minibuffer at the top

minibuffer at the top

[Suno Ano]

By default the minibuffer window is at the bottom of a frame (other
windows on top the minibuffer). Is it possible to put the minibuffer at
the top (other windows below)?

,----[ Reason why I am asking ... ]
| Times have changed and nowadays many of us tend to use notebooks. The
| angle between looking at some notebook screen and some workstation
| monitor is different. From my point of view it is much more comfortable
| and healthy to look straight instead of having to "tilt" my head down
| (even bend my whole body) in order to work with the minibuffer when I
| use the notebook.
`----

Having a separate frame[0] for the minibuffer is not an option. From my
point of view, there should be some option to put the minibuffer window
at either the bottom or the top of the frame.

[0] http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki?Dedicated_Minibuffer_Frame

Re: minibuffer at the top

[Richard Stallman]

    By default the minibuffer window is at the bottom of a frame (other
    windows on top the minibuffer). Is it possible to put the minibuffer at
    the top (other windows below)?

I am neither for nor against this idea.  If a substantial fraction of
users would like it, then we might want to do it.

It will not be quite as simple as one might think.  There are places
in the code that assume that the minibuffer comes after main window.

RE: minibuffer at the top

[Drew Adams]

>     By default the minibuffer window is at the bottom of a frame (other
>     windows on top the minibuffer). Is it possible to put the
>     minibuffer at
>     the top (other windows below)?
>
> I am neither for nor against this idea.  If a substantial fraction of
> users would like it, then we might want to do it.
>
> It will not be quite as simple as one might think.  There are places
> in the code that assume that the minibuffer comes after main window.

Out of curiosity, was a reason given, other than personal preference? Is
there a particular use case envisioned for this?

Re: minibuffer at the top

[Suno Ano]

 >| On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 21:44:42 -0800,
 >| Drew Adams
 >| who can be reached at: drew.adams@oracle.com
 >| (whose comments are cited below with " DA> "),
 >| had this to say in article <BNELLINCGFJLDJIKDGACCENDCEAA.drew.adams@oracle.com>
 >| in newsgroups gmane.emacs.devel
 >| concerning the subject of RE: minibuffer at the top
 >| (see <E1Is1yo-0008M3-Ld@fencepost.gnu.org> for more details)

 DA> Out of curiosity, was a reason given, other than personal
 DA> preference? Is there a particular use case envisioned for this?

Drew, that sounds as if you have not seen my initial posting? ... which
could easily be the case since I did the first posting to this list + I
did it via Gmane i.e. I not just read the list via Gmane but also post
to list through Gmane. As I checked yesterday my initial post was gone
i.e. I could only see Richards answer with a snippet of my initial post.
However, now all seems to be fine again (it worked for all other lists
e.g. Planner, Muse etc. from the beginning) ... whatever ...

You asked for a reason and use case -- this is another snippet, taken
from my initial post:

,----[ Reason why I am asking ... ]
| Times have changed and nowadays many of us tend to use notebooks. The
| angle between looking at some notebook screen and some workstation
| monitor is different. From my point of view it is much more comfortable
| and healthy to look straight instead of having to "tilt" my head down
| (even bend my whole body) in order to work with the minibuffer when I
| use the notebook.
`----
 
As you can see, my reason is manly for health reasons. I think there is
great value in making a step towards this direction although I am not
aware of how much work it would be to accomplish this. 

RE: minibuffer at the top

[Drew Adams]

>  DA> Out of curiosity, was a reason given, other than personal
>  DA> preference? Is there a particular use case envisioned for this?
> 
> Drew, that sounds as if you have not seen my initial posting? ... which
> could easily be the case since I did the first posting to this list + I
> did it via Gmane i.e. I not just read the list via Gmane but also post
> to list through Gmane. As I checked yesterday my initial post was gone
> i.e. I could only see Richards answer with a snippet of my initial post.
> However, now all seems to be fine again (it worked for all other lists
> e.g. Planner, Muse etc. from the beginning) ... whatever ...

Right, I guess I didn't see your OP. 

> You asked for a reason and use case -- this is another snippet, taken
> from my initial post:
> 
> ,----[ Reason why I am asking ... ]
> | Times have changed and nowadays many of us tend to use notebooks. The
> | angle between looking at some notebook screen and some workstation
> | monitor is different. From my point of view it is much more comfortable
> | and healthy to look straight instead of having to "tilt" my head down
> | (even bend my whole body) in order to work with the minibuffer when I
> | use the notebook.
> `----
>  
> As you can see, my reason is manly for health reasons. I think there is
> great value in making a step towards this direction although I am not
> aware of how much work it would be to accomplish this. 

Thanks for the rationale. I have nothing against this.

Re: minibuffer at the top

[Mathias Dahl]

> ,----[ Reason why I am asking ... ]
> | Times have changed and nowadays many of us tend to use notebooks. The
> | angle between looking at some notebook screen and some workstation
> | monitor is different. From my point of view it is much more comfortable
> | and healthy to look straight instead of having to "tilt" my head down
> | (even bend my whole body) in order to work with the minibuffer when I
> | use the notebook.
> `----

I used the same reasoning when I moved my taskbar and application menu
to the top of the screen.

Re: minibuffer at the top

[Christian Faulhammer]

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Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>:

>>     By default the minibuffer window is at the bottom of a frame
>> (other windows on top the minibuffer). Is it possible to put the
>> minibuffer at the top (other windows below)?
> I am neither for nor against this idea.  If a substantial fraction of
> users would like it, then we might want to do it.

 Then I vote yes as a user.

V-Li 

-- 
Christian Faulhammer, Gentoo Lisp project
<URL:http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/lisp/>, #gentoo-lisp on FreeNode

<URL:http://www.faulhammer.org/>

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