Re: Customize citation character

[Philipp Haselwarter <philipp.haselwarter@gmx.de>]

Thanks for all the input, here's what I've come up with so far:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(defcustom my-citation-look '("" "│" "")
  "(prefix citation-string suffix)" :group 'my)

(defun my-citation-style nil
  (let ((inhibit-read-only t)
        (alist gnus-cite-face-list)
        cflist face gnus-cite-prefix-alist)
    (save-excursion
      (gnus-narrow-to-body)
      (gnus-cite-parse)
      (dolist (prefix gnus-cite-prefix-alist) ;(reverse
        (setq cflist (append cflist (list (car alist)))
              alist (cdr alist))
        (let* ((current-cflist cflist)
               (depth (length cflist))
               (len (length (car prefix)))
               (look
                (concat
                 (car my-citation-look)
                 (mapconcat
                  (lambda (s) (propertize s 'face (pop current-cflist)))
                  (make-vector depth (cadr my-citation-look)) "")
                         (caddr my-citation-look))))
          (dolist (line (cdr prefix))
            (goto-char (point-min)) (forward-line (1- line))
            (put-text-property (point) (+ (point) len) 'display look)))))
    (widen)))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

I'm quite satisfied with the results, although the usage of
`gnus-cite-prefix-alist' could probably be better: Sometimes it becomes
a little overzealous, for example in gmane.emacs.orgmode:51261 (OT:
better way to link articles?).

Someone with a better understanding of gnus internals could probably
figure out how to fix this.

-- 
Philipp Haselwarter