Re: Position of point in reply-with-original

[Antoine Levitt <antoine.levitt@gmail.com>]

03/02/11 23:10, Adam Sjøgren
> On Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:52:15 +0100, Antoine wrote:
>
>>>> I'm not trying to start a flamewar as to which one is better, but we
>>>> should give the users the option.
>
>>> Why?
>
>> I don't know, somehow I was under the impression that gnus was
>> customizable :)
>
> Me too. You didn't quite answer the question, though?

Please stop with the passive agression. In the end the decision to add
an option or not comes down to whether people will use it. I can't
magically poll all gnus users, but I don't think I'm the only one to
want it.

>
>>> I don't understand why you wouldn't want people to jump through hoops
>>> to do the - arguably - wrong thing? It is entirely possible to do so,
>>> but why make it easier?
>
>> Wow, I wasn't really expecting to get this kind of answer on the gnus
>> ML.
>
> Sorry to disappoint you so. Apparantly the group isn't as homogeneous as
> expected.

I wasn't expecting any consensus, but I was not expecting that kind of
frontal opposition.

>
>> I haven't given much thought as to the different posting styles, and
>> am not going to enter the debate. But I for one would like to post
>> above the cited text, at least in mail. In the current state of
>> affairs, I cannot do it without modifying gnus' source code.
>
> You're not going to enter the debate, but on the other hand you want it
> to work your way. Sounds kind of self-contradictory to me.

I'm not going to enter the debate of whether top posting or interleave
posting is better. I _am_ trying to discuss whether the option should be
added.

>
> Anyway, I think you could do exactly what you want by adding a hook
> rather than modifying the source code of Gnus.
>
> Perhaps message-setup-hook?

An option already exists, and is perfectly correct, except it's useless
because of limitations.

Therefore, I'm proposing this simple patch. It keeps the "it's evil" bit
in the docstring, it just doesn't make the variable impossible to use.

=== modified file 'lisp/gnus/message.el'                                       
--- lisp/gnus/message.el        2011-02-03 05:26:36 +0000                      
+++ lisp/gnus/message.el	2011-02-03 22:26:18 +0000
@@ -1082,6 +1082,17 @@
   :link '(custom-manual "(message)Insertion Variables")
   :group 'message-insertion)
 
+(defcustom message-cite-reply-above nil
+  "*If non-nil, start own text above the quote.
+
+Note: Top posting is bad netiquette.  Don't use it unless you
+really must.  You probably want to set variable only for specific
+groups, e.g. using `gnus-posting-styles':
+
+  (eval (set (make-local-variable 'message-cite-reply-above) t))"
+  :type 'boolean
+  :group 'message-insertion)
+
 (defcustom message-distribution-function nil
   "*Function called to return a Distribution header."
   :group 'message-news
@@ -3638,17 +3649,6 @@
       (while (re-search-forward citexp nil t)
 	(replace-match (if remove "" "\n"))))))
 
-(defvar message-cite-reply-above nil
-  "If non-nil, start own text above the quote.
-
-Note: Top posting is bad netiquette.  Don't use it unless you
-really must.  You probably want to set variable only for specific
-groups, e.g. using `gnus-posting-styles':
-
-  (eval (set (make-local-variable 'message-cite-reply-above) t))
-
-This variable has no effect in news postings.")
-
 (defun message-yank-original (&optional arg)
   "Insert the message being replied to, if any.
 Puts point before the text and mark after.
@@ -3665,17 +3665,11 @@
     (when (and message-reply-buffer
 	       message-cite-function)
       (when message-cite-reply-above
-	(if (and (not (message-news-p))
-		 (or (eq message-cite-reply-above 'is-evil)
-		     (y-or-n-p "\
-Top posting is bad netiquette.  Please don't top post unless you really must.
-Really top post? ")))
-	    (save-excursion
-	      (setq body-text
-		    (buffer-substring (message-goto-body)
-				      (point-max)))
-	      (delete-region (message-goto-body) (point-max)))
-	  (set (make-local-variable 'message-cite-reply-above) nil)))
+	(save-excursion
+	  (setq body-text
+		(buffer-substring (message-goto-body)
+				  (point-max)))
+	  (delete-region (message-goto-body) (point-max))))
       (if (bufferp message-reply-buffer)
 	  (delete-windows-on message-reply-buffer t))
       (push-mark (save-excursion