eliding in mode-line-format

[Manuel Giraud]

Hi,

I'd like to have some kind eliding feature in the mode line.

As a usage example, I'd like to be able to have "a buffer with a really
long and meaning full name" that I'm able to track down (with icomplete
for instance) but I want its "%b" mode line representation to be
truncated to say n characters ("a buffer with…" for instance).

Before I start digging into 'xdisp.c', I'd like to know if maybe there
is already a way to do it in emacs and if it is something that could be
interesting to some?
-- 
Manuel Giraud