Re: make-progress-reporter suggestions: 'modeline and customizable progress-reporter--pulse-characters

[Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>]

On Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:05:43 -0500 Chong Yidong <cyd@stupidchicken.com> wrote: 

CY> Julien Danjou <julien@danjou.info> writes:

>> Why not rather a full part of the echo area for all the global
>> indicators that should be there rather than in the mode-line?

CY> I think this is a good idea.  How about putting such indicators on the
CY> right-hand side of the echo area, justified to the right?  We could give
CY> it a slightly less prominent face to distinguish it from ordinary echo
CY> area messages.

CY> One I can think of is that it might get confusing if echo area messages
CY> start to overlap the indicator area (especially multi-line messages).
CY> And how this would interact with the minibuffer is not clear.

...if only there was an area that doesn't overlap messages or the
minibuffer...  :) Really, looking at Emacs visually, I can't see any
other area more appropriate than the mode line.  Maybe the fringe area?
But the mode line has a chance to work in text mode too.  Only the echo
area can compete with that but with the other messages there it will
become visual spaghetti.

CY> One more thing: we could put a GTK spinner object (GtkSpinner) on the
CY> right edge of the GTK tool bar.  I haven't looked into the details, but
CY> the required code changes probably won't be too challenging.

...but that's worse!  A GTK spinner is not a part of the editor the user
can customize.  The user can't move it around or format it differently
or assign a different pulse character set to it.  And it won't work in
text mode.

I would prefer not to use the tool bar.  It steals vertical space and
(to me) serves no practical purpose.

On Wed, 23 Feb 2011 13:28:05 -0800 "Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com> wrote: 

DA> If we really must have something like this, let it be limited to a particular
DA> buffer (show the buffer if you're interested in following the progress; don't
DA> show it when you don't want to see it).  Optionally show the buffer in a
DA> separate frame - it could be as small as you like (e.g tooltip-like, with no
DA> decoration).

That's a LOT of work for a simple effect.  What's the benefit of more
than 1 spinning indicator in a single-threaded editor?  At best they are
distracting.  What's an example where it would be useful?

DA> FWIW - All in all, personally I would find this feature a distraction.  I would
DA> be one user who would turn it off.  YAGNI.

OK, so you're against it.  Why spend so much time giving suggestions for
something you won't use?

Ted