When viewing a single highlighted clue above the grid, space permitting, the clue is followed by its length just for traditional clarity, such as "1. Popeye's nemesis [5]". The clues list does not contain these lengths in its printout, but it should, for a few reasons.
First off, while making the initial scan down the list, it can give you some advance warning about whether you might be able to answer it when its time comes up a few clues from now, without having to click on it. For example, if a clue is "A Great Lake" followed by [4], [5], or [7], then you'll be able to know there is a unique possibility for its length; if it's [8] then you'll know there is no such opportunity until you come back after going through the Down clues and trying to get a few of the crossings.
The second, and probably most functional, aspect where this feature request makes a difference involves long answers, usually the theme entries. It may vary between devices, but on my phone, the fixed level of zoom for the squares in clues list mode is such that it can only show nine squares on the screen at a time. If I tap a clue and the row of squares happens to span all the way across the screen, the only way to tell if it's really just a 9, or a 10, or a 15, is by attempting to swipe to the left and scroll it right, count off how many squares it's able to move, and then swipe back to return to the first square and start typing. Needless to say, this is much more unwieldy than just being able to read off [11] at the end of the clue and verify if my idea for the answer meshes with that length.
Finally, some puzzles, such as Erik Agard's, have the occasional clue that's excessively verbose, such that grid mode is unable to display the end of the clue. In these cases, the length notation will be cut off too, and while it's normally not a problem to just look at a span of four or five highlighted squares in the grid, if length notations are going to exist at all, there may as well be a way to access them. Clues list mode is the only way to see such long clues in their entirety, and they should preserve the letter count as well.
When viewing a single highlighted clue above the grid, space permitting, the clue is followed by its length just for traditional clarity, such as "1. Popeye's nemesis [5]". The clues list does not contain these lengths in its printout, but it should, for a few reasons.
First off, while making the initial scan down the list, it can give you some advance warning about whether you might be able to answer it when its time comes up a few clues from now, without having to click on it. For example, if a clue is "A Great Lake" followed by [4], [5], or [7], then you'll be able to know there is a unique possibility for its length; if it's [8] then you'll know there is no such opportunity until you come back after going through the Down clues and trying to get a few of the crossings.
The second, and probably most functional, aspect where this feature request makes a difference involves long answers, usually the theme entries. It may vary between devices, but on my phone, the fixed level of zoom for the squares in clues list mode is such that it can only show nine squares on the screen at a time. If I tap a clue and the row of squares happens to span all the way across the screen, the only way to tell if it's really just a 9, or a 10, or a 15, is by attempting to swipe to the left and scroll it right, count off how many squares it's able to move, and then swipe back to return to the first square and start typing. Needless to say, this is much more unwieldy than just being able to read off [11] at the end of the clue and verify if my idea for the answer meshes with that length.
Finally, some puzzles, such as Erik Agard's, have the occasional clue that's excessively verbose, such that grid mode is unable to display the end of the clue. In these cases, the length notation will be cut off too, and while it's normally not a problem to just look at a span of four or five highlighted squares in the grid, if length notations are going to exist at all, there may as well be a way to access them. Clues list mode is the only way to see such long clues in their entirety, and they should preserve the letter count as well.