Subject: bug#53776: Modeline indicator when using define-minor-mode

From: Stephen Berman <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2022 15:49:26 +0100

On Fri, 04 Feb 2022 14:43:14 +0000 goncholden <[email-masked]> wrote:

> ------- Original Message -------
>
> On Friday, February 4th, 2022 at 2:38 PM, Stephen Berman
> <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 04 Feb 2022 14:05:58 +0000 goncholden [email-masked] wrote:
>> > ------- Original Message -------
>> >
>> > On Friday, February 4th, 2022 at 1:35 PM, Stephen Berman
>> > [email-masked] wrote:
>> >
>> > > On Fri, 04 Feb 2022 13:22:08 +0000 goncholden [email-masked] wrote:
>> > > > ------- Original Message -------
>> > > >
>> > > > On Friday, February 4th, 2022 at 1:02 PM, Stephen Berman
>> > > > [email-masked] wrote:
>> > > > > On Fri, 04 Feb 2022 11:55:45 +0000 goncholden via "Bug reports for GNU
>> > > > > Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors" [email-masked] wrote:
>> > > > >
>> > > > > > Have been using define-minor-mode and noticed that when setting the
>> > > > > > modeline indicator, the text is appended with no space between other
>> > > > > > modeline indicators. Is this how :lighter is supposed to work?
>> > > > >
>> > > > > Yes, the lack of a space is in the definition of `mode-line-modes':`
>> > > > > (:propertize ("" minor-mode-alist)
>> > > > > I guess the reason is that you can have multiple minor mode lighters and
>> > > > > providing a space between each would complicate the definition of
>> > > > > `mode-line-modes', so that's the job of the minor mode definition
>> > > > > itself:
>> > > > >
>> > > > > > (define-minor-mode rich-minor-mode
>> > > > > > "This is the docstring."
>> > > > > > :lighter "rich"
>
>> > > > > So you should do this: :lighter " rich"
>> > > > >
>> > > > > Steve Berman
>> > > >
>> > > > Because one can easily add minor-modes that exceed the mode-line mini-buffer,
>> > > > is there any capability of making a hierarchical modeline indicator.
>> > > >
>> > > > e.g.
>> > > >
>> > > > Emacs-Lisp
>> > > > company
>> > > > Outl
>> > > > Gon -> rich
>> > > > -> gudin
>> > > > -> cholden
>> > >
>> > > That would appear to require a multiline mode line, which is not
>> > > possible with the current implementation. An alternative, which might
>> > > be easier to implement (for someone who knows how, not me), would be to
>> > > make the mode line horizontally scrollable. But maybe that's not so
>> > > easy, since it seems so obviously useful, yet hasn't been implemented.
>> >
>> > > Steve Berman
>> >
>> > Much useful. Would we be able to include such proposition for emacs?
>>
>> It could certainly be a feature request. In fact, maybe this bug report
>> can be repurposed as such as request, since the lack of a space in the
>> minor mode lighter isn't a bug per se.
>>
>> Steve Berman
>
> Anything I need to do on my part?

Maybe this issue should be retitled, but let's wait and see if the
maintainers react, maybe they'll prefer making a separate feature
request.

Steve Berman