Re: Emphasizing the top of the frame

[martin rudalics]

BTW, your minibuffer
frames grows downw
> My point is to demonstrate that a mini-buffer that,
> when it grows, does not alter the window layout, but
> instead occludes a part of the frame, is an entirely
> liveable user experience.  I might even argue a less
> jarring experience as less of the screen changes.

I'm using a minibuffer child frame based on that principle for several
years now and it rarely has let me down so far.

> In its current state, the package is clearly a proof
> of concept with a number of rough edges:
>
> * Management of the z-axis is not great; frame
>    restacking triggers an error on my Ubuntu box

Which error?

> * Resizing the main frame works well enough
> * Moving the main frame does not work at all
>    (it appears that the move-frame-functions, at
>    least in recent 29.0.50 builds, never get called)

Here I get the expected messages when I evaluate

(add-hook
 'move-frame-functions
 (lambda (frame)
   (message "Frame %s moved to %s" frame (frame-position frame))))

If you don't see them, please tell us which toolkit and window manager
you use.

> * Occasionally the echo area enters a rapidly
>    flashing state; sufficient ^g tend to clear it

I have never seen such behavior here.  If you do not directly interact
with the minibuffer in such a situation, it might depend on some minor
mode like eldoc-mode enabled (I don't show eldoc in the echo area).

> That said, even in this state, mbmb represents a
> very big improvement in my life on a big screen.
> It is now my standard configuration.

You waste cycles updating the menubar, though.  Have you ever tried
putting the minibuffer frame on top of the title bar?

> I hope that the existence of mbmb prompts owners
> of minibuffer-resizing packages to support growth
> downward in addition to today's growth upward.
> (Could we standardize a frame parameter to record
> this direction?)

Do you mean we should resize the frame whenever the minibuffer window
changes size?  That sounds hardly feasible.

martin