Tabs and ribbons for the mode line

This package provides utilities for displaying elements of the mode line as tabs and ribbons. It also provides replacements for a few built-in elements.

• Make sure that the face mode-line does not set :box and that :underline and :overline are the same color or are both undefined. If defined, then the line color should be different from the :background colors of both mode-line and default. The same rules apply to mode-line-inactive. The line colors of mode-line and mode-line-inactive do not necessarily have to be identical. For example:

  (use-package solarized-theme
    :config
    (load-theme 'solarized-light t)
    (let ((line (face-attribute 'mode-line :underline)))
      (set-face-attribute 'mode-line          nil :overline   line)
      (set-face-attribute 'mode-line-inactive nil :overline   line)
      (set-face-attribute 'mode-line-inactive nil :underline  line)
      (set-face-attribute 'mode-line          nil :box        nil)
      (set-face-attribute 'mode-line-inactive nil :box        nil)
      (set-face-attribute 'mode-line-inactive nil :background "#f9f2d9")))
      

• Note that the above example is for solarized-theme and that for your theme (face-attribute 'mode-line :underline) may return nil. If you want borders, use something like (let ((line "red")) ...), in that case.
• Add something like this to your init file:

  (use-package moody
    :config
    (setq x-underline-at-descent-line t)
    (moody-replace-mode-line-buffer-identification)
    (moody-replace-vc-mode)
    (moody-replace-eldoc-minibuffer-message-function))
      

• Such replacement functions are defined as commands, making it quicker to try them out without having to add anything to your init file.
• To undo the call to a moody-replace-* function, call the same function with t as the value of the optional REVERSE argument. You can accomplish the same by interactively calling such a function with a prefix argument to do so.