From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Xah Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: emacs mode line suggestions Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:18:31 -0800 (PST) Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1226735953 31473 80.91.229.12 (15 Nov 2008 07:59:13 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 15 Nov 2008 07:59:13 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Nov 15 09:00:15 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1L1G4h-0008RQ-1p for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 15 Nov 2008 09:00:12 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:56065 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1L1G3Z-00080d-1O for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:59:01 -0500 Original-Path: news.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews.google.com!n33g2000pri.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help,comp.emacs Original-Lines: 103 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.6.185.159 Original-X-Trace: posting.google.com 1226704711 7967 127.0.0.1 (14 Nov 2008 23:18:31 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:18:31 +0000 (UTC) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: n33g2000pri.googlegroups.com; posting-host=24.6.185.159; posting-account=bRPKjQoAAACxZsR8_VPXCX27T2YcsyMA User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10_4_11; en) AppleWebKit/525.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Safari/525.22, gzip(gfe), gzip(gfe) Original-Xref: news.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:164470 comp.emacs:97359 X-Mailman-Approved-At: Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:58:28 -0500 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:59807 Archived-At: On Nov 12, 11:55 pm, anhnmncb wrote: > Mouse when on modeline, and popup buffers menu by C- can be > used to change to other buffers, both of which are not what I want, can > I disable it? don't know. lol. I think the mode line is another of emacs's problem. Here's what i think are better default: =E2=80=A2 that the buffer location percentage should by default not shown i= f emacs is running in GUI with scroll bar. =E2=80=A2 clicking on the file name should not switch buffer. It could do contextual menu listing user buffers instead. (user buffer here are those not starting with =E2=80=9C*=E2=80=9D) =E2=80=A2 Minor mode should not be displayed there. It's confusing. Instead= , the major mode can add a =E2=80=9Cmode=E2=80=9D word after it. So this is m= ore intuitive. (The idea of Minor modes are kinda confusing. They should be thought of as Preferences (Mac-speak) or Options (Windows-speak), which is what they mostly are used as.) =E2=80=A2 Clicking on the major mode name should pop up a contextual menu t= o let user switch to major major modes. (e.g. C, C++, java, perl, php, bash, javascript, html/xml, python, text, LaTeX.) =E2=80=A2 line number mode should be on by default. So that, the line numbe= r shows in the mode line. =E2=80=A2 the start of the mode line, showing like =E2=80=9C-u:**=E2=80=9D,= =E2=80=9C%%=E2=80=9D, =E2=80=9C%*=E2=80=9D... are quite cryptic. Having used emacs for 10 years, these are still not burned into my brain. And it's not easy to look them up what they are until you are emacs diehard. (e.g. you'll have to know it's technically called =E2=80=9Cmode line=E2=80=9D, then you'll have to know ab= out emacs- index-search, and in general familiar with info and the bunch of emacs only terminologies) It'd better to instead say =E2=80=9CRead Only=E2=80=9D instead of =E2=80=9C= %*=E2=80=9D, and show =E2=80=9CModified=E2=80=9D instead of the =E2=80=9C**=E2=80=9D. (don't show= anything when it's =E2=80=9C--=E2=80=9D) The coding system shown in mode line should be removed. The current coding system should be shown in the menu somewhere, and allow users to change thru menu. --------------------- Summary: So, i think the mode line should be like this: =E2=80=B9buffer name=E2=80=BA linePos/charPos (=E2=80=B9major mode name= =E2=80=BA)------=E2=80=B9status=E2=80=BA--- where the status can be Modified or Read Only. Also, when editing as root, it'd be nice to indicate it in mode line. Some indication of being root is a frequently requested feature. Clicking on the buffer name should show menu list of user buffers, those not starting with a *. Clicking on linePos/charPos show a menu that allow user to turn on/off line number mode or char number mode. Clicking on the major mode name should show a menu of commonly used major modes, allowing user a easy way to switch. (currently, emacs has no intuitive way for user to switch a mode or know what modes are available. This is also a FAQ item.) Clicking on the =E2=80=9Cstatus=E2=80=9D should show a menu allowing user t= o toggle read only. All these clicking should be Right Click, which is more standard behavior of clicking on things for contextual menu. (e.g. in Mac and Windows system wide, and in Firefox for example) Optionally, to the very right of the status bar could have a =E2=80=9Ci=E2= =80=9D or =E2=80=9Cinfo=E2=80=9D, and when clicked, it shows all the current modified= /read status, mode settings, minor modes, encoding used, etc of the current buffer. This can be done as a new split window much like C-h f would. In the result pane, it can show status of other buffer local vars that are related to text editing (such as case sensitive search, how lines are wrapped, length for truncation, margin ... ). With links or active text that lets user toggle or set new vals easily (similar to the UI of customize). Xah =E2=88=91 http://xahlee.org/ =E2=98=84