Mode line at top of window

Mode line at top of window

[John Yates]

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Some years ago I brought up the topic of using very large screens:
  https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2016-10/msg00859.html

More recently I brought up that topic again:
  https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2020-09/msg01057.html

Lately, using mini-frame, I have realized a very liveable approximation
of what I had in mind.  While normally I work with a maximized emacs
frame, I attach here pictures of a much smaller frame, intended to give
a sense of my current mini-buffer experience.

A notable feature of my current implementation is that I position the
minibuffer over the frame's title bar.  Positioned thus, a one line mini-
buffer does not obscure any window content.  The downside is that,
in order to position the popped up mini-buffer frame outside of the
selected frame's native boundaries, that popped up frame must be
made parentless.  That, in turn, has some rough edges.

Were I able to position the mode-line at the top of each window (an
arrangement whose virtues on a large screen I have argued  before)
then I would make my selected frame the parent of the popped up
mini-buffer.  The mini-buffer would have to remain within my frame's
native boundaries.  But that would be acceptable because, with the
mode-line at the top of each window, it would be one or more mode-
lines that got hidden, rather than any actual buffer text.

Which brings me to my ask: Would it be possible, optionally, to draw
the mode-line at the top of each window?

/john

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Re: Mode line at top of window

[Arthur Miller]

John Yates <john@yates-sheets.org> writes:

> Some years ago I brought up the topic of using very large screens:
>   https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2016-10/msg00859.html
>
> More recently I brought up that topic again:
>   https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2020-09/msg01057.html
>
> Lately, using mini-frame, I have realized a very liveable approximation
> of what I had in mind.  While normally I work with a maximized emacs
> frame, I attach here pictures of a much smaller frame, intended to give
> a sense of my current mini-buffer experience.
>
> A notable feature of my current implementation is that I position the
> minibuffer over the frame's title bar.  Positioned thus, a one line mini-
> buffer does not obscure any window content.  The downside is that,
> in order to position the popped up mini-buffer frame outside of the
> selected frame's native boundaries, that popped up frame must be
> made parentless.  That, in turn, has some rough edges.
>
> Were I able to position the mode-line at the top of each window (an
> arrangement whose virtues on a large screen I have argued  before)
> then I would make my selected frame the parent of the popped up
> mini-buffer.  The mini-buffer would have to remain within my frame's
> native boundaries.  But that would be acceptable because, with the
> mode-line at the top of each window, it would be one or more mode-
> lines that got hidden, rather than any actual buffer text.
>
> Which brings me to my ask: Would it be possible, optionally, to draw
> the mode-line at the top of each window?

When you say at top of each window, you mean in the titlebar of each
OS window as you show in your examples? That might be a problem, since
area outside of an application window, titlebar, borders, etc, usually
called a frame, is not owned by the application, but by some kind of a
window manager. In X11 it is usually a separate application (DWM, i3,
Compiz, etc), in MS Windows it is Explorer, as example.

I am not an expert at Emacs, so don't take me too seriously, but as far
as I know, I don't think you can display modeline on top of a window,
but you can display a header on top of your Emacs window (not in
titlebar) which takes same format as the modeline:

https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Mode-Line-Format.html

You can also hide modeline, check for example this:

https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/HideModeLine

There was also some package that used hidden modeline and displayed
modeline info in minibuffer, but I don't remember the name, I think it
is this one, but I am not sure:

https://github.com/kiennq/emacs-mini-modeline

Also check this SX answer:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3050011/is-it-possible-to-move-the-emacs-minibuffer-to-the-top-of-the-screen

If you are using GNU/Linux, you can hide window titlebars and borders
with a right window manager for X11 (is what I do).

Together all those hacks are not what you are asking for exactly, but
they can give you an approximative illusion of what you are trying to
achieve :-).