bug#12872: 24.2; Provide a feature to trigger mode-line redisplay

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

> How would that be different from what force-mode-line-update does now?
> It sets the update_mode_line flag for the window's buffer, not just
> for the window, and it also sets a flag to prevent redisplay
> optimizations that could get in the way of the mode-line update.  What
> do you suggest to do instead, and why would that be useful?

Somebody said earlier:

> force-mode-line-update is a blunt weapon, and causes a much more
> thorough redisplay than its name says.

If this isn't accurate, then I guess there's nothing to do here.

> The problem with the update_mode_line flags is that they are
> indiscriminate: the mode line shows a lot of data, each one of it
> changes at different frequencies and due to different triggers.  If we
> want a finer resolution there, we need to make these flags not just
> simple booleans, but enumerations with several values, or maybe
> bitmaps.  Then redisplay_window could be smarter about redrawing parts
> of the mode line.

I think redrawing parts of the mode line would be more work than it's
worth.

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   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no