Re: Elisp manual: @section Mode Line Format is unclear

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

>>>>> "Andreas" == Andreas Schwab <address@hidden> writes:

    Andreas> What is that if not a definition?

It *is* a definition.  What it is not, is *documentation*.  Thus the
reference to "specifiers" (an over-elaborated XEmacs API full of YAGNI[1]
violations, whose documentation focuses on what YAGN).

What Alan would like to see, I suppose, is something like:

 - Variable: mode-line-format
     The value of this variable is a mode-line construct which
     describes the mode-line to redisplay.

     The simplest form of mode-line construct is a string containing
     zero or more %-constructs.  A %-construct is a reference to a
     variable whose value is to be interpolated into the modeline at
     that point.  The %-construct is introduced by the character `%',
     followed by optional formatting specifications, and terminated by
     a single character which indicates the variable whose value is to
     be interpolated.

     Example: `(setq mode-line-format "%B")' puts the buffer name, and
     nothing else, in the mode-line of the current buffer.

     A symbol is also a modeline construct.  Its value is interpolated
     in the 


Footnotes: 
[1]  "You Aren't Gonna Need It", for those who most naturally
interpret "XP" to refer to a proprietary operating system, is one of
the basic ideas of the XP == Extreme Programming style.

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