Re: mode-line-inverse-video

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Miles Bader <address@hidden>
> Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 14:08:39 +0900 (JST)
> 
> So can someone tell me what deal is with the `mode-line-inverse-video'
> variable?  It suffices to force mode-lines (and header-lines) into
> inverse-video if their face doesn't do so, but setting it to nil doesn't
> do the opposite.  Since I would guess the primary use of this variable by
> users is to *turn off* inverse-video mode-lines (as the default is t),
> this behavior only confuses things.

This looks like some bug, because xdisp does set the inverse_p flag of
the glyph_row produced for the mode line (and also the menu bar).

> I would suggest that it's simply too blunt a stick, and should be removed
> (with some documentation referring to the appropriate faces to modify),
> or the current behavior reversed (i.e., if it's nil, then force all
> mode-lines to be non-inverse-video, otherwise do nothing).

I'm not sure such a change should be made (I think we should rather
fix the bug), but even if it is, please let's postpone it until after
v21.1 is out.  This issue touches the heart of the color support on
all display systems, which is notoriously complex, took several
iterations to get right, and I typically need a few days of work to
fix the MS-DOS/tty colors after each significant change in this area.