combining echo area and modeline

combining echo area and modeline

[Q]

Hello everyone,

Maximize the editing area can be very desirable on netbooks and
phones. In most of the times the echo area is blank, and the
information on the modeline is glanced only once in a while. I am
wondering if the modeline info can be displayed in the echo area
whenever there is no message? Or if a hook can be added for
detecting echo area changes?

There is a stackexchange question on this
http://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/7563/make-use-of-an-empty-echo-area-to-display-information

Thank you for your consideration!
Q

Re: combining echo area and modeline

[Pip Cet]

[-- Attachment #1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1297 bytes --]

I think what you want is for the mini-window to shrink to zero lines. The
mini-window's minimal height is currently fixed at one line: it can't be
made (permanently) taller or smaller than that.

Since I'm currently trying to understand the mini-window resize code
anyway, here's a patch that does that. It's far from complete (in
particular, mouseover on the mode line is broken) and in no way fit for
inclusion, so do be careful if you decide to test it.

However, having tried it, it's really annoying! IMHO, it would be much
better to have the mini-window in a separate frame and auto-raise that when
it's needed, possibly obstructing the modeline.

On Thu, Aug 27, 2015 at 3:41 PM, Q <godblessfq@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> Maximize the editing area can be very desirable on netbooks and
> phones. In most of the times the echo area is blank, and the
> information on the modeline is glanced only once in a while. I am
> wondering if the modeline info can be displayed in the echo area
> whenever there is no message? Or if a hook can be added for
> detecting echo area changes?
>
> There is a stackexchange question on this
>
> http://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/7563/make-use-of-an-empty-echo-area-to-display-information
>
> Thank you for your consideration!
> Q
>
>
>
>

[-- Attachment #1.2: Type: text/html, Size: 1928 bytes --]

[-- Attachment #2: 0001-Allow-minibuffer-to-shrink-to-zero-lines.patch --]
[-- Type: text/x-patch, Size: 2342 bytes --]

From 8eeea51c0ba68a501901db5e655f6e0cac16618e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Philip <pipcet@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2015 18:07:10 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Allow minibuffer to shrink to zero lines.

---
 lisp/window.el | 4 ++--
 src/window.c   | 9 ++++-----
 2 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/lisp/window.el b/lisp/window.el
index 65b4ef0..4f3daf4 100644
--- a/lisp/window.el
+++ b/lisp/window.el
@@ -2488,8 +2488,8 @@ as small) as possible, but don't signal an error."
 	       (window-min-size root nil nil t))))
       ;; Sanitize DELTA.
       (cond
-       ((<= (+ height delta) 0)
-	(setq delta (- (frame-char-height (window-frame window)) height)))
+       ((< (+ height delta) 0)
+	(setq delta (- height)))
        ((> delta min-delta)
 	(setq delta min-delta)))
 
diff --git a/src/window.c b/src/window.c
index f6fe0cd..dd42cda 100644
--- a/src/window.c
+++ b/src/window.c
@@ -3710,7 +3710,7 @@ window_resize_check (struct window *w, bool horflag)
        `window-safe-min-height' (1) which are defined in window.el.  */
     return (XINT (w->new_pixel) >= (horflag
 				    ? (2 * FRAME_COLUMN_WIDTH (f))
-				    : FRAME_LINE_HEIGHT (f)));
+				    : 0));
 }
 
 
@@ -4546,7 +4546,7 @@ shrink_mini_window (struct window *w, bool pixelwise)
   eassert (MINI_WINDOW_P (w));
 
   height = pixelwise ? w->pixel_height : w->total_lines;
-  unit = pixelwise ? FRAME_LINE_HEIGHT (f) : 1;
+  unit = 0;
   if (height > unit)
     {
       root = FRAME_ROOT_WINDOW (f);
@@ -4561,9 +4561,9 @@ shrink_mini_window (struct window *w, bool pixelwise)
 
 	  /* Shrink the mini-window.  */
 	  w->top_line = r->top_line + r->total_lines;
-	  w->total_lines = 1;
+	  w->total_lines = 0;
 	  w->pixel_top = r->pixel_top + r->pixel_height;
-	  w->pixel_height = FRAME_LINE_HEIGHT (f);
+	  w->pixel_height = 0;
 	  /* Enforce full redisplay of the frame.  */
 	  /* FIXME: Shouldn't window--resize-root-window-vertically do it?  */
 	  fset_redisplay (f);
@@ -4597,7 +4597,6 @@ DEFUN ("resize-mini-window-internal", Fresize_mini_window_internal, Sresize_mini
   r = XWINDOW (FRAME_ROOT_WINDOW (f));
   height = r->pixel_height + w->pixel_height;
   if (window_resize_check (r, false)
-      && XINT (w->new_pixel) > 0
       && height == XINT (r->new_pixel) + XINT (w->new_pixel))
     {
       block_input ();
-- 
2.5.0

Re: combining echo area and modeline

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Q <godblessfq@gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2015 15:41:00 +0000 (UTC)
> 
> Maximize the editing area can be very desirable on netbooks and
> phones. In most of the times the echo area is blank, and the
> information on the modeline is glanced only once in a while. I am
> wondering if the modeline info can be displayed in the echo area
> whenever there is no message? Or if a hook can be added for
> detecting echo area changes?

Why not remove the mode line, and have the minibuffer in a separate
frame?  Then you will have the entire frame for yourself.

Re: combining echo area and modeline

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2015 15:31:31 -0400
> From: Qiang Fang <godblessfq@gmail.com>
> 
> Information on the mode line is quite useful sometimes, like the
> indicator for evil mode, which function mode etc.

Then don't remove it.

> I haven't tried making another frame for the echo area. I am not
> sure how you hide the title bar and position the frame exactly on
> top of the modeline, also how do you auto hide the frame when the
> message is timed out?

Why do you need all that?  Just let that minibuffer-only frame be,
obscure it by others, or even minimize it if you want -- it will be
raised automatically when Emacs has something to say there.

> Pip's suggestion of shrinking mini-window to zero lines doesn't
> solve the problem when the echo area is poped up, mode line and
> minibuffer take two lines then.

You only can tweak Emacs this far.  Certain portions of the display
have to be there, especially if you cannot give up completely what
they show.

Re: combining echo area and modeline

[Michael Heerdegen]

Hi Q,

I guess one could try to misuse the "minibuffer-line" package for that.
Proof of concept:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(require 'minibuffer-line)

(setq minibuffer-line-refresh-interval 1)

(advice-add 'minibuffer-line--update
            :before
            (defun my-minibuffer-line--update--copy-mode-line ()
              (when mode-line-format
                (setq minibuffer-line-format mode-line-format
                      mode-line-format nil))))

(minibuffer-line-mode +1)
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Note that that's a hack that has it's limitations.


Regards,

Michael.

Re: combining echo area and modeline

[H. Dieter Wilhelm]

Q <godblessfq@gmail.com> writes:

> Hello everyone,
>
> Maximize the editing area can be very desirable on netbooks and
> phones. In most of the times the echo area is blank, and the
> information on the modeline is glanced only once in a while. I am
> wondering if the modeline info can be displayed in the echo area
> whenever there is no message? Or if a hook can be added for
> detecting echo area changes?

Maybe displaying the mode line in the frame title might be interesting
for you:

http://bzg.fr/emacs-strip-tease.html


   Dieter

-- 
Best wishes
H. Dieter Wilhelm
Darmstadt, Germany