From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Customizing the mode line Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:12:40 -0400 Message-ID: References: <83skd1dta0.fsf@gnu.org> <83pr84ewvj.fsf@gnu.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1256929982 4977 80.91.229.12 (30 Oct 2009 19:13:02 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:13:02 +0000 (UTC) Cc: 'Eli Zaretskii' , emacs-devel@gnu.org To: "Drew Adams" Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Oct 30 20:12:55 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1N3wu7-0001NB-I3 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:12:55 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:35250 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1N3wu6-0008Q6-NH for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:12:54 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1N3wu1-0008Pj-61 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:12:49 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1N3wtw-0008Ox-3x for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:12:48 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=60924 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1N3wtv-0008Ot-TZ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:12:43 -0400 Original-Received: from ironport2-out.teksavvy.com ([206.248.154.183]:45053 helo=ironport2-out.pppoe.ca) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1N3wtt-0006xG-KP; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:12:41 -0400 X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: AhAFAKfX6kpLd/xb/2dsb2JhbACBUN8/hD0EiGM X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.44,655,1249272000"; d="scan'208";a="48439634" Original-Received: from 75-119-252-91.dsl.teksavvy.com (HELO pastel.home) ([75.119.252.91]) by ironport2-out.pppoe.ca with ESMTP; 30 Oct 2009 15:12:40 -0400 Original-Received: by pastel.home (Postfix, from userid 20848) id 39AE180CE; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:12:40 -0400 (EDT) In-Reply-To: (Drew Adams's message of "Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:54:18 -0700") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.1.50 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:116474 Archived-At: Drew Adams said: > The general idea should be to shorten fields and change the existing > tooltips, I'm glad we agree. Note that we'd also need to figure out a way to make it work for ttys as well, where tooltips aren't available (probably providing a command like "display-full-mode-line" to dump the modeline's text into the (resizable) echo area, would be a good start). Eli Zaretskii said: > Right, I also think that both percentage and the line number is > redundant, and we could remove one of them, at least by default, > leaving an option to restore it for those who want that. It's very tempting, but I can already hear screams in the distance. > We could simply display only the major mode by default, and show the > rest in a tooltip, or with some easily-typed command. Maybe that'll be necessary, but if we can keep a few chars of each minor-mode that would be better. > It should probably be moved to the right edge, because if it does not > show in full, or even not at all, it's not a disaster: the user > generally knows what buffer she is in. It's tempting, but I'm also weary of a potential rebellion. > We could also make the mode line take 2 lines, but I think this would > be a big job, because I think various places in the display engine > assume it's only one line. I think that should be kept as an absolute last resort: I don't want to waste any more vertical space than the strict minimum, and really, fundamentally, if we need to display so much information that we need more than one line of mode-line, maybe we're doing something wrong (the UI is overloaded). Joakim Verona said: > One thing adding to the problem is that a lot of information is repeated > in all modelines, where they could really live separately in a special > status window. I don't use those global indicators specifically because I don't think they belong in the mode-line. I'm not opposed to code such as display-battery-mode, but making it work well is not on my list of priorities. Stefan