The absolute positions of the fields are extremely different from mode
to mode -- in the first one, the name takes half the space, and in the
other one, everything starts a lot nearer to the left.

So I don't see how we could practically define a fixed-width field mode
line: The mode line formats are pretty different between modes and users
and how you combine different things.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no