Re: address@hidden: modeline doesn't divulge buffer will go bye bye]

[Kim F. Storm]

"Robert J. Chassell" <address@hidden> writes:

>     What do you think of this idea?
> 
>         The most important thing, the fact that this buffer will go
>         bye bye without a trace is not mentioned there!
> 

Hm, most non-file buffer names created automatically by various
packages start (and end) with an asterisk.  So for such buffers, there
typically already is a visible difference in the mode-line.

The problem is with buffers which the user creates explicitly.  Such
buffers are typically named like a file (except that they typically
don't have a file name suffix).

Personally, I choose dummy names for my own non-file buffers, so
I rarely confuse a non-file buffer with a file buffer.  Of course,
if I name my temporary buffers file.c -- I'm asking for trouble :-)

I really think this is a non-issue (it actually took Dan 20 years to
be aware that there was a problem :-)

> Perhaps we could insert a dot in a space to the left of the
> `mode-line-frame-identification' segment of a mode line if the buffer
> is visiting a file, and replace that glyph with a blank space if the
> buffer is not associated with a file.  
> 
> I pick `dot' as the visible glyph since it is small, unobtrusive, and
> should not make the mode-line appear too cramped.

I don't think this will do the trick.

For one thing, I think that if we choose to make some annotation, it
should be on the non-file buffers (which are the dangerous ones to
kill).

Maybe we could write [TMP] before the buffer name for non-file buffers.
But not do this for buffer names starting with an *.


-- 
Kim F. Storm <address@hidden> http://www.cua.dk