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Most of the time, status bar is empty, only holding: 1|1 INS Which can occupy only few pixels on the right. Having whole bottom bar just for this is a waste of precious horizontal space. Could the status bar work like in modern browsers, that means, only occupy as little space at right, and hide when not having any useful information? Also, the tasks in progress could be stacked on top of each other. Also, these statuses could use bit smaller font. Generally, using a small font is OK when the text is the same over time (like "Scanning project foo..." or "Checking external changes..."). Thanks for considering.
Sorry, should be "precious vertical space" :)
The idea is interesting and should be taken seriously. Nevertheless it can be tricky to achieve without breaking various accepted UEX conventions. It seems to me that instead of displaying only a minimal part of statusbar on the right, the idea of auto-hide the complete statusbar might be more promising. We could, e.g., kept the statusbar hidden most of the time, displaying it only when cursor is moved to bottom of screen, or when some acute information needs to be presented to users (e.g., the various progressbars when active). Such status bar could contain a little "pin" button that would freeze it in place (i.e. disable auto-hide). The problem I see with partial statusbar display is this - the statusbar most often does not contain much ( 1|1 INS ), but modules can extend it and theoretically its effective content can grow. What space would we gain by this partial statusbar if it was longer than just 1|1 INS ? The saved space one the left of it (I assume that all information in statusbar would be aligned to the right as it is the case now) could be often meaningless in thouse various types of windows that are usually opened above statusbar (Results, Refactoring, Variables, Output, or editor if the others are clored or minimized). Related ideas to consider: - wouldn't it be feasible to keep the statusbar width limited only to the width of the editor window above it ? In standard IDE layout this would mean that the statusbar would start at the right border of the Navigator panel, giving more space to Navigator contents - if the window group below editor is minimized, the window tabs are listed from left in a otherwise empty line above the statusbar. Why not to use just one bar for this - to contain window tabs from the left and ordinary statusbar content from the right ? CC-ing Rich and aking for his view
Can you guys give me a couple of examples of areas where the status bar shows more than just 1|1 INS?
I think this belongs to window system. Rich - my example is searching - it writes messages like "something" found at 135:5, not found, etc. I heard there is a plan to write hints and errors to the statusbar when you are hoovering text.
(In reply to comment #2) > > - wouldn't it be feasible to keep the statusbar width limited only to the width > of the editor window above it ? In standard IDE layout this would mean that the > statusbar would start at the right border of the Navigator panel, giving more > space to Navigator contents No, user can rearrange window layout so that the output area spans the whole width of the main window. > > - if the window group below editor is minimized, the window tabs are listed > from left in a otherwise empty line above the statusbar. Why not to use just > one bar for this - to contain window tabs from the left and ordinary statusbar > content from the right ? There probably is an issue for that already (I think). Btw, have you tried -J-Dnetbeans.winsys.statusLine.in.menuBar=true ?
I don't have a problem with modifying the status bar to take up the area of the editor window above it. I don't like the idea of auto-hide/show of the status bar. I call that "peek-a-boo design", and I've always found it visually jarring. Just my .02.
My status bar also contains 'Unix (LF)' from the 'Show and change line endings' plugin. Rather than hiding it, I think it should be given more to do. Some of the toolbar options, like the memory indicator could be moved there. Other editors use it to display file encoding and current scope information as well.
Agreed that this area could be used for other purposes. Some ideas: a.) status of long-running processes b.) current build status, when applicable c.) Error indication
Since the bottom minimize bar has merged with the status bar in #198422 the status text now does work as in Firefox. I think the new status bar has enough room to show some other stuff in it. The memory meter is a nice example.
FYI: http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/48517/?show=true
I'm running 7.4.RC2, seems it's done. Thanks! Leaving for someone to verify.
Well ok it's not FF style, but at least it only occupies one row instead of former two. Maybe that's good enough.