Re: RFC: status icon support again

[YAMAMOTO Mitsuharu <mituharu@math.s.chiba-u.ac.jp>]

>>>>> On Sun, 03 Feb 2008 00:35:37 -0700, Tom Tromey <tromey@redhat.com> said:

>>> Another benefit of the use of keymaps is that it makes easier to
>>> move between status icons from/to tool bar icons (and possibly
>>> also between menu bar items?), in the case that the use of either
>>> is impossible/inappropriate.

> In my view toolbars and the status area are very different; though
> it is true that there is some overlap between them.

I can imagine that they are usually used for different purposes.
Nevertheless I think they are very similar in attributes they have and
functionality they provide.

> In an earlier message you mentioned toolbars being integrated into
> redisplay.  This was one disconnect for me -- I don't see how, or
> why, we would want to integrate status icons into redisplay.  They
> are not connected to a frame at all.

I can't say users never want to make changes to some attributes of
status icons depending on the frame.

>>> I think user-configurable event dispatcher tables should always be
>>> implemented as keymaps unless there are strong reasons to avoid
>>> them.

> May I ask why?

I think the reason is rather apparent.  That provides uniform
interface to elisp programmers and they can use existing keymap
functions to manipulate those tables.

> I have basically two reasons for the approach I have taken.

> First, it is simple and easy to understand.  In Gtk, a status icon
> only has two possible events; using a keymap for this seemed like
> overkill.

Are you possibly thinking about using one keymap per one status icon?
It's natural to use one keymap for the set of all status icons, just
as in tool bar keymaps.

> Second, unlike the keymap idea, I knew how to implement it this way.
> I suppose ignorance is no excuse, though.

Generally speaking, I don't think it's a good idea to add a new
feature that is implemented without understanding how the existing
related/similar features are implemented in the target application.

				     YAMAMOTO Mitsuharu
				mituharu@math.s.chiba-u.ac.jp