Re: Customizing faces with `defcustom'

[Juri Linkov <juri@jurta.org>]

>     mode-line-mule-info variable - mode-line-mule face
>     mode-line-modified variable - mode-line-modified face
>     mode-line-frame-identification variable - mode-line-frame face
>     mode-line-position variable - mode-line-position face
>
> It is logical, but far too complicated, and not worth it.  I would
> rather have just the one face, called mode-line-emphasis or
> mode-line-location or mode-line-subject-matter, and use that for the
> buffer name and the info node name, and for any other similar thing.

I think using one face for different parts of the mode line is not
useful.  Users might want to highlight the buffer name and the info
node name with different faces.  There are already several faces for
highlighting different parts of the Info header line (`info-header-node',
`info-header-xref'), so it should be natural to add a new Info face for
the node name in the mode line.

Since part of the mode line highlighted currently in bold is clearly
associated with the buffer name (it even has a keymap for switching the
buffer), a good face name should have the word `buffer' in its name.  Any
other name would be not intuitive and even useless for other parts of
the mode line since it won't allow highlighting other parts in different
faces.

In the previous messages you said that `mode-line-buffer' is a good name
for a face used only to highlight buffer names.  So let's add this face
and also `info-mode-line-node' which by default will inherit from
`mode-line-buffer'.

BTW, while looking at `mode-line-buffer-identification-keymap', I noticed
that currently it is broken due to the recent changes in `last-buffer' which
now uses a new frame parameter `buried-buffer-list'.  This means that
mouse-1 clicked on the buffer name in the mode line uses the buffer list
from the frame parameter `buried-buffer-list', but mouse-3 uses `bury-buffer'
to put the buffer to the bottom of the global buffer list.  Either both
mouse-1 and mouse-3 should use the frame-local buffer list or the global
buffer list.  I'm not sure which is better.  Since `previous-buffer' and
`next-buffer' (that use the frame-local buffer list) currently are unfinished
(they require more changes in C after the release) they don't work reliably,
so maybe mouse-1 and mouse-3 in the mode line should use the global buffer
list.  Even though it is not convenient, it exhibits predictable behavior.

-- 
Juri Linkov
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/