Why is `key-chord-mode` not listed among enabled minor modes?

Question

After starting Emacs with the following init.el file, key-chord-mode is turned on.

;; Speed up startup
(setq gc-cons-threshold 402653184
      gc-cons-percentage 0.6)
(add-hook 'after-init-hook
          `(lambda ()
             (setq gc-cons-threshold 800000
                   gc-cons-percentage 0.1)
             (garbage-collect)) t)

;; Initialize package.el
(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives
             '("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/"))
(add-to-list 'package-archives
             '("org" . "https://orgmode.org/elpa/") t)
(package-initialize)

;; Bootstrap `use-package'
(setq-default use-package-always-ensure t ; Auto-download package if not exists
              use-package-always-defer t ; Always defer load package to speed up startup
              use-package-verbose nil ; Don't report loading details
              use-package-expand-minimally t  ; make the expanded code as minimal as possible
              use-package-enable-imenu-support t) ; Let imenu finds use-package definitions
(unless (package-installed-p 'use-package)
  (package-refresh-contents)
  (package-install 'use-package))
(eval-when-compile
  (require 'use-package))

(use-package use-package-chords
  :ensure t
  :defer nil
  :config (key-chord-mode 1))



;;; init.el ends here

But it's not listed when I do C-h m.

So I guess my question is: in order to determine whether a certain minor mode has been enabled after starting emacs, is there something else I need to do other than C-h m?

Answer 1

key-chord-mode seems to be an older piece of source code. It works without the define-minor-mode facilities.
Those things happen with the introduction of new features, and if the author does not change its code.

To check if key-chord-mode is active, check if variable key-chord-mode is set.

Have a look at the packages source code and search for key-chord-mode to get more info.

---

There is (imho) not much you could do to detect all such modes. You could search for all variables whose names ends with -mode and are set to true. But even then you might miss some, because it is no requirement to name variables for modes in that way.