Andreas Röhler <andreas.roehler@easy-emacs.de> writes:
M-x describe-mode RET should report the major-mode.
Currently it tells the value of "mode-name".
Several issues with this:
- Value of mode-name is displayed in current-buffers mode-line allready
I guess the main usage of `describe-mode' is to get its documentation
and key bindings.
- mode-name often will be a quit shortened, as space in mode-line is precious
Usually it's just the capitalized version of the major-mode function
with the `-mode' stripped. And sometimes it contains more information
that just the mode function, e.g., "Dired by name", "Dired by date",
etc.
- don't see a usage of mode-name beyond mode-line
The other important usage is printing the pretty name with
describe-mode. ;-)
- user will be interested in value of major-mode, which isn't told
describe-mode prints a link you can click to jump to the major-mode
function.
See for example from inside a M-x shell RET
M-x describe-mode says: "Shell mode"
while the real major-mode is sh-mode
No, the real mode function is `shell-mode'. `sh-mode' is the editing
mode for shell scripts, and that has mode-names like "Shell-script[zsh]"
or "Shell-script[bash]" which are even more informative than just the
plain mode function.
Well, but of course having the mode functions printed in `describe-mode'
wouldn't hurt anyway. This patch does that:
--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
=== modified file 'lisp/help.el'
--- lisp/help.el 2014-08-07 03:25:09 +0000
+++ lisp/help.el 2014-11-08 14:27:54 +0000
@@ -946,7 +946,8 @@
(let ((start (point)))
(insert (format-mode-line mode nil nil buffer))
(add-text-properties start (point) '(face bold)))))
- (princ " mode")
+ (princ " mode ")
+ (princ (format "(`%s')" major-mode))
(let* ((mode major-mode)
(file-name (find-lisp-object-file-name mode nil)))
(when file-name
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
With that, in this message buffer I get:
--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
Message mode (`message-mode') defined in `message.el':
Major mode for editing mail and news to be sent.
Like Text Mode but with these additional commands:
...
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
With the following patch, the same would be done for the active minor
modes, too:
--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
=== modified file 'lisp/help.el'
--- lisp/help.el 2014-08-07 03:25:09 +0000
+++ lisp/help.el 2014-11-08 14:31:30 +0000
@@ -924,7 +924,8 @@
(push (point-marker) help-button-cache)
;; Document the minor modes fully.
(insert pretty-minor-mode)
- (princ (format " minor mode (%s):\n"
+ (princ (format " minor mode (`%s'; %s):\n"
+ mode-function
(if (zerop (length indicator))
"no indicator"
(format "indicator%s"
@@ -946,7 +947,8 @@
(let ((start (point)))
(insert (format-mode-line mode nil nil buffer))
(add-text-properties start (point) '(face bold)))))
- (princ " mode")
+ (princ " mode ")
+ (princ (format "(`%s')" major-mode))
(let* ((mode major-mode)
(file-name (find-lisp-object-file-name mode nil)))
(when file-name
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
However, in contrast to major-modes, minor mode names tend to be much
longer, so we can get some long lines like:
Global-Edit-Server-Edit minor mode (`global-edit-server-edit-mode'; no
indicator):
Bye,
Tassilo