Re: actual mode-line string

[Kevin Rodgers]

"D. Goel" wrote:
> As i write this message, i see something on my mode-line.. precisely,
> i see:
> 
> --=:**-F1  *news on gnu.emacs.bug*      (Message RC MML CFS Abbrev Fill)--L10
> 
> But, it seems that there is no command currently that can give this
> information (which is so easily available to the eye) to a lisp-program.
> 
> In other words there is no lisp-command that will fetch, for a
> programmer, the *actual* (not the format) mode-line string that the
> user is currently seeing, or that is present in a given buffer.

The problem is that there aren't distinct functions in Emacs to (1)
interpret the mode-line-format variable and (2) display it.  In xdisp.c,
display_mode_element is used for both purposes, and it doesn't have a
Lisp binding.

> (PS: i did search for this on archives, and then posted a
> help-request, with no replies---apparently this is indeed not
> possible).
> 
> IMHO, it would be nice if there was a command like
> 
> (actual-mode-line-string &optional buffername)
> 
> which would return a string, and that string would be the actual
> current string displayed in the given buffername.

Since I saw your request, I've been hacking on my own Lisp version, which
I'll post either there or gnu.emacs.sources shortly...

-- 
Kevin Rodgers <kevinr@ihs.com>