bug#53776: Modeline indicator when using define-minor-mode

[goncholden via "Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors" <bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>]

------- Original Message -------

On Sunday, February 6th, 2022 at 3:39 AM, Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen@web.de> wrote:

> Stephen Berman stephen.berman@gmx.net writes:
>
> > > Because one can easily add minor-modes that exceed the mode-line
> > > mini-buffer,
> > > is there
> > > the capability of making a hierarchical modeline indicator.

> > > e.g.
> > > Emacs-Lisp
> > > company
> > > Outl
> > > Gon -> rich
> > > -> gudin
> > > -> cholden
> >
> > That would appear to require a multiline mode line, which is not
> > possible with the current implementation.
>
> Maybe goncholden wants to visualize alternative "submodes". That's
> possible: the :lighter can be any modeline construct so you can do
> anything here the modeline supports, e.g. using :eval. See the
> definition of `emacs-lock-mode' for an example.

It is quite easy to have many minor-modes, and would be good to see them categorised,
perhaps in some kind of menu.  Been directed to minions, but would be great if emacs
has such functionality built-in.  I am ending with too many minor-modes being activated.

> > An alternative, which might be easier to implement (for someone who
> > knows how, not me), would be to make the mode line horizontally
> > scrollable. But maybe that's not so easy, since it seems so obviously
> > useful, yet hasn't been implemented.
>
> It's not hard to achieve, no. But it replaces something that is too
> crowded to be useful with something scrollable that is too crowded to be
> useful. I tried it once and was very disappointed - a modeline you need
> to scroll to see everything is worse than using a help command like C-h
> m.
>
> There are better alternatives: The more you use Emacs, the more the
> minor modes you use don't change any more. Better choose one of the
> available ways to make the mode indicator less longish in appearance.
>
> Michael.