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. |
WI

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. |
WI

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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> A not-uncommon device in games with large maps is a list of available exits printed in the status bar. We might do this so: "Ways Out" When play begins: now left hand status line is "Exits: [exit list]"; now right hand status line is "[location]". To say exit list: let place be location; repeat with way running through directions: let place be the room way from the location; if place is a room, say " [way]". We may 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 way) while constructing the status line: choose row with a heading of the way 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"
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 "w / n / e / e / s / e". Everywhere else, the names of directions will still be printed out in full in the usual way.

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. |
WI

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