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feature request: horizontal scroll bar

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Ulrich Scholz

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Jul 16, 2012, 7:38:04 AM7/16/12
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For a long time, I wish for a horizontal scroll bar in Gnu Emacs. From searching on the web, it seems that I'm not alone.

Not having a horizontal scrollbar makes me switch to another editor for files that are extremely wide. That sucks.

Is there any hope with this issue?

Ulrich

Eli Zaretskii

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Jul 16, 2012, 12:02:08 PM7/16/12
to help-gn...@gnu.org
> From: Ulrich Scholz <d...@thispla.net>
> Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2012 04:38:04 -0700 (PDT)
>
> Not having a horizontal scrollbar makes me switch to another editor for files that are extremely wide.

??? What's wrong with automatic horizontal scrolling that Emacs
provides by default (and which kicks in as soon as you truncate-lines
to a non-nil value)?

> Is there any hope with this issue?

I suggest to file a feature request with the Emacs bug tracker.

Drew Adams

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Jul 16, 2012, 12:21:13 PM7/16/12
to Eli Zaretskii, help-gn...@gnu.org
> > Is there any hope with this issue?
>
> I suggest to file a feature request with the Emacs bug tracker.

You mean like this one, submitted a couple of years ago?
http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=5853

The submitter, an Emacs user since 1982 (that's 30 years!), even offered to pay
for the feature.

That request got no reply at all, beyond being relegated to the wishlist (aka
/dev/null) two days later.

This info might be pertinent to Ulrich's "any hope" question.


Eli Zaretskii

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Jul 16, 2012, 12:49:45 PM7/16/12
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> From: "Drew Adams" <drew....@oracle.com>
> Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2012 09:21:13 -0700
>
> > > Is there any hope with this issue?
> >
Maybe telling how much money is in this could make a difference.

Drew Adams

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Jul 16, 2012, 1:05:23 PM7/16/12
to Eli Zaretskii, help-gn...@gnu.org, ra...@cantara.com
> > > > Is there any hope with this issue?
> > >
> > > I suggest to file a feature request with the Emacs bug tracker.
> >
> > You mean like this one, submitted a couple of years ago?
> > http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=5853
> >
> > The submitter, an Emacs user since 1982 (that's 30 years!),
> > even offered to pay for the feature.
> >
> > That request got no reply at all, beyond being relegated to
> > the wishlist (aka /dev/null) two days later.
> >
> > This info might be pertinent to Ulrich's "any hope" question.
>
> Maybe telling how much money is in this could make a difference.

Go ahead and ask him how much he's offering. You can be the first to reply to
his feature request, two years later. He might be happy to know that someone
read his suggestion.


Eli Zaretskii

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Jul 16, 2012, 2:20:42 PM7/16/12
to help-gn...@gnu.org
> From: "Drew Adams" <drew....@oracle.com>
> Cc: <ra...@cantara.com>
> Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2012 10:05:23 -0700
>
> > Maybe telling how much money is in this could make a difference.
>
> Go ahead and ask him how much he's offering. You can be the first to reply to
> his feature request, two years later. He might be happy to know that someone
> read his suggestion.

I wasn't talking about myself. I have exactly zero knowledge and
experience in GUI programming, so I wouldn't know where to start with
this, even on one platform (out of 5 or 6 that we support). So you
are marketing to the wrong guy.

Ulrich Scholz

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Jul 17, 2012, 7:00:29 AM7/17/12
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Am Montag, 16. Juli 2012 18:02:08 UTC+2 schrieb Eli Zaretskii:

> ??? What&#39;s wrong with automatic horizontal scrolling that Emacs
> provides by default (and which kicks in as soon as you truncate-lines
> to a non-nil value)?

Three things

1) A horizontal scroll bar gives a visual feedback of where you are. I have very wide files with empty spots. You can get lost.

2) Scroll bars allow to move the visual ara without moving the cursor. (Ok, that migth be achievable with keys, too.)

3) Scroll bars are good for going far in large files. Well, 90% of navigation consists of short distances in small files. But for the remaining 10%, scroll bars are much better.
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Ulrich Scholz

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Jul 17, 2012, 7:00:29 AM7/17/12
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Am Montag, 16. Juli 2012 18:02:08 UTC+2 schrieb Eli Zaretskii:

> ??? What&#39;s wrong with automatic horizontal scrolling that Emacs
> provides by default (and which kicks in as soon as you truncate-lines
> to a non-nil value)?

Eli Zaretskii

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Jul 17, 2012, 11:56:34 AM7/17/12
to help-gn...@gnu.org
> From: Ulrich Scholz <d...@thispla.net>
> Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2012 04:00:29 -0700 (PDT)
> Cc: help-gn...@gnu.org
You carefully snipped the part to which I was replying. I didn't mean
to claim that auto-hscroll mode makes horizontal scroll bar
redundant. I meant to say that it should be better than switching to
a different editor.

Michael Heerdegen

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Jul 18, 2012, 8:09:37 AM7/18/12
to help-gn...@gnu.org, Ulrich Scholz
Ulrich Scholz <d...@thispla.net> writes:

> Three things
>
> 1) A horizontal scroll bar gives a visual feedback of where you are. I
> have very wide files with empty spots. You can get lost.
>
> 2) Scroll bars allow to move the visual ara without moving the cursor.
> (Ok, that migth be achievable with keys, too.)
>
> 3) Scroll bars are good for going far in large files. Well, 90% of
> navigation consists of short distances in small files. But for the
> remaining 10%, scroll bars are much better.

I use Emacs for many years now, and horizontal scroll bars are among the
things I miss most. If you make some progress here, I think, many
people would be thankful. Please don't give up!


Michael.

Tom

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Jul 18, 2012, 11:35:58 AM7/18/12
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Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen <at> web.de> writes:
>
> I use Emacs for many years now, and horizontal scroll bars are among the
> things I miss most. If you make some progress here, I think, many
> people would be thankful. Please don't give up!
>

Can be a good candidate for crowdfunding:

http://www.freedomsponsors.org/


hjuvi

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Jul 19, 2012, 7:37:57 AM7/19/12
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I can't find it again on the web, but it seems to me that I read some time ago that the horizontal scrollbar feature request had been refused by Emacs developpers because it broke the compatibility with terminal mode (emacs -nw), and that was one of the reasons for forking Emacs into XEmacs.
But maybe I'm wrong (otherwise I believe I would find it on the web...)

Peter Dyballa

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Jul 19, 2012, 8:42:28 AM7/19/12
to hjuvi, help-gn...@gnu.org

Am 19.07.2012 um 13:37 schrieb hjuvi:

> I can't find it again on the web, but it seems to me that I read some time ago that the horizontal scrollbar feature request had been refused by Emacs developpers because it broke the compatibility with terminal mode (emacs -nw), and that was one of the reasons for forking Emacs into XEmacs.
> But maybe I'm wrong (otherwise I believe I would find it on the web...)


Is there any scroll-bar, vertical or horizontal, visible in terminal mode?

--
Greetings

Pete

My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells down by the seashore.


hjuvi

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Jul 19, 2012, 7:37:57 AM7/19/12
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