Subject: bug#31717: 26.1; display-line-numbers-mode enlarges indicator without need

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2018 18:44:26 +0300

> From: Carlos Pita <[email-masked]>
> Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2018 12:19:55 -0300
> Cc: [email-masked]
> 
> > If you don't want to "waste" one more column, you can use one of the
> > optional features, e.g., set display-line-numbers-width-start non-nil,
> > with or without display-line-numbers-grow-only non-nil.
> 
> I'm failing to see how this would prevent the "wasteful" behavior. Are
> you just saying that if I reserve all the space in advance I won't be
> seeing the widening happening since it have already happened up front?

AFAIU, it will reserve exactly the space needed by the number of lines
in the file.

> I understand all your points above, so I'm going to ask for a more
> modest alternative: the ability to suppress the left, right or both
> whitespaces in the indicator.

This produces ugly display, so I don't think it's a good idea.  If you
want to reserve less space for the line numbers, just customize the
line-number face to use a smaller font.