> From: Robert Weiner <rsw@gnu.org>
> Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2017 13:45:01 -0400
> Cc: 28648@debbugs.gnu.org, Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
>
> We had "Ln Cn" kind of display in Emacs 21 and before, and we changed
> that to the current display in Emacs 22.1 (the change itself is from
> Aug 2002).
>
> Was there any particular rationale for this?
Yes: the "Ln Cn" display was deemed "quite annoying to look at".
Sounds familiar? ;-)
You can read the entire thread here:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2002-08/ msg00451.html