GNU bug report logs - #6799
24.0.50; Please add dired-details.el to Emacs [patch]

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From: "Drew Adams" <drew.adams <at> oracle.com>
To: "'Stefan Monnier'" <monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca>
Cc: rob <at> giardina.us, rob.giardina <at> gmail.com, 6799 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, joakim <at> verona.se
Subject: bug#6799: dired-details[+].el
Date: Wed, 16 May 2012 16:52:43 -0700

> I don't see why using define-minor-mode would prevent this behavior.

How, for example?  Or I can wait and see. ;-)  My main point here was to get the
behavior, not how to get it.  My limited use of `define-minor-mode' didn't
suggest to me how to do it.

> > A local minor mode would affect only the current Dired 
> > buffer and not subsequently created ones.  A global minor mode would 
> > affect all Dired buffers at the same time.
> 
> A local minor mode can change global defaults as well.

Ah, yes.  So we can have the same behavior with `define-minor-mode' - great.

> >> Why use dired-details-hidden-string rather than just using the
> >> traditional ellipsis with buffer-invisibility-spec?
> >
> > The first thing I did when getting dired-details.el was change the
> > string to "", and I've never looked back.  In my use of it, 
> > hiding the details means showing nothing in their place.  And in
> > the commentary of dired-details+.el I recommended that others do the same.
> 
> You could still get this result by changing 
> buffer-invisibility-spec, so it's not an objection.

To me, it's a cop-out to tell users to go fiddle with
`buffer-invisibility-spec'.

To me, the most Lisp-averse Emacs newbie should be able to easily get rid of the
useless `...'.  S?he (including I) should not have to go look up
`buffer-invisibility-spec' in the Elisp manual.  Or even have to scan a Dired
mode doc string to find something about how to use `buffer-invisibility-spec' to
get rid of it...

But maybe I'm misunderstanding your suggestion.

I say "useless" because I see no good reason why we should _ever_ show `...' for
this feature.  `...' indicates a particular position where something is elided,
but the same columns are elided from each row.  The position indicates nothing -
the column of repeated ellipses just constitutes noise and wastes space.

To me, it's just as clear, and simpler, for the toggle to simply remove those
columns, without replacing them by `...'.

To me.

Try it - and see if it isn't clear enough, and cleaner & simpler for users.

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