Re: point-over should show URL

["Robert J. Chassell" <bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

   > When point is over a URL, the URL should be shown in the echo area.

   You're using Emacs 21, so you can alter the value for the
   show-help-function variable as follows:

   (setq show-help-function 'message)

Yes!  This does exactly what I want.  Thank you.  I have put this in
my .emacs file.



    > Emacs W3M mode needs a `spinner' ....  This way, the user knows
    > the mode is working ...

    That'a good idea.  It can be achieved easily if Emacs supports
    animations as XEmacs does for gifs. ...

I just visited an animated gif I made with the GIMP and Emacs does not
show the animation.  However, the comment on :index in the Emacs Lisp
Reference Manual node, (elisp)GIF Images, does suggest to me that you
should be able to support animations.  Unfortunately, I do not
understand images and cannot be of help.

    ... I think showing an ascii spinner (\ | - / -...) in the
    header-line or the mode-line in each emacs-w3m buffer imposes a
    burden on Emacs, ...

I think so, too.  But that is neither here nor there.  You need to
show an ascii spinner when images are toggled off.  So you may well
need to create a separate process, like w3m itself, to spin the
spinner.  (Also, it would be nice for the spinner to go around
consistently in one direction.  W3 mode has a spinner that moves
randomly, which is wrong.)



    ... using the minibuffer is not a good idea since we can run
    emacs-w3m for multiple sessions asynchronously.

You are right.



   By the way, the default value for show-help-function is
   tooltip-show-help-function which shows a URL in a balloon.
   Aren't you satisfied with it?

First, I dislike balloon help (although I recognize that others do
like it.)  I much prefer seeing the URL in the echo area.

Second, in any event, balloon help is canceled when I set `focus
follows mouse' as I do in my regular .emacs file.  Here is the code
from my regular .emacs file that sets `focus follows mouse' and as a
side effect cancels balloon help:

    ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; begin Focus Follows Mouse

    (require 'cl)

    ;; By default, a window within an Emacs frame must be selected by
    ;; `C-x o' (other-window) or by clicking [mouse-1] on the mode line
    ;; or the buffer itself (mouse-set-point); this corresponds to a
    ;; "click to type" window manager policy.

    ;; modifed by Ivar Rummelhoff <ivarr@ifi.uio.no>, 15 May 1998
    (defun follow-mouse-select-window (event)
      "*Like `mouse-select-window', if `follow-mouse' is set.
    Otherwise (or if EVENT starts outside a window), don't do anything --
    in particular, don't generate an error."
      (interactive "e")
      (let ((ww (posn-window (event-start event))))
        (when (and (windowp ww)
                   (or (not (window-minibuffer-p ww))
                       (minibuffer-window-active-p ww)))
          (select-window ww))))

    (global-set-key [mouse-movement] 'follow-mouse-select-window)
    (add-hook 'pre-command-hook  (lambda () (setq track-mouse nil)))
    (add-hook 'post-command-hook (lambda () (setq track-mouse t)))

    ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; end Focus Follows Mouse

I do not know why this cancels balloon help, but it does.



    > When I change from a *mail* buffer to the *w3m* buffer, the size
    > of my frame changes.  It grows a little bigger.

    Thanks.  I first made GTK Emacs 21.3.50, confirmed that
    behavior, and found the following constant in the startup.el
    file:

    (defconst tool-bar-images-pixel-height 24
      "Height in pixels of images in the tool bar.")

    Maybe we'd better shrink all the emacs-w3m icons.  Some are easy,
    but some images are not easy to get deflated.    Hmm...

Yes, or redo them as SVG and then modify Emacs to handle SVG image
types... :)

-- 
    Robert J. Chassell                         Rattlesnake Enterprises
    http://www.rattlesnake.com                  GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
    http://www.teak.cc                             bob@rattlesnake.com