bug#26105: Group parameters can't set non-list values

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Tim Landscheidt <tim@tim-landscheidt.de> writes:

> |    We see that each element consists of a “dotted pair”—the thing before
> | the dot is the key, while the thing after the dot is the value.  All the
> | parameters have this form _except_ local variable specs, which are not
> | dotted pairs, but proper lists.
>
> IMHO this behaviour is surprising and makes customizing non-
> list variables for groups unnecessarily complicated; it
> should be changed so that all values can be set.
>
> If Gnus differentiates between two types of parameters as
> the info suggests, IMHO this would be better done by compar-
> ing (car elem) to a white-list of parameters to be treated
> differently.

Yeah, but changing this would break the parameters that people may be
using.  If we remove the distinction between parameters and local
variables, then things will break for users.

I agree that the current state isn't optimal, but I don't see any way to
fix this in an intuitive and backwards-compatible way.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no