Re: emacs mode line suggestions

[Xah <xahlee@gmail.com>]

On Nov 16, 10:12 am, Ian Eure <i...@digg.com> wrote:
> > Counting emacs's own buffers, those info, messages, scratch,
> > completions, grep output, shell output, C-h f and friends output,
> > dictionary lookup output, ispell output, man page output ... etc...
> > these are typically looked once and not useful afterwards. Switching
> > and cycling thru them are not much useful.
>
> I basically agree with this stuff. I doubt many hardcore Emacs users
> choose to switch buffers this way, which requires using the mouse. And
> the part of the behavior that is least useful is that the switch is
> blind - you don't know what buffer you're going to get unless you know
> the current state of the buffer-list.
>
> My objection is to the idea that you don't want star buffers in the
> list. These are also used for interaction with external processes:
> *ssh: host*, *SQL: foo*, *Twit-recent*, *compilation*, *shell*,
> *Python*. It seems ill advised to exclude those from the list.

what's *Twit-recent*?

anyhow, you are right that including them would be good too.

> > • Minor mode should not be displayed in mode line. It's confusing. For
> > one reason, it by default selectively display only some of the minor
> > modes currently on, and the selective process is not something people
> > who intuitively understands. For the other reason, Emacs's technical
> > concept of Minor mode is somewhat confusing. Most minor modes in
> > practice are Preferences settings (Mac-speak) or Options (Windows-
> > speak and Linux Desktops) from user point of view.
>
> Where would you suggest showing this information? Some minor modes
> change Emacs' behavior significantly. For example: auto-fill-mode or
> abbrev-mode. If these aren't in the mode line, where do you find this
> information?

perhaps in the Options menu.

> >>> • Clicking on the major mode name should pop up a contextual menu to
> >>> let user switch to major major modes.
>
> >> Switching a major mode is a very rare command, so having this at your
> >> fingertips makes no sense, IMO.
>
> > switching between modes is not rarely used. I'd estimate it is used
> > every other hour at least.
>
> Can you describe the use case where you do this? It sounds like you
> have a configuration issue, honestly.
>
> I think the only time I manually switch modes is when I need to use
> *scratch* for something, e.g. I'll switch to emacs-lisp-mode if I want
> to eval some code, sql-mode if I want to write a query, etc.

same here.

switching to the right mode is often needed for those who uses
*scratch* or creating a new file Ctrl+x Ctrl+f, or new buffer.

in almost all modern editors, there are menu to switch to the rigth
language mode. Providing a menu probably ease up learning curve for
new users. (note that in Aquamacs this is done.) I think it is a
frequently requested feature. A new user, who are not yet familiar
with emacs M-x command and common mode names, has no way to know how
to switch mode or what are available.

  Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

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