Message feature requests and gnus elisp query

[dubach1@husc.harvard.edu (Joev Dubach)]

[Note: I'm a bit behind the times with Gnus 5.2.25, so the correct
response to my requests might be "Upgrade, dummy."  Which would be
cheerfully accepted. :) ]

It'd be nice if more of the syntax checks performed on news messages
were also performed on mail messages; e.g. checking for lines > 79
characters, multiple identical headers.

It'd be nice if there were a message-news-courtesy-message variable
available that would be inserted in the news version of a message sent
both through news and mail; sometimes, it's possible for the primary
recipient to be the mail recipient (who shouldn't have a
courtesy-message inserted), and the secondary recipient be the news
recipient (who should).  E.g. when I make requests of the system
administrator, I sometimes simultaneously post to harvard.hascs (the
local newsgroup devoted to system issues) to let people know that
they're not alone in seeing a problem, and that I've already sent info
about it to the manager, so they needn't do so as well.

One thing I'm confused about how to do effectively is to disable the
message-courtesy-message temporarily for a given message via elisp.
E.g. if I've got a bit of elisp like this:

(defun my-reply-mainly-mail-also-news ()
  "Compose mail that can also be news, but which won't have a courtesy
message in the mail version."
  (interactive)
  (gnus-summary-reply)
  (setq message-courtesy-message ""))

...how can I make it so the setting of message-courtesy-message only
has effect for the duration of this message (but lasts long enough to
actually have an effect), and also so that it won't have an effect on
other messages composed and sent while this one is in progress?

Thanks.

Joev                            <URL:"http://www.math.harvard.edu/~joev/">

  "Eh, this junk was hardly worth getting up for.  Maybe if I go back
   to sleep for a few days, some good mail will build up!"
          -- Grampa, the Simpsons