Dired - ls-switches on Modeline

Dired - ls-switches on Modeline

[Arthur Miller]

I use dired a lot, and I like to have two vertical windows to work with.
I try keep all my files 80 character wide lines. What I found a little
annoying is that dired automatically displays ls-switches on modeline.

If one has long switches line, like this one:

"-lA --si --time-style long-iso --group-directories-first"

then everything on modeline gets pushed far to the right. I haven't
found any way to turn this behavour off. The code responsible for this
is in dired.el, a function named "dired-sort-set-mode-line". There is a
condition always set to execute (t ...). Since it always call
"force-mode-line-update" after it adds ls-switches to dired, I don't
think it is even possible to advice it. The ony way for me was to hack
said function, and re-define it in my init file (I just added a variable
and change condition to check for it):

;; Prevent dired to write to modeline - it displays all the switches and pushes
;; everything far to the right.
(defvar dired-display-ls-switches nil
  "Non-nil meands the Dired will display current ls-switches on modeline.")

(defun dired-sort-set-mode-line ()
  ;; Set mode line display according to dired-actual-switches.
  ;; Mode line display of "by name" or "by date" guarantees the user a
  ;; match with the corresponding regexps.  Non-matching switches are
  ;; shown literally.
  (when (eq major-mode 'dired-mode)
    (setq mode-name
	  (let (case-fold-search)
	    (cond ((string-match-p
		    dired-sort-by-name-regexp dired-actual-switches)
		   "Dired by name")
		  ((string-match-p
		    dired-sort-by-date-regexp dired-actual-switches)
		   "Dired by date")
		  ((eq dired-display-ls-switches t)
		   (concat "Dired " dired-actual-switches)))))
    (force-mode-line-update)))

I suggest as a usability improvement to add a user option to
enable/disable display of ls-switches on modeline, but if there is such
an option already, which I haven't discovered, then just ignore this :-).

RE: Dired - ls-switches on Modeline

[Drew Adams]

> I suggest as a usability improvement to add a user option to
> enable/disable display of ls-switches on modeline

Sounds good to me.

E.g. A user option whose value is a format string
that accepts the value of `dired-actual-switches'
and returns the text to use in the mode-line.
Trivial to do.

You might want to file an enhancement request for
this (`M-x report-emacs-bug').
___

If the request doesn't get accepted for some reason
then perhaps I'll do it for Dired+.el.

I already add additional info to the mode-line (on
a hook, so you can remove it):

--

 Show number of marked, flagged, and current-list lines in mode-line.
 (Flagged means flagged for deletion.)
 If the current line is marked/flagged and there are others
 marked/flagged after it then show `N/M', where `N' is the number
 marked/flagged through the current line and `M' is the total number
 marked/flagged.

 If the current line is for a file then show `L/T', where `L' is the
 line number in the current listing and `T' is the number of files in
 that listing.  If option `diredp-count-.-and-..-flag' is non-nil then
 count also `.' and `..'.

 Also abbreviate `mode-name', using "Dired/" instead of "Dired by".

--

RE: Dired - ls-switches on Modeline

[arthur miller]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1589 bytes --]

Sure, not at home now, but can do later in the evening.

Regards
/a



Skickat från min Samsung Galaxy-smartphone.



-------- Originalmeddelande --------
Från: Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>
Datum: 2020-05-13 17:28 (GMT+01:00)
Till: Arthur Miller <arthur.miller@live.com>, emacs-devel@gnu.org
Ämne: RE: Dired - ls-switches on Modeline

> I suggest as a usability improvement to add a user option to
> enable/disable display of ls-switches on modeline

Sounds good to me.

E.g. A user option whose value is a format string
that accepts the value of `dired-actual-switches'
and returns the text to use in the mode-line.
Trivial to do.

You might want to file an enhancement request for
this (`M-x report-emacs-bug').
___

If the request doesn't get accepted for some reason
then perhaps I'll do it for Dired+.el.

I already add additional info to the mode-line (on
a hook, so you can remove it):

--

 Show number of marked, flagged, and current-list lines in mode-line.
 (Flagged means flagged for deletion.)
 If the current line is marked/flagged and there are others
 marked/flagged after it then show `N/M', where `N' is the number
 marked/flagged through the current line and `M' is the total number
 marked/flagged.

 If the current line is for a file then show `L/T', where `L' is the
 line number in the current listing and `T' is the number of files in
 that listing.  If option `diredp-count-.-and-..-flag' is non-nil then
 count also `.' and `..'.

 Also abbreviate `mode-name', using "Dired/" instead of "Dired by".

--

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 2714 bytes --]

Re: Dired - ls-switches on Modeline

[Arthur Miller]

Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:

>> I suggest as a usability improvement to add a user option to
>> enable/disable display of ls-switches on modeline
>
> Sounds good to me.
>
> E.g. A user option whose value is a format string
> that accepts the value of `dired-actual-switches'
> and returns the text to use in the mode-line.
> Trivial to do.
>
> You might want to file an enhancement request for
> this (`M-x report-emacs-bug').
> ___
>
> If the request doesn't get accepted for some reason
> then perhaps I'll do it for Dired+.el.
>
> I already add additional info to the mode-line (on
> a hook, so you can remove it):
>
> --
>
>  Show number of marked, flagged, and current-list lines in mode-line.
>  (Flagged means flagged for deletion.)
>  If the current line is marked/flagged and there are others
>  marked/flagged after it then show `N/M', where `N' is the number
>  marked/flagged through the current line and `M' is the total number
>  marked/flagged.
>
>  If the current line is for a file then show `L/T', where `L' is the
>  line number in the current listing and `T' is the number of files in
>  that listing.  If option `diredp-count-.-and-..-flag' is non-nil then
>  count also `.' and `..'.
>
>  Also abbreviate `mode-name', using "Dired/" instead of "Dired by".
>
> --
That seems a lot of stuff Drew :-). I don't really get you, did you
already implemented all that in Dired+ or do you wish to implement all
that?

I do have your Dired+ but honestly, it is a little big, so I never got
really time to get into it, so I don't really know what it offers.

Anyway I just need a simple way to remove ls-switches from modeline. I
don't find it usefull at all to see switches on modeline, I don't
understand why it is on by default. I guess somebody found it useful
:-). I don't really need formated ls-switches on modeline, for me, it is
a bit overkill. I just wish to turn it off, and in some rare case if I
would ever need to see my switches, so I can turn them on.

I will file a bug repport and send a patch to offer defcustom user
option to turn that off/on, but you would probably like to make it more
customizable as you suggest for Dired+?

Thanks for all your work and best regards.

RE: Dired - ls-switches on Modeline

[Drew Adams]

> > Sounds good to me.
> >
> > E.g. A user option whose value is a format string
> > that accepts the value of `dired-actual-switches'
> > and returns the text to use in the mode-line.
> > Trivial to do.
> >
> > You might want to file an enhancement request for
> > this (`M-x report-emacs-bug').
> > ___
> >
> > If the request doesn't get accepted for some reason
> > then perhaps I'll do it for Dired+.el.
> >
> > I already add additional info to the mode-line (on
> > a hook, so you can remove it):
> >
> > --
> >
> >  Show number of marked, flagged, and current-list lines in mode-line.
> >  (Flagged means flagged for deletion.)
> >  If the current line is marked/flagged and there are others
> >  marked/flagged after it then show `N/M', where `N' is the number
> >  marked/flagged through the current line and `M' is the total number
> >  marked/flagged.
> >
> >  If the current line is for a file then show `L/T', where `L' is the
> >  line number in the current listing and `T' is the number of files in
> >  that listing.  If option `diredp-count-.-and-..-flag' is non-nil then
> >  count also `.' and `..'.
> >
> >  Also abbreviate `mode-name', using "Dired/" instead of "Dired by".
> >
> > --
> That seems a lot of stuff Drew :-). I don't really get you, did you
> already implemented all that in Dired+ or do you wish to implement all
> that?

What I described as "I already add" is in the
mode line (with Dired+).  What you suggested,
and the related formatting user option I
suggested for that, is not (yet) in Dired+.
I won't add that to Dired+ if you can get it
in vanilla Emacs.  If not, maybe I will.

> I do have your Dired+ but honestly, it is a little big, so I never got
> really time to get into it, so I don't really know what it offers.

Most of what it offers is available from the
menu-bar menus, to make it discoverable etc.

> Anyway I just need a simple way to remove ls-switches from modeline. I
> don't find it usefull at all to see switches on modeline, I don't
> understand why it is on by default. I guess somebody found it useful
> :-). I don't really need formated ls-switches on modeline, for me, it
> is a bit overkill. I just wish to turn it off, and in some rare case if I
> would ever need to see my switches, so I can turn them on.

To be clear, the switches are only shown when
they differ from the simple sort-by-name and
sort-by-date behavior.

But yes, being able to control what's shown
in the mode-line is always a good idea.  This
is something that kind of applies to Emacs
generally.  Related: it's not so easy for a
user to modify/customize the mode-line.

> I will file a bug repport and send a patch to offer defcustom user
> option to turn that off/on, but you would probably like to make it more
> customizable as you suggest for Dired+?

I suggested that the option (for vanilla
Dired) that you propose could optionally
have, as its value, a formatting string,
to give users more control than simply
on/off.

But if that doesn't happen for vanilla
Dired then I might do it for Dired+.  The
aim of Dired+ is just to supplement Dired.

Dired+ essentially amounts to behavior/stuff
that I've proposed for vanilla Dired but
that wasn't adopted, for whatever reasons.
(About the only thing that was adopted is
highlighting `w' in the permissions for
group and world.  And that happens only if
you customize face `dired-perm-write' to
something other than `default'.)

IOW, if such behavior is in vanilla Dired
then so much the better - no need for me to
put it in Dired+ and have to maintain it.