🚀 go-pugleaf

[I've added gnu.emacs.help to this thread, since my replies
apply to rnews as well as to gnus.]

>> [Suggestion One]  I would like to have a variable which
>> changes [gnus'] behavior to that of elm; the signature is
>> appended automatically before I start to write the article.

=+= This can be done in both gnus and rnewspost by setting the
news-setup-hook variable.  Here's an example (which will only
insert signature files for gnus, but won't break rnewspost):

=============8<=============Cut-Here=============8<=============
(setq news-setup-hook
  (function
    (lambda ()
      (let ((sigfile
             (nth 1 (assoc (eval (make-local-variable
	     'gnus-newsgroup-name))
                           '(("alt.angst" "angst.sig")
                             ("alt.tv.simpsons" "hell.sig")
                             ("rec.arts.comics.misc"
			     "moore.sig")
                             ("rec.arts.comics.strips"
			     "hobbes.sig") )))))
        (if (stringp sigfile)
            (progn
              (goto-char (point-max))
              (insert "--\n")
              (insert-file (concat "~/" (eval sigfile))) )) ))))
=============>8=============Cut-Here=============>8=============

=+= A few notes:

  o The above code actually selects from a number of signature
    files, each tailored to specific newsgroups.  If you want to
    insert just one file, unconditionally, something like this
    would suffice:

      (goto-char (point-max)
      (insert "--\n")
      (insert-file "~/.signature")

  o The mucking about with (eval) and (make-local-variable) is
    because rnews doesn't know the gnus-newsgroup-name variable.

  o Unfortunately, you're always going to be left with your
    cursor set *after* the signature, because the function
    that runs this hook always does a (goto-char (point-max))
    afterwards.  This can't be fixed without changing the
    rnewspost.el file in the Emacs lisp library.

>> [Suggestion Two]  It would be nice to have an easy way to
>> make emacs toggle into auto-fill-mode when starting to write
>> on an article . . .

=+= For this you use the news-reply-mode-hook variable.  Here's
how mine is set:

=============8<=============Cut-Here=============8<=============
(setq news-reply-mode-hook
  (function
   (lambda ()
     (auto-fill-mode 1) )))
=============>8=============Cut-Here=============>8=============

Setting text-mode-hook to the same value will have the same
effect.

=+= If you don't like the default value of the fill column,
you can't change it everywhere just by changing the value of
the fill-column variable.  This variable "automatically becomes
local when set in any fashion."  If you want to set it to
another value, you need to use (setq-default):

=============8<=============Cut-Here=============8<=============
(setq-default fill-column 64)
=============>8=============Cut-Here=============>8=============

> If you do do this I've found my subject and other header lines
> can get filled with bad (illegal header) results when you
> modify them.

=+= This is a hassle, but on balance I find it easier to fix
those header lines by hand than to fill the text by hand.
    <_Jym_>