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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If we want to lay out the status line in some other way than with left-hand and right-hand entries, it is possible to do this as well. Later we will learn about the "rule for constructing the status line", but here is a basic effect using this rule and an Inform extension included as part of the standard distribution, called Basic Screen Effects. "Centered" When play begins: say "After months of boring through the Earth's crust in this metal-jawed vehicle, you break through..." The Hollow Core is a room. "Truly a magnificent sight: the land curves up away from you in every direction, covered with the cities and fields of the Core People. Molten rock runs in the canals, bringing heat and light to every home. At the center of the Earth hangs a dense black sun." Include Basic Screen Effects by Emily Short. Rule for constructing the status line: center "[location]" at row 1; rule succeeds. Test me with "look". Basic Screen Effects also provides a mechanism for building complicated status lines of more than one row. To read its documentation, we include the extension, press Go!, and then consult the contents index that results.

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