After watching and writing about Prot’s video on custom mode lines I’ve been experiencing a vague urge to customize my own. Adding to that urge has been a couple of posts by James Dyer who has also felt the urge. The first used Prot’s post as a jumping off point for his own customization. Now Dyer is back with his latest iteration.
Dyer has a list of goals for his ideal mode line. The ones that resonate with me are:
- Show the full path name. I often wish for this, not for the same reason as Dyer but because I occasionally start a post in
~/org/rather than~/org/blog/and having the full path name would help me realize this earlier. - A Clear indication of file modification. That’s not usually a problem for me but the three side-by-side indicators can be confusing if one other than the modified indicator is lit.
- Efficient information display. Unlike Prot, Dyer and I like to have as much information as possible displayed. We both want the row and column of the point displayed, and would like at least the important minor modes indicated.
Dyer includes the code for his mode line configuration. To really understand it you should watch Prot’s video. Perhaps you, too, will feel the urge for a bit of mode line customization.
UPDATE : Added link to second Dyer post.