display-time-mode in menu bar.

display-time-mode in menu bar.

[Luc Teirlinck]

I believe that the menu item text and the help echo for the item on
the Show/Hide menubar menu that toggles Display Time mode is wrong.
The current text says: "Date, Time and Mail".  However, do
`emacs -q' and then enable the item using the menubar.  No date is shown,
but if your load average is big enough, it will display the load
average.  Enabling `display-time-mode' will, as the docstring of the
function says, show the date in the modeline if and only if
`display-time-day-and-date' is non-nil.  But the default value of
that option is nil, so the menubar docs should not assume that it is
non-nil.

What about the patch below, which I can install if desired.

===File ~/menu-bar-diff=====================================
*** menu-bar.el	09 Aug 2005 17:46:45 -0500	1.266
--- menu-bar.el	09 Aug 2005 19:55:03 -0500	
***************
*** 708,715 ****
  
  (define-key menu-bar-showhide-menu [showhide-date-time]
    (menu-bar-make-mm-toggle display-time-mode
! 			   "Date, Time and Mail"
! 			   "Display date, time, mail status in mode line"))
  
  (define-key menu-bar-showhide-menu [datetime-separator]
    '("--"))
--- 708,716 ----
  
  (define-key menu-bar-showhide-menu [showhide-date-time]
    (menu-bar-make-mm-toggle display-time-mode
! 			   "Time, Load Averages and Mail"
! 			   "Display time, system load averages and \
! mail status in mode line"))
  
  (define-key menu-bar-showhide-menu [datetime-separator]
    '("--"))
============================================================

Re: display-time-mode in menu bar.

[Juri Linkov]

> I believe that the menu item text and the help echo for the item on
> the Show/Hide menubar menu that toggles Display Time mode is wrong.
> The current text says: "Date, Time and Mail".  However, do
> `emacs -q' and then enable the item using the menubar.  No date is shown,
> but if your load average is big enough, it will display the load
> average.  Enabling `display-time-mode' will, as the docstring of the
> function says, show the date in the modeline if and only if
> `display-time-day-and-date' is non-nil.  But the default value of
> that option is nil, so the menubar docs should not assume that it is
> non-nil.

Perhaps what is wrong here is the conjunction `and'.  It implies that
all these things are displayed simultaneously what is rarely true.
Better would be to list all possible things, that can be displayed
in the modeline, with the conjunction `or'.

> What about the patch below, which I can install if desired.
>
>   (define-key menu-bar-showhide-menu [showhide-date-time]
>     (menu-bar-make-mm-toggle display-time-mode
> ! 			   "Time, Load Averages and Mail"

This menu item is too wide.

A more shorter and still understandable menu item is:

    			   "Time, Load and Mail"

or with `or':

    			   "Time, Date, Load or Mail"

> ! 			   "Display time, system load averages and \
> ! mail status in mode line"))

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

Re: display-time-mode in menu bar.

[Luc Teirlinck]

Juri Linkov wrote:

   Perhaps what is wrong here is the conjunction `and'.  It implies that
   all these things are displayed simultaneously what is rarely true.

The time is always displayed.  I believe that the fact that "Mail" is
not displayed if there is no mail is obvious to the user.  The fact
that the load is not displayed if there is no non-negligible load is
probably not that surprising to the user either.  However the date is
never displayed unless you set an option non-nil that is nil by
default.  The load is actually not displayed if you customize another
option away from its default.  But what my patch does is adapt the
menu bar doc to the default settings.  It describes what the user will
see if he only customizes Emacs through the menu bar.

   A more shorter and still understandable menu item is:

			      "Time, Load and Mail"

   or with `or':

			      "Time, Date, Load or Mail"

I prefer "Time, Load and Mail".

"Date" can only displayed if the user uses Custom or .emacs for
customization, in which case he probably would customize
display-time-mode the same way.  Moreover, "Date" can be thought of as
an optional component of "Time", anyway.

Sincerely,

Luc.

Re: display-time-mode in menu bar.

[Juri Linkov]

> I prefer "Time, Load and Mail".
>
> "Date" can only displayed if the user uses Custom or .emacs for
> customization, in which case he probably would customize
> display-time-mode the same way.  Moreover, "Date" can be thought of as
> an optional component of "Time", anyway.

Ok, I agree.

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