article-mode and 'gnus-summary-put-mark-as-expirable-next

[Giorgos Keramidas]

Hi everyone,

I tried swapping the `e' and `E' keys in summary and article mode
today.  The main reason is I find it harder to type `Shift-e' all the
time on my laptop, and I expire articles far more often than I edit
their text.

My first attempt was:

  (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'keramida-alter-summary-map)
  (add-hook 'gnus-article-prepare-hook 'keramida-alter-summary-map)
  (defun keramida-alter-summary-map ()
    (local-set-key "e" 'gnus-summary-put-mark-as-expirable-next)
    (local-set-key "E" 'gnus-summary-edit-article))

but then I found out that 'e' doesn't work in an *Article* buffer,
producing the message:

  This command can only be used in the summary buffer

Changing the first `local-set-key' to

  (local-set-key "e" "MMen")

works fine, though.

I can definitely keep "MMen" in my local keymap, but I was wondering why
`gnus-summary-put-mark-as-expirable-next' doesn't work where "MMen" does.

The definition of `gnus-summary-put-mark-as-expirable-next' seems to be
produced by `gnus-summary-make-marking-command-1', and I can see where
the warning about summary mode comes from, near the start of the generic
`gnus-summary-generic-mark' functio:

  (defun gnus-summary-generic-mark (n mark move unread)
    "Mark N articles with MARK."
    (unless (eq major-mode 'gnus-summary-mode)
      (error "This command can only be used in the summary buffer"))
    ...)

If calling `gnus-summary-put-mark-as-expirable-next' is not really
possible from a hook in article-mode, what would be a good way of
writing a hook that can work in both summary-mode and article-mode?

Thanks in advance for any help,
Giorgos