Subject: bug#12840: 24.2.50; ediff: mode-line of control buffer - improvement request

From: Michael Heerdegen <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:29:08 +0100

Hello,

I use ediff with this setting:

(setq ediff-window-setup-function 'ediff-setup-windows-plain)

Then, the mode-line of the control buffer looks like that:

-- *Ediff Control Panel*   diff 1 of 1        Quick Help

My questions/requests:

1.  It would be much more convenient if the "diff ... of ..." part would
be highlighted somehow, so that it is more visible.  It is an extremely
relevant information, and can now be recognized very badly.

The function to change would probably be
`ediff-make-wide-control-buffer-id'.  I tested with this, for example:

(defun ediff-make-wide-control-buffer-id ()
  (list (concat "%b   "
                (propertize (cond ((< ediff-current-difference 0)
                                   (format "At start of %d diffs"
                                           ediff-number-of-differences))
                                  ((>= ediff-current-difference ediff-number-of-differences)
                                   (format "At end of %d diffs"
                                           ediff-number-of-differences))
                                  (t
                                   (format "diff %d of %d"
                                           (1+ ediff-current-difference)
                                           ediff-number-of-differences)))
                            'face 'mode-line-buffer-id))))

2. What's the "Quick Help" part for?  I don't see any use for it.  It
seems to be always present, but it doesn't indicate anything, and I
cannot click on it.  Also, if I didn't hit ? in the control buffer, the
only content of this buffer already is "Type ? for help".

This is more a question.  I just don't see the purpose of showing this
string.  Maybe I've overlooked something.

Thanks,

Michael.

In GNU Emacs 24.2.50.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.4.2)
 of 2012-11-01 on dex, modified by Debian
 (emacs-snapshot package, version 2:20121101-1)
Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.10707000
System Description:	Debian GNU/Linux testing (wheezy)

Configured using:
 `configure '--build' 'x86_64-linux-gnu' '--host' 'x86_64-linux-gnu'
 '--prefix=/usr' '--sharedstatedir=/var/lib' '--libexecdir=/usr/lib'
 '--localstatedir=/var' '--infodir=/usr/share/info'
 '--mandir=/usr/share/man' '--with-pop=yes'
 '--enable-locallisppath=/etc/emacs-snapshot:/etc/emacs:/usr/local/share/emacs/24.2.50/site-lisp:/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/24.2.50/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp'
 '--without-compress-info' '--with-crt-dir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/'
 '--with-x=yes' '--with-x-toolkit=gtk3' '--with-imagemagick=yes'
 'build_alias=x86_64-linux-gnu' 'host_alias=x86_64-linux-gnu'
 'CFLAGS=-DDEBIAN -DSITELOAD_PURESIZE_EXTRA=5000 -g -O2' 'LDFLAGS=-g
 -Wl,--as-needed -znocombreloc' 'CPPFLAGS=-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2''

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: de_DE.utf8
  value of $LC_TIME: C
  value of $LANG: de_DE.utf8
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix
  default enable-multibyte-characters: t