Re: Update of Mode Line Format in the Lisp Reference Manual.

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

    I see that you've consistently replaced "mode-line" with "mode line"
    in this and similar contexts.  I'm not sure which variant is more
    correct English; please note that the phrase "mode-line construct" can
    be rephrased as "construct of the mode line".  I tend to write the
    dash in the former, but not in the latter.

You are doing it right in both cases.

      Thus, I think that, ideally, every
    variable here should have a @cindex entry as well.  For example, the
    variable mode-line-position might have these entries:

      @cindex buffer position indication, in mode line
      @cindex mode line, buffer position indication

I think that is too much; it will make the index too big.  That makes
the index less useful and makes the manual more expensive to print.
Most of those index entries are not necessary.

This whole section is about the mode line.  As long as people can
easily find this section when they look for "mode line", that is good
enough.  It only needs one index entry about the mode line, for the
whole section.  So `@cindex mode line, buffer position indication' is
clearly unnecessary.

It is not so clear that `@cindex buffer position indication, in mode
line' is unnecessary, but I think it is.  If you want to find how to
display something in the mode line, you just need to find the section
about it.