anzio 15.2...need a tip

[Fairlight]

Only Brian K. White would say something like:
> Just for the record it always annoyed me too and I did spend some time 
> one day trying to eliminate it.

Ditto.  And not for the first time.  Spent about half an hour trying to
kill it this time.  Probably about the same last time I tried.

> It just didn't bother me enough to complain. How common that is I 
> couldn't say, but I think lack of official complaints might not be quite 
> all there is to consider.
> 
> Perhaps I'm just weird in that it was worth it to me to spend time 
> trying to get what I want myself, yet not worth trying to ask for it 
> from the source.

Well, you know, I'm known for holding everything in and pushing it wayyyy
down inside so that nobody knows how I feel.  ;)

> I can't even say it's because the source is unresponsive. You've 
> actually given me more significant changes than that.

I'm wondering if it finally -doesn't- require a password to be stored in
16.x.  It does in 15.x, even if you supply an ssh key.  That's the whole
point of the key is to authenticate...  If an ssh key is provided, the only
time I should be prompted for a passphrase is if my ssh key has a
passphrase, which it does not.  But it's specifically asking for my
passWORD, which is just silly if it has the key.

Was this addressed in 16.x, by any chance?

> I don't know about Mark, but I think, if some form of status bar is 
> necessary for messages from Anzio even if not from the host or for the 
> usual in-screen status line that old BBS dialer comm programs used to 
> have, then I'd prefer it to be out of the screen, rendered as window 
> component like other apps, not looking like it's part of the terminal 
> screen.

That would work, but I wouldn't even say it needs to be recoded that far.
I mean, ideally, yeah...  But I'd settle for simply keeping window position
from origin anchored, and shrink the window by one display line's
worth when both status and gauge are turned off, and grow it again when the
bar needs displaying or if the status or gauge are turned on.  The last
time I can remember a physical terminal having a display line below the
usable terminal area was a z49 in 1992.  And if memory serves, that space
was reclaimable if you disabled it.

Either would work for me, but kill the evil blank line.  :)  I think I'd
seriously update if that one thing was done.  *laugh*

> The status venue is still there, but the terminal looks cleaner to us.
> 
> It matters.

Yeah, gotta concur.  Actually, a system clock in the status bar might
be nice.  That's the only reason I used to keep it on in a z29/z49
configuration.  That, and there was a sysinfo program on BSD that would
let you utilise that hardware status line to display not only the time,
but the system load average.  It might be nice if it was something that
could be controlled by escape codes, and not hardwired...  Implement -both-
Brian's suggestion of moving the existing status bar to a window decoration
status area (which could be disabled, like most other programs allow),
and my suggestion about grow/shrink for gauge, but also have a hardware
status bar that doesn't have the Anzio version and stuff in it, but which
is essentially extra programmable stateful information like the old sysinfo
setup I used to love.  Best of all worlds, there.

The reality is that you likely don't get complaints from garden variety
users.  Hardcore UI freaks that have designed UI after UI over the years
will pick at something for hours that "just doesn't feel right".  I can't
tell you the number of hours I've spent in pTk adjustin widgets "just so"
to get rid of a 2px imbalance between two side-by-side frames that -should-
have been 100% equal, but were not.  And yes, I can tell a 2px difference.
Sad, but true.  As my ISP's general manager knows all too well, I'm not
your garden variety user.  :)

And actually, now that I have NitroPDF, passthrough printing may actually
be something I'd use.  That's the default print driver on my system.  So I
could print straight to PDF on Windows from Unix within my session...which
is...well, cool.  

I'm not sure I would fully drop PuTTY yet.  With a couple tweaks, I might
consider it, though--especially if SCP were added.

mark->
-- 
Audio panton, cogito singularis.