Re: Global bar to display global information

[Óscar Fuentes]

"Drew Adams" <address@hidden> writes:

>> Most of the time the minibuffer is an idle blank line at the bottom of
>> the frame. Using it for displaying some global info sounds quite
>> convenient. It could display the global info even while asking for
>> input, overwritting the area used by the info as necessary.
>
> Ouch!  That's not what I meant at all.

I know. It was an alternative idea.

> I would not want to see such info displayed in the minibuffer/echo
> area itself (too complex, confusing, distracting, messy, noisy).
>
> And we already have ways of posting text to the echo area (same space
> as minibuffer) when the minibuffer is inactive: `message'.  That
> messages get replaced by later messages and by minibuffer input is
> just a further demonstration that using the minibuffer/echo area for
> this global info would be a bad idea.

`message' is used for ephemeral info, very ephemeral (just a keypress
makes it go away). I was thinking about something stable that is hidden
(totally or partially) while the minibuffer/echo area is used for its
current purpose. But your comment about `message' makes me think that
*maybe* it would be confusing/distracting/etc when something is posted
to the echo area with `message' to be quickly replaced by the global
info. It may create a blinking effect.

I don't like standalone frames for things like the minibuffer or our
hypothetical global info display. I work on just one frame and reusing
the minibuffer area looks like a good idea, if it could be implemented
on a sane way. If that is not possible or convenient, a dedicated line
on each frame looks like the next choice.

(If the global info line is displayed on just one frame, what happens
when the user creates a new frame on a remote display?)

[snip]