bugGNU nano - Bugs: bug #57953, [Wish] use the top-right corner...

 
 

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bug #57953: [Wish] use the top-right corner for state information

Submitter:  Seb <seb5903>
Submitted:  Wed 04 Mar 2020 07:55:18 PM UTC
   
 
Severity:  1 - Wish Status:  Fixed
Assigned to:  bens Open/Closed:  Closed

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Thu 08 Oct 2020 08:54:11 AM UTC, comment #15: 

Option --stateflags and 'set stateflags' was released in version 5.3.

Benno Schulenberg <bens>
Group administrator
Wed 23 Sep 2020 06:26:32 PM UTC, comment #14: 

Fixed in git, commit d679bbc8.  (Two subsequent commits clean things up and add documentation.)

Benno Schulenberg <bens>
Group administrator
Sun 20 Sep 2020 03:20:21 PM UTC, comment #13: 

You could consider breaking convention and use # instead of *, way more visible, you'd only need 1.

[With the minibar, I missed some of the counter (lines-total and columns-total) and would't have the stateflags, which I like. It was indeed jarring to lose the bar on status messages, so no great loss, the main thing I liked is only losing 1 line of editing screen.]

Peter Passchier <pepa65>
Sun 20 Sep 2020 02:27:22 PM UTC, comment #12: 

If you use a patch and you like it (or don't like it), please give feedback on the mailing list.  If nobody says anything, how am I supposed to know what people think?

I myself didn't like how the minibar behaved, because it got overwritten too often by some status-bar message.  And after adding the missing "[1/n]" part, I liked it even less (too ugly, the filename not in a constant place).  So I lost interest.

This new patch (--stateflags) will keep perfectly well, because it will get pushed to master (barring major problems) because I like how it behaves.

About the two stars: I have been going back and forth about this.  When it's one star, I have to look at it to see it; if it's two, I can see them without directly looking at them.  But yes, then I have the same thing as you: "Why two?"

Benno Schulenberg <bens>
Group administrator
Sun 20 Sep 2020 09:19:12 AM UTC, comment #11: 

To me, really useful, so really great. I don't think you need 2 asterisks, one should be enough. (When I was seeing it, I thought, what does TWO asterisks mean?) Having 1 is a well established convention.

[How long do these patches keep?? I still have 'minibar' patches, but they no longer work... :-(]

Peter Passchier <pepa65>
Sun 10 May 2020 03:25:01 PM UTC, comment #10: 

A first implementation of the feature was posted by Marco to the devel list: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/nano-devel/2020-04/msg00053.html.  If you have tried the patch, please post your experiences to that thread.

Benno Schulenberg <bens>
Group administrator
Sun 10 May 2020 10:30:57 AM UTC, comment #9: 

If this feature was available, I would certainly turn the "show the flag" on for Modified, Macro-recording, Auto-indent, and Mark-set. I never use Hard-wrapping, so I just would not turn that on.

I understand it is not motivating for those writing most of the code to implement features they themselves are not interested in... But it would improve the versatility of nano even more for (hopefully) not too high a price.

Peter Passchier <pepa65>
Sun 19 Apr 2020 09:16:29 AM UTC, comment #8: 

I am not forcing anything on anyone.  If people don't like how the flags work, then they shouldn't use the option that switches them on.  And stop telling what I should do or not do!  I have no interest in making a patch -- I wouldn't use it.  Also, the patch wouldn't use lowercase to indicate an option is off, because then the contrast would be far too low: you would have to look closely to see whether an option is on or off.

Benno Schulenberg <bens>
Group administrator
Sat 18 Apr 2020 11:59:53 AM UTC, comment #7: 

These are interesting points.

First, yes, all this could be activated through an option in nanorc.

Next, it is true that "Modified" is crystal-clear and perhaps it would be best to preserve it, in which case the modifiers could appear on its left.

Uppercase/Lowercase is certainly an idea to explore...

Seb <seb5903>
Fri 17 Apr 2020 11:14:33 PM UTC, comment #6: 

You are forcing clutter up there for anyone who doesn't use nano the way you use nano. There should at least be an option to hide the flags if same as nanorc. Make a patch that always displays a letter for each flag, uppercase if enabled and lowercase if not. Try it out for a while and see if having that constant clutter makes it useful.

Packing the asterisk up against the filename makes it even less visible. Right now a very large chunk of "Modified" text appears in an area void of anything, making it highly visible. "Modified" is obvious to everyone, no one will find an asterisk to be obvious.

It is fine if view mode disables the indent and wrap flags, but "View" or "V" should be displayed. If softwrap gets a flag, it should always get the flag, even in view mode (consistency).

Brand Huntsman <brand>
Fri 17 Apr 2020 03:32:29 PM UTC, comment #5: 

When the content of a nanorc file influences when what is shown in the top-right corner, and you don't know or don't remember what is in nanorc, then you won't know whether the absence of an A and H means autoindent and hardwrap are off or on.  When I look at an unknown nano and I see some letter in the top-right corner, but not an H, then I want to be sure that hardwrapping is off.

The asterisk could be placed right after the file name (separated by a space).  That would make it more visible, and it will be more obvious what it means.

View mode should simply disable the showing of the extra information, because hardwrapping and autoindenting don't make any sense in View mode, and the user recording a macro in that mode is unlikely.  That leaves only softwrap not getting indicated -- the user will have to live with that.

Benno Schulenberg <bens>
Group administrator
Thu 16 Apr 2020 10:01:06 PM UTC, comment #4: 

It would need to know the initial normal state (nanorc but not command line flags) of some flags such as autoindent and hardwrap. If the normal state is always enabled, it could use a lowercase letter when disabled. Otherwise those who always use hardwrap would always have an "H" up there and becomes useless clutter that also makes the other letters less visible.

Using asterisk for modified might be a bad idea as it is the most important state. It could detect how much empty whitespace is left over and only use asterisk when there isn't enough room for "Modified". But I think current nano clips the filename to make room for "Modified", so asterisk might just be a bad idea.

There is also "View" mode that could probably use "V".

Brand Huntsman <brand>
Thu 05 Mar 2020 12:05:40 PM UTC, comment #3: 

It is possible for the entire selected region to be out of view.  For example: run 'nano +1 README', type ^6, and then M-= a few times (that scrolls the screen while keeping the cursor on the top row of the edit window).  Now go and make a cup of tea, then come back.  Question: is the mark on, or not?  :)

Benno Schulenberg <bens>
Group administrator
Thu 05 Mar 2020 11:04:10 AM UTC, comment #2: 

Agreed for an option.

Regarding the letters:
- "*" is OK for "modified";
- "M" is perfect;
- "I" seems more natural to me than "A" for auto-indent;
- why would one need to check if a mark is on ? Isn't it already obvious because some text is selected or because the key combination has just been typed ?
- "H" seems fine for hardwapping.

Thanks!

Seb <seb5903>
Thu 05 Mar 2020 10:54:58 AM UTC, comment #1: 

(Hmm.  I didn't get an email about this item.  Normally Savannah sends me an email when a new item is posted.)

There has been a suggestion before to give feedback in the title bar about nano's state: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/nano-devel/2017-10/msg00047.html.

What would need to be shown?  Modified (*), a macro being recorded (M), auto-indent is on (A), the mark is on (S), automatic hard-wrapping is on (H).  It would look something like:


  GNU nano 4.8                        README                         * M A S H


Anyway, if this is made, it should be behind some option, like 'set feedback'.  It should not be added to --nohelp or some other option.

(See also bug #57956, that requests a scrollbar on the right.)

Benno Schulenberg <bens>
Group administrator
Wed 04 Mar 2020 07:55:18 PM UTC, original submission:  

When I edit a file, I switch on an off auto-indent and hardwrap depending on the current content. But I often wonder whether either on these switches is on or off.

It would be nice if their state could be displayed somewhere, perhaps top right (with a minified version or "Modified"), perhaps only if some kind of expert mode is on (such as --nohelp).

Thanks for considering the idea!

Seb <seb5903>

 

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    Follow 7 latest changes.

    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2020-10-08 bens Open/ClosedOpen Closed
    2020-09-23 bens StatusIn Progress Fixed
    2020-09-19 bens StatusNone In Progress
        Assigned toNone bens
    2020-03-05 bens Severity3 - Normal 1 - Wish
        Summary[wish] Use top right space for state information [Wish] use the top-right corner for state information
    2020-03-04 seb5903 Carbon-Copy- Added -email is unavailable-

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