RE: GNU Emacs raison d'etre

[Drew Adams]

> >> Agreed.  Top positioning might be better for other
> >> reasons though.
> >
> > What reasons?
> 
> Well, a visual hierarchy usually starts at the top.  For example when
> you read a book, a newspaper or browse the web.

What does that have to do with minibuffer
and echo-area interaction?

> There have been studies on eye-tracking on web
> pages, which show that people generally start
> reading at the top left.

Yes, they do (at least in a left-to-right
language/culture).  But what does that have to
do with where the minibuffer is placed?

Do you start with the minibuffer and then read
farther down or farther ahead through some
hierarchy?  I don't think so.  If you did, then
I imagine it would indeed be up top-left.

The minibuffer real estate is also used for the
echo area.  (Doesn't have to be, but in some ways
that's "natural" - especially makes sense when an
Emacs<->user dialog is involved.)

Having status and error messages at the bottom is
pretty common, and not just in editors.  It may
be less common to also have an input field there.