12.2. The Status Line

| Chapter 12: Typography, Layout, and Multimedia Effects |

| 12.2. The Status Line

The status line is the reverse-coloured bar along the top of the window during play, which conventionally, but not necessarily, shows the current location, the score (or sometimes the time of day) and the number of turns so far. It has been highly traditional since the early 1980s (Infocom's customer newsletter was for many years called "The Status Line"): it has become the visual identifier of IF. It plays the same role for IF that a header with chapter name and page number plays in a printed book.

The status line is ordinarily printed from two named pieces of text, the "left hand status line" and the "right hand status line". These can be changed during play, so for instance,

> When play begins, change the right hand status line to "Time: [time of day]".

The examples below offer miscellaneous alternatives, and are fairly self-descriptive.

See Viewpoint for a way to make the status line list the player's current identity

373
| Example Blankness Emptying the status line during the first screen of the game. |
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402
| Example Capital City To arrange that the location information normally given on the left-hand side of the status line appears in block capitals. |
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115
| Example Centered Replacing the two-part status line with one that centers only the room name at the top of the screen. |
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442
| Example Status line with centered text, the hard way A status line which has only the name of the location, centered. |
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336
| Example Ways Out A status line that lists the available exits from the current location. |
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337
| Example Guided Tour A status line that lists the available exits from the current location, changing the names of these exits depending on whether the room has been visited or not. |
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> It may sometimes be helpful to prompt the player with a list of exits printed up in the status line. For instance, here is a status line that will print the names of nearby rooms, as well as all the doors the player can see: "Guided Tour" When play begins: now left hand status line is "Nearby: [if a room is adjacent][the list of adjacent rooms][end if][if a room is adjacent and a door is visible] and [end if][if a door is visible][the list of visible doors][end if]"; now right hand status line is "". Of course, we may not want to tell the player what glories are to be found in locations he hasn't yet explored. Rule for printing the name of an unvisited room (called the target) while constructing the status line: let aim be the best route from the location to the target; say "something [aim]". Even when we have seen a room, we might still want a reminder about how to get there: After printing the name of a visited room (called the target) while constructing the status line: let aim be the best route from the location to the target; say " ([aim])". We may also find that printing out full directions makes the status line unpleasantly crowded. Fortunately, it isn't hard to provide a set of abbreviations to use in this context: Rule for printing the name of a direction (called the aim) while constructing the status line: choose row with a heading of the aim in the Table of Abbreviation; say "[shortcut entry]". Table of Abbreviation
> heading | shortcut
> north | "N"
> northeast | "NE"
> northwest | "NW"
> east | "E"
> southeast | "SE"
> south | "S"
> southwest | "SW"
> west | "W"
> up | "U"
> down | "D"
> inside | "in"
> outside | "out"
Everywhere else, the names of directions will still be printed out in full in the usual way. And now we give it a little map to work with: Dome is a room. North of Dome is North Chapel. South of the Dome is South Chapel. West of the Dome is Western End. Quiet Corner is northwest of the Dome, north of Western End, and west of North Chapel. Loud Corner is east of North Chapel, northeast of Dome, and north of Eastern End. Eastern End is north of Dim Corner and east of Dome. Dim Corner is southeast of Dome and east of South Chapel. Ruined Corner is southwest of Dome, west of South Chapel, and south of Western End. The church door is east of Eastern End and west of the Courtyard. The church door is a door. Test me with "n / w / s". Note that while this looks fine in some places, other locations exceed the limits of what the status-line can hold: if any given room is going to have a large number of exits, this kind of listing will almost certainly not fit. So apply cautiously.

114
| Example Politics as Usual Have the status line indicate the current region of the map. |
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