Subject: Re: bug#51132: Make sure user is doubly aware of finished complilations

From: Kévin Le Gouguec <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2021 20:24:22 +0200

Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]> writes:

> No, all of the mode lines of the windows that show the *Compilation*
> buffer, of course.  When you do something that jidanni does:
>
>    C-x 2 C-x 3 C-x 2 C-x 3...
>
> then you will have many *Compilation* buffers, right?

I'm assuming that Dan would keep at most _one_ window displaying the
*compilation* buffer.

>> - the "Compilation finished/exited" message can be clobbered almost
>>   immediately by many things (e.g. navigation commands that push the
>>   mark, digit arguments, C-g).
>
> (That message gets written into the *Compilation* buffer, not in the
> echo-area.  So it never gets clobbered by anything, except another
> compilation.)

Apologies for being unclear; I was referring to the message that is
printed in the echo-area by compilation-handle-exit.  AFAIK, when the
*compilation* buffer is e.g. buried, that is one of the two visible
signs that tell the user that the process has finished, the other being
the disappearance of "[Compiling]" in the mode-line.

> Anyway, we are talking about a user who (mis-)configures his windows
> so that nothing useful is visible on the mode line, then buries the
> *Compilation* buffer (since the compilation he launches doesn't
> interest him at all, right?), and then, when he finally wants to know
> what happened there, doesn't even consider to look back in that buried
> buffer?  Is that the situation?

The situation, as it happened to me a couple of times before learning
about compilation-finish-functions, was:

1. run some background process in a *compilation* buffer,

2. bury the buffer because I know the result will not be available for a
   couple of minutes or hours,

3. work on completely unrelated matters in the meantime, in the same
   Emacs session,

4. miss both hints that the process has finished and the result I want
   is available (if I spend 5 minutes reading something in a web
   browser, then I won't notice the _absence_ of "[Compiling]" in the
   mode-lines when coming back to Emacs; as for the message in the
   echo-area, see above),

5. consider I have finished working on the unrelated matters, and close
   Emacs,

6. bang my head on the desk out of frustration and self-loathing.

>                                  And we are supposed to tweak Emacs to
> cater to such hypothetical users? why?

> This request has been considered and denied, both by Lars and myself.
> I see no reason to make yet another, 3rd indication, especially since
> every indication can be ignored if the user really wants to ignore it,
> exactly like the existing 2 indications are ignored.  Not say anything
> about the bad karma of adding unnecessary stuff to the mode line,
> where space is at premium since long ago.  Thanks, but no, thanks.

That's perfectly fine as far as I am concerned; and that's also why my
original contribution to the discussion was pointing Dan to
compilation-finish-functions, where he hopefully can design an
indication that will be tailored to his needs and not so easily ignored.

My second contribution to the discussion was obviously unneeded and I
apologize for the time that was wasted.