re: No left fringe

[Gordon Beaton]

address@hidden wrote:
> The left fringe helps to indicate continuation.
> Do you find that is not useful?

I think that the indication on the right is sufficient, and that the
left one is redundant and visually distracting. Perhaps I would mind
it less if I could make it narrower, or change the glyphs to something
more discreet.

I don't mind the right fringe at all, I am aware that the last column
in a text console is unusable anyway and that the fringe simply
clarifies that.

I think my aversion to having both is that the only time the fringes
actually display anything for me is when I've received mail written
with (for example) LookOut, with one line per paragraph. In that case
both fringes are nearly completely filled with arrows, essentially
resulting in a thick additional border on each side of the window.

During most other activities the fringes are empty, and I would rather
have that space (at least the left one) for my own use. I have already
turned of scroll bars and most window decorations, so it bothers me
that emacs is occupying space with something I don't feel that I need.
It becomes even more apparent with side-by-side windows (C-x 3), when
the divider is an additional 2 columns wide.

> It is also used when truncate-lines is non-nil, to show
> horizontal scrolling, and in GUD mode.  Perhaps you don't
> ever use those modes.

Of those, I do run gdb in emacs occasionally, and I agree that the
pointer serves a useful purpose in that mode.

Perhaps the fringe should be mode-specific, or at least only turned on
when it's actually being used? At least somewhat more configurable...

/gordon

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