From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: Nick Dokos <ndokos@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Move Currently clocked in task to left on modeline
Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2019 19:39:12 -0400
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Nathan Neff <nathan.neff@gmail.com> writes:

> Hello all,
>
> How can I move the currently clocked task to be on the left side
> of my modeline in emacs?
>

The way the information ends up in the mode line is a bit convoluted:

- The main variable is `mode-line-format': you should read its doc
  string carefully.

- `mode-line-format' includes the variable `mode-line-misc-info'
  towards the end.

- `mode-line-misc-info' includes the variable `global-mode-string'
  (in a somewhat peculiar way that I don't quite understand).

- `org-clock-in', `org-clock-out' and `org-clock-cancel' affect the
  mode line by modifying the `global-mode-string' variable to append
  or delete `org-mode-line-string' to/from it and then forcing a
  mode-line update with (drum roll) `force-mode-line-update'.

- The rest of the org mode code mucks around with `org-mode-line-string'
  exclusively.

In short, there is no way to change the position of the currently
clocked task without rewriting code. You might be able to move
*all* of the org information by modifying an earlier mode-line
component (rather than `global-mode-string' which is part of the
final component). But it would not be trivial.

-- 
Nick

"There are only two hard problems in computer science: cache
invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors." -Martin Fowler