Moving mode-line-position before global-mode-string in mode-line-format.

Moving mode-line-position before global-mode-string in mode-line-format.

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

Hi,

What do people think about moving mode-line-position before
global-mode-string in mode-line-format?

global-mode-string can become quite long if there are several modes
running, and this makes the nice and very useful mode-line-position
scroll of to the far right (where it becomes invisible, and useless).

Example, from this:
  -=:**  *mail*            (Message MML Fly Abbrev)--L35--Top------------------
To this:
  -=:**  *mail*          L35--Top--(Message MML Fly Abbrev)--------------------
Or something along those lines...

Cheers,
-- 
Alfred M. Szmidt

Re: Moving mode-line-position before global-mode-string in mode-line-format.

[Robert J. Chassell]

   What do people think about moving mode-line-position before
   global-mode-string in mode-line-format?

Yes, I have done this for some years and like it.  It is a big
improvement.  My current mode line looks like this:


    --:**  *mail*      /home/bob    Line 15  (Mail MC-w Abbrev Fill)  All


(Although it does not particularly matter in a *mail* buffer, I always
include the default-directory in my mode line; otherwise, I get lost
among buffers that are visiting files.  Right now I have 68 buffers,
of which of which 52 are visiting files.  I spell out the word `Line'
because of a personal dislike for the plain `L', even though the plain
`L' does save screen space.)

-- 
    Robert J. Chassell                  bob@rattlesnake.com
    Rattlesnake Enterprises             http://www.rattlesnake.com

Re: Moving mode-line-position before global-mode-string in mode-line-format.

[Miles Bader]

On Thu, Jul 25, 2002 at 06:21:05PM +0200, Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
> What do people think about moving mode-line-position before
> global-mode-string in mode-line-format?

No.

I find the mode information far more important than the line number (the
latter is very rarely useful).

-Miles
-- 
P.S.  All information contained in the above letter is false,
      for reasons of military security.

Re: Moving mode-line-position before global-mode-string in mode-line-format.

[Karl Eichwalder]

Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org> writes:

> No.

Yes, I lke Alfred's proposal.

> I find the mode information far more important than the line number
> (the latter is very rarely useful).

Why?  Line number and percentage info is often important to me.  The
mode info I simply take for granted.

CVS version info does not belong into the mode info parenthesis.  Move
the CVS version info in front of the "L".

-- 
ke@suse.de (work) / keichwa@gmx.net (home):              |
http://www.suse.de/~ke/                                  |      ,__o
Free Translation Project:                                |    _-\_<,
http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/po/HTML/             |   (*)/'(*)

Re: Moving mode-line-position before global-mode-string in mode-line-format.

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

Karl Eichwalder <keichwa@gmx.net> writes:
> CVS version info does not belong into the mode info parenthesis.  Move
> the CVS version info in front of the "L".

Why not just before the major mode?  Like this: ... (CVS:1.04 Emacs-Lisp)
That way it won't scroll of to the far right of the universe. :)

Cheers,
-- 
Alfred M. Szmidt

Re: Moving mode-line-position before global-mode-string in mode-line-format.

[Richard Stallman]

    > CVS version info does not belong into the mode info parenthesis.  Move
    > the CVS version info in front of the "L".

    Why not just before the major mode?  Like this: ... (CVS:1.04 Emacs-Lisp)
    That way it won't scroll of to the far right of the universe. :)

This would mean putting VC info into the mode line in a special place,
rather than treating it as a minor mode.  I'm not against it.

Re: Moving mode-line-position before global-mode-string in mode-line-format.

[Simon Josefsson]

Karl Eichwalder <keichwa@gmx.net> writes:

>> I find the mode information far more important than the line number
>> (the latter is very rarely useful).
>
> Why?  Line number and percentage info is often important to me.  The
> mode info I simply take for granted.

Same here, the mode follows from what I'm doing in the buffer, and the
filename.  I rarely even look at the CVS minor mode indicator, I know
that I'm editing files under VC, and if I need to look at the revision
info, I usually need C-x v l or something similar anyway.

On a side note, the mode line indicators when using Gnus is utterly
useless, I know I'm using Gnus by looking at the buffer.

Re: Moving mode-line-position before global-mode-string in mode-line-format.

[Richard Stallman]

    global-mode-string can become quite long if there are several modes
    running, and this makes the nice and very useful mode-line-position
    scroll of to the far right (where it becomes invisible, and useless).

This might be a good idea.  I think it would call for some other small
redesign so as to make it look good.  Does anyone want to give it a
try?

Re: Moving mode-line-position before global-mode-string in mode-line-format.

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:
>     global-mode-string can become quite long if there are several modes
>     running, and this makes the nice and very useful mode-line-position
>     scroll of to the far right (where it becomes invisible, and useless).
> 
> This might be a good idea.  I think it would call for some other small
> redesign so as to make it look good.  Does anyone want to give it a
> try?

What about something like this?  I think that it looks quite good.
Are there any other files that need to be modified?

It looks something like this:
--:%*  *vc-diff*     L0 Bot    (Diff from bindings.el)------------------------

--- bindings.el.~1.104.~	2002-07-23 19:51:15.000000000 +0200
+++ bindings.el	2002-07-26 17:53:25.000000000 +0200
@@ -248,10 +248,10 @@
      'mode-line-frame-identification
      'mode-line-buffer-identification
      (propertize "   " 'help-echo help-echo)
+     'mode-line-position
      'global-mode-string
      'mode-line-modes
      `(which-func-mode ("" which-func-format ,dashes))
-     'mode-line-position
      (propertize "-%-" 'help-echo help-echo)))
 
   (setq-default mode-line-modes
@@ -266,8 +266,8 @@
      (propertize ")%]--" 'help-echo help-echo)))
 
   (setq-default mode-line-position
-    `((line-number-mode (,(propertize "L%l" 'help-echo help-echo) ,dashes))
-      (column-number-mode (,(propertize "C%c" 'help-echo help-echo) ,dashes))
+    `((line-number-mode (,(propertize "L%l" 'help-echo help-echo) " "))
+      (column-number-mode (,(propertize "C%c" 'help-echo help-echo) " "))
       (-3 . ,(propertize "%p" 'help-echo help-echo)))))
 
 (defvar mode-line-buffer-identification-keymap nil "\


-- 
Alfred M. Szmidt

Re: Moving mode-line-position before global-mode-string in mode-line-format.

[Richard Stallman]

Thanks for the patch.  I will try it out and maybe install it.