Re: Emacs26: Quick thoughts on display-line-numbers-mode

[Robert Weiner <rsw@gnu.org>]

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On Thu, Oct 5, 2017 at 3:02 PM, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:

>
> linum-mode displays line numbers in the left display margin.  I think
> usurping the display margins for a display-related feature as popular
> as line numbers is a bad idea, because it clashes with other
> specialized features which want to use the margins, so I explicitly
> coded the native line-number display not to do that.  Therefore, I
> will object to having this new display on the display margins, even as
> an option.
>

​Ok.
​

> ​​
>
> ​​
> Separation between the numbers and the text is still kept, by means of
> ​​
> a white-space glyph.
>

​So could you add a customization option for this glyph that would provide
some visual separation, e.g. a hairline or something similar to the visual
linum-mode provides?

​​
>
> ​​
> > Then linum-mode should be removed (maybe add an alias) so there is no
> confusion as to which mode should
> ​​
> > be used.
> ​​
>
> ​​
> I'm waiting for the pretests and the feedback we get to see if this
> ​​
> can be done.  It's possible that in some rare situations the new mode
> ​​
> will be inconvenient or unable to support.  If no such reports come
> ​​
> in, we will indeed retire linum-mode when Emacs 26.1 is released.
>

​Ok.​

​​
> > 2. The mode-line popup menu that displays/hides line and col numbers in
> the mode=line could be expanded to
> ​​
> > toggle this mode on and off locally and globally, as well as providing
> options for its various display settings:
> ​​
> > relative, visual and absolute.
> ​​
>
> ​​
> I'm not sure I agree.  The mode-line menu is for displays on the mode
> ​​
> line.  The display-line-numbers-mode and its variants can be turned on
> ​​
> or off from the menu bar's Options menu.
>
​
I see your point but do think in practice a lot of people would look to the
mode-line menu if they could.  Also, having all the options in one place
would let people decide which to use at any given point without hunting
around.  I know I look at mode-lines a lot more than the menubar.  It would
also force a cleanup of the menu item naming so that it was obvious where
each option will display its numbers.

​Bob
​

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