defType argument weirdness

[Naomi Dushay]

I found a weird behavior with the Solr  defType argument, perhaps with  
respect to default queries?

 defType=dismax&q=*:*      no hits
 q={!defType=dismax}*:*     hits

 defType=dismax         hits


Here is the request handler, which I explicitly indicate:

<requestHandler name="search" class="solr.SearchHandler" default="true">
        <lst name="defaults">
                <str name="defType">lucene</str>

                <!-- lucene params -->
                <str name="df">has_model_s</str>
                <str name="q.op">AND</str>

                <!-- dismax params -->
                <str name="mm"> 2<-1 5<-2 6<90% </str>
                <str name="q.alt">*:*</str>
		<str name="qf_dismax">id^0.8 id_t^0.8 title_t^0.3 mods_t^0.2 text</ 
str>
		<str name="pf_dismax">id^0.9  id_t^0.9 title_t^0.5 mods_t^0.2 text</ 
str>
                <int name="ps">100</int>
                <float name="tie">0.01</float>
</requestHandler>


Solr Specification Version: 1.4.0
Solr Implementation Version: 1.4.0 833479 - grantingersoll -  
2009-11-06 12:33:40
Lucene Specification Version: 2.9.1
Lucene Implementation Version: 2.9.1 832363 - 2009-11-03 04:37:25

- Naomi