04/02/11 09:45, Lars Ingebrigtsen
>
> Given that this much is needed to get a satisfactory top posting format,
> I don't think making the defvar->defcustom change would help much.
>
> Perhaps there should be a new meta-ish variable, say
>
> (defcustom message-cite-style nil
>   "The overall style to be used when yanking cited text.
> Values are either `traditional' (cited text first),
> `top-post' (cited text at the bottom), or nil (don't override the
> individual message variables)."
>   :version "24.1"
>   :group 'message-various
>   :type '(choice (const :tag "None" :value nil)
> 		 (const :tag "Traditional" :value traditional)
> 		 (const :tag "Top-post" :value top-post)))
>
> This would bind the variables you mention above if set to `traditional'
> or `top-post'.

So I took a stab at this, and came up with the following patch.

So, what it does:

- The defvar -> defcustom change for message-cite-reply-above discussed
  before, with the prompt "are you sure you want to be evil?" removed,
  and allowing the choice in news posting

- message-cite-reply-above -> message-cite-reply-position, which can be
  traditional (default), above or below

- The new message-cite-style (apparently, you commited it in an
  unrelated commit, Lars:
  https://github.com/emacsmirror/emacs/commit/92a7a0fc1dcec08b923f267e53f1758507efd747)
  variable goes to the message-insertion group (that's where the other
  variables like this one are). Instead of taking symbol values, it
  takes either nil or a list of let-style (variable value) forms.

- This variables/values pairs are enforced by a eval-let in
  message-yank-original, binding the variables in the function. If
  there's a more clever approach, please tell me.

- message-cite-style presets for outlook, thunderbird and gmail
  (shamelessly ripped from Ted Zlatanov for the outlook one, roughly
  inferred for the other two) are available, allowing Gnus to
  impersonate other clients. Some of these are pretty ugly, though. The
  idea is that the user chooses between those styles or creates other
  ones, and then sets message-cite-style in gnus-posting-styles.

It Works For Me (TM), and looks generic and simple enough to suit the
needs of everybody. Here's the patch.