From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Lennart Borgman (gmail)" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: More visible mini-buffer prompt face Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 22:47:10 +0100 Message-ID: <45DF60DE.70201@gmail.com> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1172267256 32622 80.91.229.12 (23 Feb 2007 21:47:36 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 21:47:36 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Drew Adams Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Feb 23 22:47:30 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1HKiGG-0005JG-FM for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 23 Feb 2007 22:47:28 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1HKiGG-0003ZI-41 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 23 Feb 2007 16:47:28 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1HKiG4-0003Yh-0Z for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 23 Feb 2007 16:47:16 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1HKiG2-0003Y2-7m for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 23 Feb 2007 16:47:15 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1HKiG2-0003Xz-2S for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 23 Feb 2007 16:47:14 -0500 Original-Received: from ch-smtp02.sth.basefarm.net ([80.76.149.213]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA:32) (Exim 4.52) id 1HKiG1-0000T2-Hh for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 23 Feb 2007 16:47:13 -0500 Original-Received: from c83-254-145-24.bredband.comhem.se ([83.254.145.24]:64527 helo=[127.0.0.1]) by ch-smtp02.sth.basefarm.net with esmtp (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1HKiFz-0007dn-6X; Fri, 23 Feb 2007 22:47:11 +0100 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.9) Gecko/20061207 Thunderbird/1.5.0.9 Mnenhy/0.7.4.666 In-Reply-To: X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS 000716-3, 2007-02-23), Outbound message X-Antivirus-Status: Clean X-Scan-Result: No virus found in message 1HKiFz-0007dn-6X. X-Scan-Signature: ch-smtp02.sth.basefarm.net 1HKiFz-0007dn-6X 50e614bdb4969af11e6c7ece5ed89da8 X-detected-kernel: Linux 2.6? (barebone, rare!) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:66707 Archived-At: Drew Adams wrote: >> I wonder if it would not be better to have a more visible >> face for the minibuffer prompt by default. My suggestion >> would be using a visible background color (some not too >> sharp yellow perhaps). >> >> What color do you get now? >> Which of the options in the defface is being used? >> Could you propose a patch in that defface? Thanks for constructive feedback. > I see no reason for the prompt to stand out more, and changing the > background color is a bad idea, IMO. Background colors are often used to > highlight particular sections of text, not just to present normal text. Why > should a normal _prompt_ stand out especially? Because it needs the user attention. > If your code pops up menus that attract the user away from the minibuffer, > and then you expect the user to notice a minibuffer prompt that you issue, > then why not make the minibuffer prompt stand out more _in your code_? This > sounds like a UI (dialog) problem in your code, not a problem with the > default Emacs minibuffer prompt face. That is a good point. However I believe it is not just in the case of my code. The same problem appears in other cases within Emacs IMO. > In general, minibuffer prompts appear when the user expects them; in fact, > they are usually initiated by the user. I believe at least a new user does not expect the prompt sometimes. The reason for this is of course that the Emacs UI is different from w > A normal prompt should not especially stand out; Why not? > Your point about error messages is different (independent). In that case, > the user might not expect to see stuff appear in the echo area, so you might > want to attract attention to it. Nothing prevents particular code from > applying text properties to messages in the echo area. I believe I did that before when using (message ...). However now it does not seem to work. Can you do it? > That too is best left > up to the particular application, IMO. The default message face should not > stand out. Yes, but I was talking about error messages.