Re: bad UI defaults

[Richard Stallman]

    > I would be glad to see a custom facility for customizing
    > mode-line-format conveniently.  All that it takes is defining
    > a special custom-type that is convenient to use.

    Could you be more specific?  It doesn't seem so easy to me.

mode-line-format has a value made of a certain data structure built
out of Lisp objects.  We could make a helpful defcustom for it
if we had a suitable value to use for :type.

Of course, we could use something general such as :type 'sexp, but
customizing the variable that way would require full knowledge of the
data structure at the Lisp level.  That's no help for non-programmers.
To make it easy would require a :type designed for mode line elements
and which makes it convenient to customize them.

Doing a good job of this would require some creativity.  I agree
it is not trivial.  However, at least the job to be done is clear cut.