bug#31851: 26.1; Support a frame-wide bar similar to the mode line

bug#31851: 26.1; Support a frame-wide bar similar to the mode line

[Alex Branham]

severity: wishlist

It would be nice to have something similar to the mode line but that
doesn't get duplicated for every window. This would be nice to show (for
example) non-window-specific information like the time, number of new
emails/notifications, etc.

It would also be nice if the location was configurable (I'd personally
like it to be displayed across the top of the frame rather than the
bottom).

Thanks,
Alex

bug#31851: 26.1; Support a frame-wide bar similar to the mode line

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Alex Branham <alex.branham@gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2018 15:44:32 -0500
> 
> It would be nice to have something similar to the mode line but that
> doesn't get duplicated for every window. This would be nice to show (for
> example) non-window-specific information like the time, number of new
> emails/notifications, etc.

We already have that: it's called the tool bar.  Of course, if you use
a GTK or NS build, your Emacs is challenged, since the tool-bar
display is delegated to the toolkit.

Anyway, the way the tool bar is implemented in Emacs suggests the
implementation of the requested feature: a special window that
displays the contents of a Lisp string (which then could have other
display elements by way of display and other text properties).

Volunteers welcome.

bug#31851: 26.1; Support a frame-wide bar similar to the mode line

[martin rudalics]

 > It would be nice to have something similar to the mode line but that
 > doesn't get duplicated for every window. This would be nice to show (for
 > example) non-window-specific information like the time, number of new
 > emails/notifications, etc.
 >
 > It would also be nice if the location was configurable (I'd personally
 > like it to be displayed across the top of the frame rather than the
 > bottom).

You can use a side window, see section 28.19 "Side Windows" of the Elisp
manual, for that.

martin

bug#31851: 26.1; Support a frame-wide bar similar to the mode line

[Alex Branham]

On Sat 16 Jun 2018 at 01:41, martin rudalics <rudalics@gmx.at> wrote:

>> It would be nice to have something similar to the mode line but that
>> doesn't get duplicated for every window. This would be nice to show (for
>> example) non-window-specific information like the time, number of new
>> emails/notifications, etc.
>>
>> It would also be nice if the location was configurable (I'd personally
>> like it to be displayed across the top of the frame rather than the
>> bottom).
>
> You can use a side window, see section 28.19 "Side Windows" of the Elisp
> manual, for that.

Thanks for the suggestion. This looks similar to what I want, but it
doesn't look like there's a way to make it apply to all frames (like the
mode-line does), right?

Thanks,
Alex

bug#31851: 26.1; Support a frame-wide bar similar to the mode line

[martin rudalics]

 >> You can use a side window, see section 28.19 "Side Windows" of the Elisp
 >> manual, for that.
 >
 > Thanks for the suggestion. This looks similar to what I want, but it
 > doesn't look like there's a way to make it apply to all frames (like the
 > mode-line does

... strictly spoken a mode-line "applies" to a buffer or a window but
not to a frame ...

), right?

It doesn't apply to all frames, right.  You have to add some code,
probably to 'after-make-frame-functions', to display such a side
window on every frame.

martin

bug#31851: 26.1; Support a frame-wide bar similar to the mode line

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

martin rudalics <rudalics@gmx.at> writes:

>> Thanks for the suggestion. This looks similar to what I want, but it
>> doesn't look like there's a way to make it apply to all frames (like the
>> mode-line does

[...]

> It doesn't apply to all frames, right.  You have to add some code,
> probably to 'after-make-frame-functions', to display such a side
> window on every frame.

I think the conclusion here is that the Side Windows thing covers the
proposed use case, so I'm closing this bug report.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#31851: 26.1; Support a frame-wide bar similar to the mode line

[Juri Linkov]

> martin rudalics <rudalics@gmx.at> writes:
>
>>> Thanks for the suggestion. This looks similar to what I want, but it
>>> doesn't look like there's a way to make it apply to all frames (like the
>>> mode-line does
>
> [...]
>
>> It doesn't apply to all frames, right.  You have to add some code,
>> probably to 'after-make-frame-functions', to display such a side
>> window on every frame.
>
> I think the conclusion here is that the Side Windows thing covers the
> proposed use case, so I'm closing this bug report.

Actually, now there is a frame-wide bar similar to the mode line
that can be configured using tab-bar-format in tab-bar-mode.