RE: Emacs Survey: Toolbars

[Drew Adams]

> FWIw, I believe the toolbar should behave a bit more like the
> header-line: it should not "default to off" but instead it should only
> exist in those buffers where it is useful.
> 
> IMO a toolbar should contain things that are used often, and by "often"
> I don't mean "in most sessions" but rather often enough that the time
> taken to pick it from the menu-bar would be excessive.
> Contrary to the menu-bar, the toolbar is not a good way to advertise
> Emacs's functionality because there just isn't enough room to put that
> info, so to justify its existence it should be *useful*.
> 
> For most major modes, it's hard to find a justification for a toolbar,
> and for some major modes, OTOH, it's a no-brainer (e.g. mpc.el).
> But I don't think we've done a good job of making use of the toolbar for
> the middle ground.
> 
> IOW, the current tool-bar is a mechanism that we haven't really tried
> hard to make use of it.  Maybe instead of "actions" it should mostly
> contain "toggle buttons" for minor modes (and maybe these would need to
> be new minor modes, since most of our minor modes are designed under
> the principle that they're not toggle at a high frequency)?

FWIW:

1. I agree with what Stefan said.  Buffer-specific
if possible.  Most modes don't justify it on by
default.  (But I don't think it matters whether we
decide that tool-bar buttons should only or mainly
be for toggling something.)

2. I think that the default "on" state should be
that provided by `tool-bar-pop-up-mode' from my
library `tool-bar+.el' (or similar).

https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ToolBar#tool-bar-pop-up-mode

tl;dr: Save space without sacrificing discoverability
or availability of the tool-bar.


Advantage relative to showing the tool-bar:

 Instead of sacrificing an entire line of tool-bars
 (vertical space), you sacrifice the horizontal space
 of an additional menu-bar menu.

 Not a real menu, but a menu name that's really a
 button that opens the tool-bar for a one-off action.

Advantage relative to not showing the tool-bar:

 Discoverability.

The tool-bar+.el code (any or all of it) could be
added to Emacs.  Or the design can be used as
inspiration for something similar.
___


The same library also provides another minor mode
for the tool-bar: `tool-bar-here-mode'.  This is
the same as 'tool-bar-mode', except that it affects
only the current frame.  This saves real estate on
frames other than those where you've chosen to have
a tool-bar.