From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.bugs Subject: bug#4833: 23.1; Mode line is not ergonomic and not easily customizable Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:09:52 +0200 Message-ID: <83r5skex4v.fsf@gnu.org> Reply-To: Eli Zaretskii , 4833@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1256916880 21949 80.91.229.12 (30 Oct 2009 15:34:40 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:34:40 +0000 (UTC) To: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Oct 30 16:34:33 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1N3tUd-0004QU-37 for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:34:23 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:37260 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1N3tUc-0001YF-FR for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:34:22 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1N3tNr-000442-58 for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:27:23 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1N3tNn-0003yY-5v for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:27:22 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=40919 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1N3tNm-0003yQ-Nh for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:27:18 -0400 Original-Received: from rzlab.ucr.edu ([138.23.92.77]:47581) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1N3tNm-0003bW-5f for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:27:18 -0400 Original-Received: from rzlab.ucr.edu (rzlab.ucr.edu [127.0.0.1]) by rzlab.ucr.edu (8.14.3/8.14.3/Debian-5) with ESMTP id n9UFREV2009194; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:27:14 -0700 Original-Received: (from debbugs@localhost) by rzlab.ucr.edu (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) id n9UFK45h008462; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:20:04 -0700 Resent-Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:20:04 -0700 X-Loop: owner@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com Resent-From: Eli Zaretskii Resent-To: bug-submit-list@donarmstrong.com Resent-CC: Emacs Bugs 2Resent-Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:20:04 +0000 Resent-Message-ID: Resent-Sender: owner@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com X-Emacs-PR-Message: report 4833 X-Emacs-PR-Package: emacs X-Emacs-PR-Keywords: Original-Received: via spool by submit@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com id=B.12569154067603 (code B ref -1); Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:20:04 +0000 Original-Received: (at submit) by emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com; 30 Oct 2009 15:10:06 +0000 X-Spam-Bayes: score:0.5 Bayes not run. spammytokens:Tokens not available. hammytokens:Tokens not available. Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org (lists.gnu.org [199.232.76.165]) by rzlab.ucr.edu (8.14.3/8.14.3/Debian-5) with ESMTP id n9UFA4ws007575 for ; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:10:05 -0700 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1N3t75-0007Q9-NJ for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:10:03 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1N3t71-0007Ms-Cc for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:10:03 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=58103 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1N3t70-0007Mg-OK for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:09:58 -0400 Original-Received: from mtaout23.012.net.il ([80.179.55.175]:62320) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1N3t70-0000Qa-6p for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:09:58 -0400 Original-Received: from conversion-daemon.a-mtaout23.012.net.il by a-mtaout23.012.net.il (HyperSendmail v2007.08) id <0KSC004001U0E600@a-mtaout23.012.net.il> for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:09:48 +0200 (IST) Original-Received: from HOME-C4E4A596F7 ([84.228.131.95]) by a-mtaout23.012.net.il (HyperSendmail v2007.08) with ESMTPA id <0KSC000XM247T0A0@a-mtaout23.012.net.il> for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:09:44 +0200 (IST) X-012-Sender: halo1@inter.net.il X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: Solaris 10 (beta) X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 2) Resent-Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:27:22 -0400 X-BeenThere: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.bugs:32291 Archived-At: Please make the mode-line display more ergonomic and more easily customizable. I frequently find myself in a situation where the information that's important to me is pushed beyond the right edge of the mode line, and is thus invisible. Annoyingly, a large part of the real estate of the mode line is taken by information that is much less important, like the percentage of the file before the window start and the list of minor modes in effect. The latter, for example, is quite static in any given buffer, so once you saw it for the first time, there's no need to continue showing it in such a central place. However, even in a C buffer, the mode shown is "C/l Abbrev", which is quite long. And when I read mail, I see something like "RMAIL XXXX/YYYY answered, deleted"; when replying to mail it's "Mail Fly Abbrev Fill", etc. These are very long strings that I don't need to see all the time, because they almost never change. But they steal too much precious space. By contrast, dynamic information such as the current time, the system load, the battery condition, the mail indicator, the current function (when in which-func-mode), etc. -- these are banished off the edge of the mode line, and cannot be consulted. This effectively makes these features unavailable, unless one is willing to make her frames unreasonably wide or even full-screen. I consider this a bad misfeature. What's more, modifying what's in the mode line is not an easy task (unless I'm missing something): it boils down to reading bindings.el and manually setting various parts of standard-mode-line-* variables to remove or rearrange what is shown. In GNU Emacs 23.1.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600) of 2009-07-31 on HOME-C4E4A596F7 Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 5.1.2600 configured using `configure --with-gcc (3.4)' Important settings: value of $LC_ALL: nil value of $LC_COLLATE: nil value of $LC_CTYPE: nil value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil value of $LC_MONETARY: nil value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil value of $LC_TIME: nil value of $LANG: ENU value of $XMODIFIERS: nil locale-coding-system: cp1255 default-enable-multibyte-characters: t Major mode: RMAIL Minor modes in effect: shell-dirtrack-mode: t desktop-save-mode: t show-paren-mode: t display-time-mode: t tooltip-mode: t tool-bar-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t blink-cursor-mode: t global-auto-composition-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t temp-buffer-resize-mode: t line-number-mode: t Recent input: . , SPC u n l e s s SPC o n e SPC i s SPC w i l l i n g SPC t o SPC m a k e SPC h e r SPC f r a m e s SPC u n r e a s o n a b l y SPC w i d e SPC o r e SPC SPC e v e n SPC f u l l - s c r e e n M-q C-c C-s M-1 g d n d SPC SPC d SPC SPC d C-x C-s M-n M-1 g n d d d t SPC t SPC d SPC d SPC SPC d d SPC SPC d d SPC SPC M-z M-z SPC SPC SPC SPC SPC SPC SPC C-r s o u r c e f C-x C-x M-n M-p d C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-x l C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z C-z n d d d d p M-x r e p o r t - e m a Recent messages: Getting mail from d:/usr/eli/data/mail.new... Counting new messages...done (16) Saving file d:/usr/eli/rmail/INBOX... Wrote d:/usr/eli/rmail/INBOX Computing summary lines...done 16 new messages read call-interactively: End of buffer [2 times] Mark saved where search started Page has 89 lines (9 + 80) No following nondeleted message