7.3.1 Status Line

In general, each buffer will have some lines of status information. In addition, there may be general editor status information. Finally, there may be lines of separators between windows. (One hopes that on "small" screens (i.e., those with less than, say, fifty lines), the numbers for these are "one," "none," and "none: use the buffer status line as a window separator" in order to devote as many lines as possible to showing the text being edited.)

In any event, this "framework" information must be retained and displayed. The user-oriented command routines and redisplay must work together to provide this infrastructure.

Here are some sample types of per-buffer status information:

    * the file name
    * the buffer name (may be the same as the file name)
    * the buffer status: unmodified, modified, read-only
    * the current modes
    * the point position in characters and/or buffer length
    * the point position as a percentage
    * the location of the top of the window as a percentage (or "top", "bot", or "all" as appropriate)
    * the point column
    * the current attribute
    * the current line and number of lines 

Of course, any one editor implementation will only show some of this information at a time. This list is not definitive.

Here are some sample types of editor status information:

    * the name and version number of the editor
    * copyright information
    * the current date and time
    * the current system "load average," or other system information 

Again, any one implementation may only show some of this information, and this list is not definitive.