Re: where-am-i, again

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Fri, 07 Jun 2013 01:04:50 +0200 Thien-Thi Nguyen <address@hidden> wrote: 

TN> () Ted Zlatanov <address@hidden>
TN> () Wed, 05 Jun 2013 11:47:19 -0400

TN>    The extra buffer interaction to get interesting info seems annoying.
TN>    How about using `header-line-format' to display the breadcrumb
TN>    automagically, in addition to the popup detail?

TN> My computer is slow, my attention ever prone to distraction, Emacs omits
TN> header line and {scroll,tool,menu} bars, and only on command, dares take
TN> action.

That's fine, then you don't see it.  Those who want decorations will get them.

TN> Besides, what is a "breadcrumb"?!

The path to a file is a breadcrumb trail in the filesystem, for
example.  Each directory name along the way is a node in that trail.

In general, it's the path to get to the top of a tree-like hierarchical
structure, with a way to see and even move to each level along the way.

TN> Besides^2 (since this is a source mailing list), have you tried:

  (setq header-line-format
        (mapconcat (lambda (n)
                     (make-string n (+ ?a n -1)))
                   (number-sequence 1 15)
                   "\n"))

TN> That is interesting in its ugliness, i suppose.

With some creativity it can look nice.  Coming back to the directory
name example, `dired' shows the directory name on top to show you where
you are in the filesystem hierarchy.  It doesn't use the header-line
because it's a dedicated mode, but what you wrote isn't.

Ted