GNU bug report logs - #40774
Error messages shouldn't be hidden when the user is idle

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Message #17 received at 40774 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Drew Adams <drew.adams <at> oracle.com>
To: ndame <ndame <at> protonmail.com>
Cc: 40774 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: RE: bug#40774: Error messages shouldn't be hidden when the user is
 idle
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2020 10:08:28 -0700 (PDT)

> > My suggestion would instead be this: As an option,
> > have buffer `Messages' be displayed on an idle timer.
> 
> This is not the same, because if there are progress messages too then errors can be drowned in the noise, the user may not notice the error, and the user usually doesn't care about progress message history.
> 
> It's much better if emacs collects the errors while the user is away and shows
> them when the user is back, because if the computer can collect these then it should do it instead of the user.
> 
> And when the user is back and sees the errors then he knows about them right away without having to parse the Messages buffer visually.

The same trivial messages that pollute *Messages* would pollute your multi-line echo area.

Showing *Messages* has the same effect of showing your multi-line echo area, no? Except that it's not transient.

Emacs "collects the errors while the user is away, and shows them when the user is back" is exactly what *Messages* does.

Even now, even without popping up Messages automatically after some idle period, you can just click `mouse-1' in the echo area to pop it up.  Or use `C-h e' to do the same thing.

(See also: https://stackoverflow.com/q/4682033/729907.)
___

BTW, I wonder if buffer *Messages* shouldn't have a menu-bar menu, with a few items that do things like filter temporarily in various ways, change `message-log-max', etc.  Some things a user might want to do with the buffer content aren't necessarily obvious.

IOW, *Messages* could probably be made more directly useful than it is now.

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