For the longest time now, I've been brainstorming what the perfect status bar would be like, ignoring the actual content of the status bar (as it is usually hack-specific) and focusing on the design and implementation. If I had to use a single word to describe the perfect status bar, it would be "unintrusive". Unintrusive not only to the player, but also to the hack designer. The perfect status bar can just be patched once and forgotten, as it is completely isolated from everything else. As a hack author, there is no need to worry about your level ideas being compromised due to the status bar getting in the way.
