#1060 Statusbar messaging

[klo]

I assume there is no way to print message to statusbar (from Lua).
According documentation, SciTE statusbar accepts several predefined properties.

I think some messages are better delivered to statusbar, instead printing to output pane.
I also think this is obvious, but as example consider user defined Lua function which may inform if changes are made in current buffer, or print number of changes or just any informational message, which may not be necessarily too important to print in output pane every time, thus distracting the user.

I'll try to suggest raw implementation but as I'm not a C++ programmer, don't know if this is best way.
Thinking about it, I thought that maybe easiest way to provide this feature is by providing global property which can be displayed on statusbar as one more property. Let’s call it LuaStatusMessage. This property should auto-reset after 10 seconds or so, to blank.

So I would be allowed to add to my statusbar $(LuaStatusMessage) property, just like I'm allowed to set $(LineNumber) and similar. From my Lua code I can set my message by doing: editor.LuaStatusMessage = my_message which will display this global property on statusbar.

[klo]

Just found this: https://sourceforge.net/p/scintilla/feature-requests/838/#32f7
Wish I saw it before typing so much...

Here is how I made it:

:::lua
local LuaStatusMessage = ''
function OnUpdateUI()

    props['LuaStatusMessage'] = LuaStatusMessage
    if props['CurrentPos'] ~= editor.CurrentPos then
        LuaStatusMessage = ''
    end
    props['CurrentPos'] = editor.CurrentPos

end

so message is reset on cursor position change, after displaying the message.

[klo]

Above function would not reset message if user defined Lua function changes cursor while executed.

This would work in such case:

:::lua
local LuaStatusMessage = ''
local timer = 0
function OnUpdateUI()

    props['LuaStatusMessage'] = LuaStatusMessage
    if LuaStatusMessage ~= '' and timer == 0 then
        timer = os.time()
    end
    if timer > 0 and (os.time() - timer) > 10 then
        LuaStatusMessage = ''
        timer = 0
    end

end

but I wonder if there is a better way?

[Neil Hodgson]

The lifetime of ephemeral messages is a difficult design issue so I've avoided it in SciTE. If you go down that path you probably want message priorities as well.

There is no OnTimer in SciTE although its been discussed. At https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/scite-interest/ontimer/scite-interest/US-KRdcziUU/whbKH1Z7fG4J, for example.