Re: address@hidden: modeline doesn't divulge buffer will go bye bye]

[Richard Stallman]

    Perhaps we could insert a dot in a space to the left of the
    `mode-line-frame-identification' segment of a mode line if the buffer
    is visiting a file, and replace that glyph with a blank space if the
    buffer is not associated with a file.  

This is so subtle that I think many users won't notice it.  If we
teach people to look for it, they can spot it.  But the problem (if it
is a problem) is with users who don't understand the difference.  In
order to teach people to look for a small indicator of the difference,
we need to first teach them the difference.  So we have not really
solved anything.

For such a mode line feature to help teach users the point about
non-file-visiting buffers, it needs to be loud enough that people who
don't know that point will notice it.

Another possible idea is to save some of these buffers in files
anyway.  Perhaps those which have "important" state in them.  We would
not save *Buffer List*, for instance, but we could save mail buffers,
shell buffers, *Compile-Log*, etc.