Use images instead of glyphs for fancy threading?

Use images instead of glyphs for fancy threading?

[Mark Plaksin]

When graphics are available, does it make sense to use images instead of
glyphs for fancy thread display?  I don't know anything about using images
in Emacs but it seems like this would be a lot easier than making glyphs
work.

I finally got nice thread glyphs working in X by following these hints:
http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/GnusFormatting

I don't understand much about fonts and such but the whole process seems
unnecessarily hard and fragile.  If I change fonts, I think my fancy glyphs
might break.  And I assume I need a separate setup if I want to to have
fancy glyphs when I log in via ssh and run Emacs (or multi-tty's [1]
emacslient) on a tty.

There not be a way around needing something special when on a tty (unless
Emacs supports doing graphics inside xterms which support it) but it would
be nice for X to just work.

Thanks!

Footnotes: 
[1]  http://lorentey.hu/project/emacs.html.en

Re: Use images instead of glyphs for fancy threading?

[Nikolaus Rath]

Mark Plaksin <happy@mcplaksin.org> writes:
> When graphics are available, does it make sense to use images
> instead of glyphs for fancy thread display? I don't know anything
> about using images in Emacs but it seems like this would be a lot
> easier than making glyphs work.
>
> I finally got nice thread glyphs working in X by following these
> hints: http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/GnusFormatting

Why not just use unicode characters? This works fine here:

 gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%4L %(%[%-20,20f%]%) %B%s\n" 
 gnus-sum-thread-tree-root "● "
 gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent "◎ "
 gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other "├─► "
 gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical "│"
 gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf "╰─► "
 gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent "  "
 gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root "○ "
 gnus-summary-same-subject ""

> I don't understand much about fonts and such but the whole process
> seems unnecessarily hard and fragile. If I change fonts, I think my
> fancy glyphs might break. And I assume I need a separate setup if I
> want to to have fancy glyphs when I log in via ssh and run Emacs (or
> multi-tty's [1] emacslient) on a tty.

As long as your font has the necessary characters, AFAIK there should
be no problems.

   --Nikolaus

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Re: Use images instead of glyphs for fancy threading?

[Mark Plaksin]

Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org> writes:

> Mark Plaksin <happy@mcplaksin.org> writes:
>
>> When graphics are available, does it make sense to use images
>> instead of glyphs for fancy thread display? I don't know anything
>> about using images in Emacs but it seems like this would be a lot
>> easier than making glyphs work.
>>
>> I finally got nice thread glyphs working in X by following these
>> hints: http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/GnusFormatting
>
> Why not just use unicode characters? This works fine here:
>
>  gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%4L %(%[%-20,20f%]%) %B%s\n" 
>  gnus-sum-thread-tree-root "● "
>  gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent "◎ "
>  gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other "├─► "
>  gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical "│"
>  gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf "╰─► "
>  gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent "  "
>  gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root "○ "
>  gnus-summary-same-subject ""

I finally got around to trying this and it gives me square boxes.

>> I don't understand much about fonts and such but the whole process
>> seems unnecessarily hard and fragile. If I change fonts, I think my
>> fancy glyphs might break. And I assume I need a separate setup if I
>> want to to have fancy glyphs when I log in via ssh and run Emacs (or
>> multi-tty's [1] emacslient) on a tty.
>
> As long as your font has the necessary characters, AFAIK there should
> be no problems.

I guess my font (Terminus) doesn't have the necessary characters.

That's why I posted my initial question--if images were used they would
simply work everywhere that graphics was available.

Re: Use images instead of glyphs for fancy threading?

[Frank Schmitt]

Mark Plaksin <happy@mcplaksin.org> writes:

> Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org> writes:
> I guess my font (Terminus) doesn't have the necessary characters.
>
> That's why I posted my initial question--if images were used they would
> simply work everywhere that graphics was available.

The following glyphs work with Terminus (for me). I guess using images
would be to slow when building large summary buffers.

(setq gnus-summary-same-subject "...")

(unless (eq window-system nil)
  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-root "►")
  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other "├─►")
  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf "└─►")
  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical "│"))
(setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent " ")

(setq gnus-summary-line-format ":%U%R%B %s %-79= │%4L │%-21,21f │%&user-date;\n")

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