Subject: 24.0.90; Improve mode-line's "flags" section

From: Dani Moncayo <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2011 10:48:41 +0100

Severity: wishlist

Hi,

I'd like to propose some changes to the mode-line's "flags" section,
to make it more clear and readable:

1. In text-mode, the very first character in the mode-line is always a
dash.  Since it is adjacent to the "flags" section, users could think
that it is part of such section, i.e., that conveys some information.
To avoid such confusion, I propose to write a space in that spot.

2. The EOL flag is not consistent across platforms[a], and I don't see
the point of such inconsistency.  So I propose to use always the same
convention: ":", "\" and "/" for Unix, DOS, and MAC-type EOL formats.

3. When the buffer's default directory is local, the corresponding
flag is a dash, which is very unfortunate, because there can be other
dashes at both sides of that flag.  So, I propose to substitute the
dash for a space (the "@" would remain the same, of course).

4. In text-mode, The frame name is always preceded by a dash, which is
also confusing, because one could think that it means something.  I
propose either remove it (shifting the frame name 1 position to left)
or write a space in that spot.

In GNU Emacs 24.0.90.1 (i386-mingw-nt6.1.7601)
 of 2011-10-27 on DANI-PC
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 6.1.7601
configured using `configure --with-gcc (4.5)'

---- Footnotes ----

[a] Quotation from (info "(emacs)Mode Line"):

     The character after CS is usually a colon.  If a different string is
  displayed, that indicates a nontrivial end-of-line convention for
  encoding a file.  Usually, lines of text are separated by "newline
  characters" in a file, but two other conventions are sometimes used.
  The MS-DOS convention uses a "carriage-return" character followed by a
  "linefeed" character; when editing such files, the colon changes to
  either a backslash (`\') or `(DOS)', depending on the operating system.
  Another convention, employed by older Macintosh systems, uses a
  "carriage-return" character instead of a newline; when editing such
  files, the colon changes to either a forward slash (`/') or `(Mac)'.
  On some systems, Emacs displays `(Unix)' instead of the colon for files
  that use newline as the line separator.

-- 
Dani Moncayo