing list.)

Currently, I have the following Gnus window layout, which I am trying to
customize further:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
|          Group Buffer             |         Summary Buffer          |
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
|                            Article Buffer                           |
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

This layout is based on the following portion of my .gnus.el file:

> ; Toggle "gnus-carpal" settings; i.e., display of mouse-clickable buttons to 
> control navigation
> (setq gnus-carpal t) ; turn on mouse button-based navigation

> ;; The following section controls the layout after displaying the article 
> buffer
> ; change the configuration of a single buffer setting, without using the 
> complicated gnus-buffer-configuration variable (see "Frequently Asked 
> Questions: Window Layout" at http://gnus.org/manual/gnus_295.html)
> (gnus-add-configuration
>  ; configure the article buffer
>  '(article
>    ; split the screen in two vertically, and use the following settings for 
> the upper half of the window
>    (vertical 1.0
>          ; the original number of rows for the group + summary buffers 
> together, copied from "Frequently Asked Questions: FAQ 4 - Reading messages" 
> (http://www.gnus.org/manual/gnus_400.html#SEC473)
>          (horizontal 28
>              ; the original number of columns for the group buffer width 
> setting, copied from "Frequently Asked Questions: FAQ 4 - Reading messages" 
> (http://www.gnus.org/manual/gnus_400.html#SEC473)
> ;                 (group 50)
>              ; setting of the number of columns for the group buffer width 
> setting to match my settings in Forte' Agent 5.0
> ;             (group 53)
>              ; setting of the number of columns for the group buffer width 
> setting to display all newsgroup names without truncation
>                  (group 77)
>              ; let the summary buffer take the remainder of the width of the 
> rows, and position the point (cursor) therein
>                  (summary 1.0 point) )
>          ; let the lower half take up the remainder of the horizontal space, 
> and apply the following settings therein
>          (horizontal 1.0
>              ; let the article buffer take up the entire space of the lower 
> half of the window
>                  (article 1.0)))))

> ;; The following section controls the layout after displaying the group and 
> summary buffers only (i.e., before displaying the article buffer)
> ; change the configuration of a single buffer setting, without using the 
> complicated gnus-buffer-configuration variable (see "Frequently Asked 
> Questions: Window Layout" at http://gnus.org/manual/gnus_295.html)
> (gnus-add-configuration
>  ; configure the summary buffer
>  '(summary
>    ; split the screen in two vertically, and use the following settings for 
> the upper half of the window (unless the lower half is specified separately 
> as above, here, the upper half may take up all the vertical space of the 
> window)
>    (vertical 1.0
>              ; split the window horizontally, and take up whatever space is 
> available for the following settings
>          (horizontal 1.0
> ;;             ; the original number of columns for the group buffer width 
> setting, copied from "Frequently Asked Questions: FAQ 4 - Reading messages" 
> (http://www.gnus.org/manual/gnus_400.html#SEC473)
> ;;             (group 50)
> ;;             ; setting of the number of columns for the group buffer width 
> setting to match my setting in Forte' Agent 5.0
> ;;             (group 53)
>              ; setting of the number of columns for the group buffer width 
> setting to display all newsgroup names without truncation
>              (group 77)
>              ; let the summary buffer take the remainder of the width of the 
> rows, and position the point (cursor) therein

The only remaining difficulty is the correct specification of the
"group-carpal" and "summary-carpal" variables with the "gnus-carpal"
variable set to t.

The "gnus-carpal" variable toggles enabling display of buttons to click
for a given buffer; e.g., with "gnus-carpal" set to t, one can then
enable specification of "summary-carpal 4" to dedicate 4 columns to
display of summary-carpal buttons for the summary buffer, "group-carpal
4" to dedicate 4 columns to display of group-carpal buttons for the
group buffer, etc.

Unfortunately, even with "gnus-carpal" set to t as above, the following
code snippet only displays the "summary-carpal" buttons in a narrow
4-column area immediately to the right of the summary buffer:

> (gnus-add-configuration
>  '(summary
>    (vertical 1.0
>          (horizontal 1.0
>              (group 50)
>              (summary 1.0 point)
>              (if gnus-carpal
>                  '(summary-carpal 4))))))

The buttons are impossible to read in this configuration.

Therefore, if possible, I would additionally prefer to specify 4 *rows*
of the "summary-carpal" buttons immediately below the summary buffer,
and a matching 4 *rows* of "group-carpal" buttons immediately below the
group buffer, with perhaps another 4 *rows" of "???????-carpal" buttons
(the term, if it exists, for the article-related buttons is not clear
from the online documentation at "Gnus 5.1 Manual - Various" (see
http://www.chemie.fu-berlin.de/chemnet/use/info/gnus/gnus_8.html))
immediately below the article buffer; thusly:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
|          Group Buffer             |         Summary Buffer          |
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|          Group-carpal             |         Summary-carpal          |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
|                            Article Buffer                           |
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
|                                   |                                 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|                            ???????-carpal                           |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Would anybody know how to specify *rows*, instead of *columns*, for the
"group-carpal" and "summary-carpal" sections above, and how to configure
the "???????-carpal" section as above?

Additionally, the following related issues are not clear:

1) What term should be substituted for "???????" in the above-described
"???????-carpal" term for button functionality for the article buffer?

2) What functionality is provided by the server and browse buffers
hinted at by the documented "gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons" and
"gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons" settings described?

3) What is the difference between a browse buffer and an article buffer?
I thought that the group buffer provided a list of groups, the summary
buffer provided a list of articles, and the article buffer provided the
content of an article; what is the purpose of a browse buffer?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

-- Benjamin L. Russell

[1] Russell, Benjamin L. "Re: How to adjust the windows
configuration?". Online posting. 1 Sept. 2009. 2
Sept. 2009. <news://gnu.emacs.gnus>. Also available at
<http://groups.google.com/group/gnu.emacs.gnus/msg/c205c34f549693ac>.
-- 
Benjamin L. Russell  /   DekuDekuplex at Yahoo dot com
http://dekudekuplex.wordpress.com/
Translator/Interpreter / Mobile:  +011 81 80-3603-6725
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