Subject: bug#12787: Re: bug#12787: Toolbar regression from Emacs 23 to Emacs24 -- Save As and Help no longer available

From: "Drew Adams" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2012 13:21:04 -0700

> > I've been using Emacs extensively for seven years now
> > and still find uses for the tool-bar.  "Save As" is for
> > me exceptionally useful.
> 
> Well, those "real" users are those who decided to code the tool bar
> and the menu bar, and to have it by default in Emacs.  So I think this
> is misdirected.

Tossing some tool-bar icons because the tool bar had become too crowded was a
quick workaround, but not a real solution.

Ultimately, what tool-bar entries to include should be a user choice (and it
should be easy to choose/configure).  Some common GUIs do this:

1. Let users choose the size of the icons used (e.g. small, medium, large).

2. Let users choose (easily) which tool-bar entries to show, including for
different contexts (i.e., modes, for Emacs).

When I look for the user options available for customizing the tool bar, I find
only these: `tool-bar-max-label-size' and `tool-bar-style'.  And the latter
option affects only the GTK+ toolkit (even though the option is available in
non-GTK+ Emacs versions, for some reason).

I don't use the tool bar, and I imagine that few of those who might be able to
contribute to improving it actually use it.  That might explain the primitive
state, but not a satisfactory answer for a user who expects the kind of
flexibility s?he sees in other apps.