bug#28648: Make mode-line number display consistent when both line and col numbers are shown.

[Robert Weiner]

On Fri, Sep 29, 2017 at 4:08 PM, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:

> From: Robert Weiner <rsw@gnu.org>
> Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2017 15:23:30 -0400
> Cc: 28648@debbugs.gnu.org
>
>  If you are asking for an optional feature that would display these
>  indicators as we did 15 years ago, I'm okay with adding it. (We
>  already have quite a few optional variations on similar themes, but
>  one more cannot do too much harm, I guess.)
>
> ​Can you explain how that would work? How would you modify the line and col display format?

By providing a defcustom which will arrange for mode-line-format to
have the right stuff, I suppose.

​Just change the patch to use a defcustom instead of the defvar for the line and col format strings.

​

> ​We have two separate issues here:
>
> 1. The default line and col display format: I was suggesting the change for consistency sake.​ If it could be
> made an easy-to-trigger option on the popup menu that controls this display, I could support that.
>
> 2. The ability to easily change the line and col display format strings: My patch solves that issue.

Your patch makes the change unconditional for everyone.  I don't think
we should do that, especially since we once went in the opposite
direction.

​Ok, then just modify the one line-and-col string to be as it presently is in Emacs (that's the only one that was modified) and users will not see a change unless they customize the format strings.

Bob

​