Highlight non-selected minibuffer prompt

Highlight non-selected minibuffer prompt

[Juri Linkov]

Only today I realized how to address the long-standing complaint
that sometimes accidentally switching from the minibuffer (that
e.g. asks a yes/no question) remains unnoticed that leaves
the minibuffer active for a long time.

The solution was already invented long ago by minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode
that highlights the recursive minibuffer with the minibuffer-depth-indicator face.

The same solution could be used to add a highlighting to the minibuffer prompt
after switching from the minibuffer that still remains active,
thus turning the attention to a possible problem.

I still have no idea where to implement this feature.  Maybe in the same
package mb-depth.el?  Then should it be a separate mode or better to handle
by a new option in the same minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode?
Should it reuse the same minibuffer-depth-indicator face
or add a new one?

Re: Highlight non-selected minibuffer prompt

[Juri Linkov]

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> I still have no idea where to implement this feature.  Maybe in the same
> package mb-depth.el?  Then should it be a separate mode or better to handle
> by a new option in the same minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode?
> Should it reuse the same minibuffer-depth-indicator face
> or add a new one?

This implements it in mb-depth.el with a new option and a new face:


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diff --git a/lisp/mb-depth.el b/lisp/mb-depth.el
index 88003afb40..ed0ebf800b 100644
--- a/lisp/mb-depth.el
+++ b/lisp/mb-depth.el
@@ -47,11 +47,36 @@ minibuffer-depth-indicator
   :group 'minibuffer
   :version "28.1")
 
+(defface minibuffer-depth-nonselected
+  '((t (:background "yellow" :foreground "dark red" :weight bold)))
+  "Face for non-selected minibuffer prompts.
+It's used after leaving the minibuffer window while the minibuffer remains active."
+  :group 'minibuffer
+  :version "28.1")
+
+(defcustom minibuffer-depth-indicate-nonselected t
+  "If non-nil, indicate the non-selected minibuffer.
+Use the face `minibuffer-depth-nonselected'."
+  :type 'boolean
+  :group 'minibuffer
+  :version "28.1")
+
 ;; An overlay covering the prompt.  This is a buffer-local variable in
 ;; each affected minibuffer.
 ;;
-(defvar minibuffer-depth-overlay)
-(make-variable-buffer-local 'minibuffer-depth-overlay)
+(defvar-local minibuffer-depth-overlay nil)
+(defvar-local minibuffer-depth-nonselected-overlay nil)
+
+(defun minibuffer-depth-select (w)
+  (if (eq (window-buffer w) (current-buffer))
+      (when (overlayp minibuffer-depth-nonselected-overlay)
+        (delete-overlay minibuffer-depth-nonselected-overlay))
+    (unless (eq major-mode 'completion-list-mode)
+      (with-current-buffer (window-buffer w)
+        (let ((ov (make-overlay (point-min) (point-max))))
+          (overlay-put ov 'face 'minibuffer-depth-nonselected)
+          (overlay-put ov 'evaporate t)
+          (setq minibuffer-depth-nonselected-overlay ov))))))
 
 ;; This function goes on minibuffer-setup-hook
 (defun minibuffer-depth-setup ()
@@ -68,7 +93,9 @@ minibuffer-depth-setup
                                          'face
                                          'minibuffer-depth-indicator)
                              " ")))
-      (overlay-put minibuffer-depth-overlay 'evaporate t))))
+      (overlay-put minibuffer-depth-overlay 'evaporate t)))
+  (when minibuffer-depth-indicate-nonselected
+    (add-hook 'window-state-change-functions 'minibuffer-depth-select nil t)))
 
 ;;;###autoload
 (define-minor-mode minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode

Re: Highlight non-selected minibuffer prompt

[Clément Pit-Claudel]

On 7/31/21 4:58 PM, Juri Linkov wrote:
> The same solution could be used to add a highlighting to the
> minibuffer prompt after switching from the minibuffer that still
> remains active, thus turning the attention to a possible problem.

That's a nice idea, thanks!

> sometimes accidentally switching from the minibuffer remains
> unnoticed that leaves the minibuffer active for a long time.

In my experience, the worst part of this is that completing that minibuffer interaction restores the (old) window configuration that was active when the minibuffer became active.  Is there a setting to change that, or should I open a bug report?

Re: Highlight non-selected minibuffer prompt

[Juri Linkov]

>> sometimes accidentally switching from the minibuffer remains
>> unnoticed that leaves the minibuffer active for a long time.
>
> In my experience, the worst part of this is that completing that minibuffer
> interaction restores the (old) window configuration that was active when
> the minibuffer became active.  Is there a setting to change that, or should
> I open a bug report?

There were several bug reports that asked for such an option.
The last report that I recall was bug#45072 (still unimplemented).

Re: Highlight non-selected minibuffer prompt

[Juri Linkov]

>> sometimes accidentally switching from the minibuffer remains
>> unnoticed that leaves the minibuffer active for a long time.
>
> In my experience, the worst part of this is that completing that minibuffer
> interaction restores the (old) window configuration that was active when
> the minibuffer became active.  Is there a setting to change that, or should
> I open a bug report?

Thanks to Martin there is now a new option 'read-minibuffer-restore-windows'
that you can customize to nil.

Re: Highlight non-selected minibuffer prompt

[Clément Pit-Claudel]

On 8/5/21 7:58 PM, Juri Linkov wrote:
>>> sometimes accidentally switching from the minibuffer remains
>>> unnoticed that leaves the minibuffer active for a long time.
>>
>> In my experience, the worst part of this is that completing that minibuffer
>> interaction restores the (old) window configuration that was active when
>> the minibuffer became active.  Is there a setting to change that, or should
>> I open a bug report?
> 
> Thanks to Martin there is now a new option 'read-minibuffer-restore-windows'
> that you can customize to nil.

Thanks to both of you!