bug#34476: fluffy whitespace in the mode-line, despite it running off the screen

["Basil L. Contovounesios" <contovob@tcd.ie>]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org> writes:
>
>> Here we see gnus still has fluffy whitespace in the mode-line,
>> despite it running off the side of the screen.
>
> [...]
>
>> In such cases all whitespace should be compacted more...
>
> I think that's a good idea; anybody got a comment here?
>
> This could be implemented kinda simply by looking at the mode line
> string after it's been generated, and shortening spaces if the text is
> too long.
>
> For instance, the mode line here says
>
> U:**-  *unsent bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla*   All L23     (Message MML Fly A
>
> and then I can't see any more.  The spaces before "All" and after "L23"
> could be compacted in these situations...
>
> It'd have to be a user option, of course.

Instead of, or in addition to, a user option, perhaps a new mode line
construct would be more general.  There is already a way to specify a
minimum field width, for example, so perhaps it would be possible to
also specify a maximum default width.

-- 
Basil