SL Baur writes: This sounds like a non-solution to me. If the problem is that long buffer names are pushing the modes off the right side of the mode line then why are we hacking on something else? From the docstring for modeline-format: For a list whose car is an integer, the cdr of the list is processed and padded (if the number is positive) or truncated (if negative) to the width specified by that number. We can already truncate long buffer names. Why not do that? I think the XEmacs in the mode line is useful for burning the name of the product into the minds of the users. We've had it there for years and some people still write Xemacs. I think we should put XEmacs at BOTH ends of the mode line. :)