Re: Proportional fonts in the mode line (one month test)

[Jim Porter <jporterbugs@gmail.com>]

On 11/25/2021 5:29 AM, Lars Ingebrigtsen wrote:
> Jim Porter <jporterbugs@gmail.com> writes:
> 
>> Yeah, if nothing else, the U:--- thing (I'm sure it has an actual
>> name...) should be fixed-width. See the attached image for how tiny
>> the CR/LF toggle is now. It's highlighted with the box just after the
>> U.
> 
> Yes, that should be fixed.  Hm...  We could use m-dashes instead of
> hyphens, I guess?  It'd be more work to have a different definition on
> GUI and TUI, though.

That might help, but is there also a "wide colon" character we could use 
for the CR/LF indicator?

There's a further problem I've noticed with using variable-width fonts 
here though: suppose I want to toggle the "buffer modified" state but 
then change my mind and want to undo it. Normally, I'd just click the 
second hyphen, and then click again to toggle back to "unmodified". 
However, with variable-width fonts, the "*" is typically wider than the 
"-". Depending on the font and where exactly I place my mouse cursor, 
it's possible for me to click on the second hyphen to set the buffer as 
modified, which changes the "read only" indicator to a "*" as well, 
shifting everything to the right slightly so that now, even though my 
mouse hasn't moved, it's hovering over the "read only" indicator. Thus, 
I can't just click again to reset to "unmodified". I'd have to move my 
mouse cursor slightly to the right and *then* click.

Even more confusingly, if I don't move the mouse after clicking on the 
"buffer modified" indicator, Emacs still shows the box around *that* 
indicator, despite the fact that when I click, it will actually toggle 
the "read only" indicator.

- Jim