Subject: Re: bug#30397: Random numbers in grep mode-line

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 09 Feb 2018 17:35:11 +0200

> Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2018 07:27:55 -0800 (PST)
> From: Drew Adams <[email-masked]>
> Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked]
> 
> > > But `C-h m' says nothing about this (it should).
> > >
> > > And clicking `compilation-mode' (the parent) in the `C-h m' output
> > > shows that mode's doc, but it too says nothing about this.
> > 
> > I don't see modes whose "C-h m" tells anything about mode-line
> > indicators.  Do you?
> 
> No. And?
> 
> How many modes do you see that have mode-line info
> that needs explanation?

>From my POV, almost all of those which put there something that is not
just the mode's (abbreviated) name.

> There might well be some others - in that case, feel free to file
> bugs for those too.

Filing a bug doesn't solve the problem.

> If you agree that better help about this would be
> in order, where would you suggest putting that help,
> if not on `C-h m'?

Our current practice is to describe that in the manual.  If we decide
to add that to "C-h m", we should do that for all the modes.  We
should also consider the discoverability: "C-h m" is not where I would
look for documentation of a mode, only for its keybindings.