Re: on Good Net-Keeping Seal

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@ifi.uio.no>]

Hallvard B Furuseth <h.b.furuseth@usit.uio.no> writes:

> - Strive for a distinction between between "novice" and "expert" config
>   variables.  It should be difficult or impossible to diddle a "novice"
>   config variable so that Gnus can post illegal articles.

Isn't that something that's rather difficult to achieve?  
`(setq user-mail-address "god@heaven.org")'?  

Ok, that wouldn't result in an illegal article, just a somewhat
annoying article.  

>   So you might have a variable with the list of headers that are always
>   inserted and/or verified *in addition* to the standard ones, but
>   if you want to remove/deform a standard header you must go via
>   an "advanced" variable, a hook or an fset.

Hm.  Aren't the header generation variables rather "advanced" already,
in a way?  `message-required-news-headers' does the insertion while
`message-header-syntax-checks' does the checking...  

I agree with you in principle (I think), but do you have any specific
examples?

> - Error messages should either contain enough help to let a novice
>   correct the error, or it should tell him where to read about how to
>   fix it.
> 
>   Error messages that refer to other text, could be put in a separate
>   info file, and the message would pop up in a new Info buffer, with
>   menu entries pointing to further reading. 

That's a very good idea.  Definitely.  So if the From header is
totally invalid, an info node explaining how the From header should
look like is popped up with plenty of references to documentation on
the relevant variables.  Sounds like quite a lot of writing, though.

-- 
  "Yes.  The journey through the human heart 
     would have to wait until some other time."