GNU bug report logs - #78999
31.0.50; [wishlist] window-divider-mode: option to show the bottom divider only when the mode line is hidden

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Dani Moncayo <dmoncayo <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org>
Subject: 31.0.50; [wishlist] window-divider-mode: option to show the bottom
 divider only when the mode line is hidden
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2025 12:13:36 +0200

Severity: wishlist.

With the current master branch, it's now easy to hide the mode line in
specific buffers/windows, with the new 'mode-line-invisible-mode'.

But then, in a multi-window layout with some windows stacked
vertically, it becomes important to have a window divider at the
bottom edge of each window, to visually distinguish them.  This can be
achieved with:
  (setq window-divider-default-places t)
  (window-divider-mode 1)

But that setup isn't entirely satisfactory to me, because I don't want
_every_ window to show a bottom divider; I'd like to have the bottom
divider _only_ in windows where the mode line is hidden.

In other words, I’d prefer _not_ to have a window displaying both its
mode line and bottom divider -- I don't need/want both of them.

So, would it be possible to add a feature to window-divider-mode
whereby a window's bottom divider is shown only when its mode-line is
hidden?

TIA.

-- 
Dani Moncayo


In GNU Emacs 31.0.50 (build 59, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version
 3.24.41, cairo version 1.18.0) of 2025-07-12 built on C11-Q8YAKWONJX0
Repository revision: f746762e74adeac8beaa73abcf20ee5e74298597
Repository branch: master
Windowing system distributor 'Microsoft Corporation', version 11.0.12010000
System Description: Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS

Configured features:
CAIRO DBUS FREETYPE GIF GLIB GMP GNUTLS GSETTINGS HARFBUZZ JPEG
LIBSELINUX LIBXML2 MODULES NOTIFY INOTIFY PDUMPER PNG SECCOMP SOUND
THREADS TIFF TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS TREE_SITTER WEBP X11 XDBE XIM XINERAMA
XINPUT2 XPM XRANDR GTK3 ZLIB

Important settings:
  value of $LANG: C.UTF-8
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Message #8 received at 78999 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Dani Moncayo <dmoncayo <at> gmail.com>
To: 78999 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: 31.0.50; [wishlist] window-divider-mode: option to show the bottom
 divider only when the mode line is hidden
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2025 12:33:56 +0200

BTW, in my setup, the mode-line face has a :box property, so each mode
line is rendered with a box around it.  As a result, showing both the
mode line and the bottom divider looks bad (at least to me).

-- 
Dani Moncayo

Message #11 received at 78999 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Dani Moncayo <dmoncayo <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 78999 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78999: 31.0.50;
 [wishlist] window-divider-mode: option to show the bottom divider
 only when the mode line is hidden
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2025 14:02:02 +0300

> From: Dani Moncayo <dmoncayo <at> gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2025 12:33:56 +0200
> 
> BTW, in my setup, the mode-line face has a :box property, so each mode
> line is rendered with a box around it.  As a result, showing both the
> mode line and the bottom divider looks bad (at least to me).

The mode line has the :box face by default (see the attributes of the
face 'mode-line'), and if I customize window-divider-default-places to
(say) 'bottom-only', I don't see anything wrong in the resulting
display.  What exactly "looks bad" in your case, and how did you
customize the :box property?

Message #14 received at 78999 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Dani Moncayo <dmoncayo <at> gmail.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 78999 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78999: 31.0.50; [wishlist] window-divider-mode: option to
 show the bottom divider only when the mode line is hidden
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2025 13:31:04 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Sat, Jul 12, 2025 at 1:02 PM Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> wrote:
>
> > From: Dani Moncayo <dmoncayo <at> gmail.com>
> > Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2025 12:33:56 +0200
> >
> > BTW, in my setup, the mode-line face has a :box property, so each mode
> > line is rendered with a box around it.  As a result, showing both the
> > mode line and the bottom divider looks bad (at least to me).
>
> The mode line has the :box face by default (see the attributes of the
> face 'mode-line'), and if I customize window-divider-default-places to
> (say) 'bottom-only', I don't see anything wrong in the resulting
> display.

I'm not saying that the result is _wrong_.  I just find it like
'redundant', so to speak, to have a window with both a mode line and a
bottom divider below it.  I feel like the mode line is already enough
to mark the bottom boundary of the window.  And I'd rather have either
the mode line or the bottom divider line, but not both.

>  What exactly "looks bad" in your case, and how did you
> customize the :box property?

My setup is something like the one below.

I'm also attaching a screenshot of how it looks here.

---------------
(custom-set-faces
 '(mode-line          ((t (:background "#c4d8fd" :foreground "#000080"
:box (:line-width 2 :color "#000080")))))
 '(mode-line-inactive ((t (:background "#caccce" :foreground "#696969"
:box (:line-width 2 :color "#696969")))))
 '(window-divider ((t (:foreground "black"))))
 )

(setq window-divider-default-bottom-width 4)
(setq window-divider-default-places t)
--------------




-- 
Dani Moncayo

[shot1.png (image/png, attachment)]

Message #17 received at 78999 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Dani Moncayo <dmoncayo <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 78999 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78999: 31.0.50; [wishlist] window-divider-mode: option to
 show the bottom divider only when the mode line is hidden
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2025 14:54:23 +0300

> From: Dani Moncayo <dmoncayo <at> gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2025 13:31:04 +0200
> Cc: 78999 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> > > BTW, in my setup, the mode-line face has a :box property, so each mode
> > > line is rendered with a box around it.  As a result, showing both the
> > > mode line and the bottom divider looks bad (at least to me).
> >
> > The mode line has the :box face by default (see the attributes of the
> > face 'mode-line'), and if I customize window-divider-default-places to
> > (say) 'bottom-only', I don't see anything wrong in the resulting
> > display.
> 
> I'm not saying that the result is _wrong_.  I just find it like
> 'redundant', so to speak, to have a window with both a mode line and a
> bottom divider below it.

Which is why window-divider-mode is by default off, I guess?  And
users who want the dividers but feel they are redundant when the mode
line is shown, can turn on the dividers only if they turn off the mode
line.

> I feel like the mode line is already enough to mark the bottom
> boundary of the window.  And I'd rather have either the mode line or
> the bottom divider line, but not both.

You already requested that in your OP, didn't you?

> >  What exactly "looks bad" in your case, and how did you
> > customize the :box property?
> 
> My setup is something like the one below.
> 
> I'm also attaching a screenshot of how it looks here.

Thanks.  FWIW, I see nothing wrong with how it looks, the redundancy
aspect aside.

Message #20 received at 78999 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Dani Moncayo <dmoncayo <at> gmail.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 78999 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78999: 31.0.50; [wishlist] window-divider-mode: option to
 show the bottom divider only when the mode line is hidden
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2025 15:06:09 +0200

On Sat, Jul 12, 2025 at 1:54 PM Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> wrote:
>
> > From: Dani Moncayo <dmoncayo <at> gmail.com>
> > Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2025 13:31:04 +0200
> > Cc: 78999 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> >
> > [...]
> >
> > I'm not saying that the result is _wrong_.  I just find it like
> > 'redundant', so to speak, to have a window with both a mode line and a
> > bottom divider below it.
>
> Which is why window-divider-mode is by default off, I guess?  And
> users who want the dividers but feel they are redundant when the mode
> line is shown, can turn on the dividers only if they turn off the mode
> line.

window-divider-mode is a global minor mode; I can't enable it for a
single buffer/window.  So, I don't see how I could get the behavior
I'm looking for with what you said above.

> > I feel like the mode line is already enough to mark the bottom
> > boundary of the window.  And I'd rather have either the mode line or
> > the bottom divider line, but not both.
>
> You already requested that in your OP, didn't you?

Yes, I did.  Sometimes I'm unnecessarily redundant (like Emacs ;)).

> > >  What exactly "looks bad" in your case, and how did you
> > > customize the :box property?
> >
> > My setup is something like the one below.
> >
> > I'm also attaching a screenshot of how it looks here.
>
> Thanks.  FWIW, I see nothing wrong with how it looks, the redundancy
> aspect aside.

Precisely.  That very aspect is the reason why I created this ticket.

-- 
Dani Moncayo

Message #23 received at 78999 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Dani Moncayo <dmoncayo <at> gmail.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 78999 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78999: 31.0.50; [wishlist] window-divider-mode: option to
 show the bottom divider only when the mode line is hidden
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2025 17:51:35 +0200

Hi again.

On second thought, and to be honest, I think I would not use the
feature I requested in this ticket.

I've changed my mind and I will _always_ show the window divider lines
(right and bottom), regardless of whether a window/buffer shows its
mode line or not.

FWIW, my reasons are that the divider lines:
  a) Can always be useful to resize the windows with the mouse (even
on windows with hidden mode lines).
  b) Help with (visually) grouping together each mode line with the
rest of the window it belongs to.

So, sorry for the noise.  I don't want to waste your time.

You can close this ticket if you don't see the need for this feature either.

Thanks.

-- 
Dani Moncayo

Message #28 received at 78999-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Dani Moncayo <dmoncayo <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 78999-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78999: 31.0.50; [wishlist] window-divider-mode: option to
 show the bottom divider only when the mode line is hidden
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2025 11:53:19 +0300

> From: Dani Moncayo <dmoncayo <at> gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2025 17:51:35 +0200
> Cc: 78999 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> Hi again.
> 
> On second thought, and to be honest, I think I would not use the
> feature I requested in this ticket.
> 
> I've changed my mind and I will _always_ show the window divider lines
> (right and bottom), regardless of whether a window/buffer shows its
> mode line or not.
> 
> FWIW, my reasons are that the divider lines:
>   a) Can always be useful to resize the windows with the mouse (even
> on windows with hidden mode lines).
>   b) Help with (visually) grouping together each mode line with the
> rest of the window it belongs to.
> 
> So, sorry for the noise.  I don't want to waste your time.
> 
> You can close this ticket if you don't see the need for this feature either.

Thanks, closing.

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