Suggestions for mode-line-format changes

[Kim F. Storm]

Now that the mode-line-position information has been moved
from the end of the mode line, and vc-mode is moved there too,
the space between the buffer name and the mode-line-modes
has become pretty crowded.

Now, if you enable display-time and display-battery,
which adds time and battery status, e.g. 15:57 [95%],
to that part of the mode line as well, it's a total mess.

My suggestion is to move the global-mode-string to the
end of the mode line; the cost is that the time and
battery status isn't always shown (especially in
partial width windows).


Also, I would like to suggest an alternative presentation
of the position, line number, and column number.

The current presentation is like

        L1 C0 Top
        L172 C23 43%
        L341 C0 Bot

which I find quite annoying to look at.

I've been using the following alternative for quite some
time, and I find it much easier on the eyes:

        Top (1,0)
        43% (172,23)
        Bot (341,0)

If only one of line-number-mode or column-number-mode is enabled,
this doesn't make much sense, so I use the following formats:

        Top L1
        43% C23
        Bot L341

To try the suggested format, just execute this (and toggle column and
line number mode as you like):

(let ((help-echo "mouse-1: select (drag to resize), mouse-2: delete others, 
mouse-3: delete"))
  (setq-default mode-line-position
    `((-3 . ,(propertize "%p" 'help-echo help-echo))
      (line-number-mode 
       ((column-number-mode
         (,(propertize " (%l,%c)" 'help-echo help-echo))
         (,(propertize " L%l" 'help-echo help-echo))))
       ((column-number-mode
         (,(propertize " C%c" 'help-echo help-echo))))))))


What do you think?

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