Re: Emacs Survey: Toolbars

[Stefan Kangas]

(I had a look at this recent megathread, as nothing actionable seems to
have come out of it.)

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:
>
>> 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.
>
> True, there are modes where the toolbar may be useful, and a media
> player might be one of them.  And prev/next/reload in a browser may be
> something people might use.

How about introducing a new variable with the tentative name
`this-mode-wants-toolbars' that defaults to nil?  If it is nil, there
are no toolbars.  This variable can then be set to t when someone has
made a toolbar that they know will be useful.

That way, there is less need for users to disable the toolbar globally
(unless you really want to), and they can benefit from this feature
where it is actually in a useful state.

One obvious drawback of this proposal is that it's slightly jarring when
the toolbar appears and disappears when switching between windows.
Perhaps we could show it if it is enabled in any buffer in a window on
the current frame?

> But there aren't a lot of these modes, and
> you may as well put the buttons in the mode line, which is already
> there, and which nobody much disables.

I tend to agree.  The above proposal would leave this to the mode
author to decide.

(Well, in reality, the overwhelming majority run with no toolbars anyway.
So if you want your controls seen you should probably still put them in
the mode line.)