At https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg37201.html Seth posted a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpw9dKxL2Ho&feature=youtu.be&a=) of an experienced Altium guy using KiCad 5.0. The video is generally painful and annoying to watch, but if I saw something that seemed worthy and I couldn't find it in the bugtracker already I thought I should add a new bug for it.
About 1:58 into the video Dave is asking for a quick way to check the board stats. Dimensions, number of components, etc. I don't know that this is available, but it made me think of some kind of summary dialog. Some items that could be included which pop into my head just now:
Board size
Number of Cu layers
Component count
Nets
Nets routed
Unconnected items
Zones
Keepout zones
DRC errors
Last saved user name
Total editing time
Some of them could be grouped together. For example, instead of separate lines perhaps the net items above could be grouped into a format something like:
Nets: <# unrouted nets> / <# nets> (<percent routed>%)
The number of unconnected items and DRC errors would have to be since the last invocation of the checker. Perhaps buttons to invoke the checker would be useful here. There could also be an indication if the design has been changed since the tool was last invoked to alert the user that the data is stale.
There might also be a grouping to the info, such as:
Physical (part qty, Cu layers, etc.)
Logical (nets and stuff)
General (last saved user and editing time)
Most of this information is already provided in the message panel when right clicking on any empty area of the canvas. We certainly can add more status information to this panel. I don't know how thrilled I am about adding another dialog to display information that is already being displayed now but if someone feels motivated to provide such a dialog, I will consider it. I really want to avoid duplicating features from other EDA tools just because users think we should. If we can provide a better solution (which I think we partially already do) than we should explore that.