Details
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Bug
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Status: Open
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Minor
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Resolution: Unresolved
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11.0
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None
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None
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Windows
Description
NetBeans can be run with -J-Dnetbeans.winsys.statusLine.in.menuBar=true (specified in netbeans.conf), which moves the contents of the status bar into the menu bar, saving vertical space. There is however a problem with multiline status messages. With the regular status bar at the bottom, a multiline status message extends as a rectangle from the status bar upwards into the editor area. However with the status message in the menu bar, the menu bar is stretched vertically to fit the multiline message.
A multiline status message can be reproduced as follows: Perform "Find in Projects" multiple times with differen search terms and with "Open In New Tab" checked, so that the Search Results window contains multiple tabs. Then start switching windows by keyboard (i.e. by Ctrl+(Shift+)Tab on Windows). While switching windows (i.e. while the Ctrl key is depressed), a status message is shown for the currently highlighted window in the window switching popup. For the Search Results window, this is a multiline message with an initial line "Search Results" in bold face and additional lines for all Search Results tabs.
E.g. when there are 20 Search Results tabs, the status message has 21 lines, and the menu bar is stretched vertically to the height of 21 lines, which is quite jarring.
As an additional side effect, if the Search Results window is in a sliding Mode (e.g. in topSlidingSide) and fills the vertical height, the stretching of the menu bar causes the window to permanently be reduced in vertical height.
Maybe the simplest fix would be to restrict status messages to a single line for netbeans.winsys.statusLine.in.menuBar=true. Alternatively, multiline status messages should be shown in a popup/overlay (extending down from the menu bar) like for the regular status bar. Lastly, the particular case above could be fixed by restrincting the Search Results window string to a single line (as having each search results tab listed there is maybe not particularly useful).
I'm aware that having the status line in the menu bar is a non-standard configuration, but it is a really useful feature to get a bit more vertical space in the editor (especially nowadays where 16:9 displays are standard), and the layout changes described above are irritating when switching windows with Ctrl+Tab, especially when this causes the dimensions of other windows to permanently change.