Re: newsgroup variables

[Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann)]

Shenghuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu> writes:

> I think the mechanism of message-clone-locals is too aggressive.

_I_ think it isn't aggressive enough :-)  But OTOH, I can't remember a
case where I was bit by this, so maybe I shouldn't be talking too
loudly.

I think your approach of having a list of variables to copy is a Good
Thing; this way people can control exactly what variables are copied.

But we should think about the interface for naive users.  Suppose
somebody sets a variable local to a group via `G c'.  Then that person
will surely expect this change to `just work', even if the variable is
actually used in the article buffer, say.

(Just to take an example -- what about fill-column?  Presumably, `W w'
and `W Q' in summary mode take into account that variable (I haven't
checked), but the variable is used in the article buffer.  Surely,
people will be surprised when they frob fill-column from the group
parameters and nothing changes.)

What can be done about this?  Would it be enough to document this in
the buffer that appears after `G c'?

kai
-- 
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