Re: even more(1) tells you how big the file is on the first screen

[Alan Mackenzie]

Dan Jacobson <jidanni@dman.ddts.net> wrote on Tue, 15 Apr 2003 04:57:00 +0800:
>>>>>> "RMS" == Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

> Well, here, a face saving solution: you know those little dots
> etc. that now appear in the very left margin on wrapped lines, and
> after the bottom of the file, when one has indicate-empty-lines=t?

> Well, it turns out that if you add a special mark for the beginning of
> the file in the very left margin, then one does not anymore need to
> rely on "Top" in the modeline to tell us we are on top.

Wouldn't work for those of us using Emacs without fringes.

> Therefore, if the user enables that, then he should also have the
> choice of having the modeline keep on indicating "traditional emacs
> style percents" or "alternative more(1) style percents".

> Anyway, how can we not convey how big the file is on the initial
> screen when even the wimpy more(1) command has for what, 25 years?
> (and less -M)

Dan, I tend to agree with you on the substantive points.  I personally
think the mode line ought to contain the size of the file.  Maybe this
was left out for efficiency reasons when the machines running emacs had
processor speeds measured in kilohertz rather than gigahertz.  But until
(??) Emacs gets this update, try the following in your .emacs:

(defvar mode-line-changed-p nil)
(when (not mode-line-changed-p)
  (setq-default mode-line-format
                (append (butlast default-mode-line-format)
                        '((:eval (format "--P%s/%s" (point)
                                         (save-restriction (widen)
                                                           (point-max)))))
                        (last default-mode-line-format)))
  (setq mode-line-changed-p t))

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Munich, Germany)
Email: aacm@muuc.dee; to decode, wherever there is a repeated letter
(like "aa"), remove half of them (leaving, say, "a").