i only write comments and suggestions when i generally like a mod or the idea behind it. thus take the following as an indicator of general approval although I'll complain about a few things now :-)

i just started using this mod by trying to build three status panels as indicators for the contents (three item types) of a chest, but i couldn't place the panels :-( and walking around, my char also bumped into invisible obstacles ...
the reason (BUG) : the status panel has size 1x3 and is vertical, but its hitbox is 3x1 horizontal. thus i can walk through the top and bottom tiles of the first status panel that i built, but i can't place another status panel to the left or right since they would overlap.

another problem : the panel always shows the signals (alt-mode ON) and thus partially hides the colored bar. it would be nice if i could enable/disable this ALT-display somehow in the panel's popup menu to have all my factory show the ALT info, but not on the panel. (isn't there some flag in the prototype to enable/disable showing alt-info, which could be toggled by a checkmark in the popup menu ?)
and since M and N are also shown all the time, i can't use the alt-info anyway to properly show the item type of what is measured in the panel without flooding my factory and displays with M and N icons.

finally a third problem : when i enter values for M and N in the panel's input boxes, i first have to click somewhere outside of them to then be able to close the window with "E". if i only push "E", i don't close the window but clear the number that i just entered. related to this, i am used to finish entering numbers and unfocus the input field by pushing enter, but that has no effect in this mod. it would be nice if you could make using this mod (its dialogs) more similar to what i am used in factorio and other mods.

edit/PS : yet three more small questions about "features" ...
another similar problem like the first : after building display rows and trying to use them, i found that the monochrome row uses A-E from bottom to top and the color row uses A-E from top to bottom. it would be easier to use and also switch between using monochrome and color rows if they both would use A-E in the same direction.

and: is there a reason why you used a different order for the colors than is used in the crafting menu ? in the crafting menu, red is first and cyan is sixth, followed by white, grey and black, while you use red=8 down to cyan=3, and then follow it with grey=2, white=1 and black=0.
is this because you started with black/white=off/on=0/1 (and thus skipping grey), then added the leftout color grey, and then continued from that end of the vanilla colors down to red=8 ?

and: i tried building with panels and both kinds of rows, but in contrast to vanilla and most mods, i could neither use the pipette tool to select a panel/row nor could i copy them with ctrl-c. more testing showed that it is possible to select them with the pipette but only if i really have some in my inventory. they can't be ghosts, thus neither planned by shift-clicking nor be built by bots and also not copied (and not blueprinted; i do that by using ctrl-c and then pushing shift while releasing the button), and you also can't pick up a ghost from the quickbars which is possible for all vanilla items and most mods.

Hey, thanks for the detailled comment and good intro. :)

1. Problem: rotation is fixed now for status-panels.
2. Alt-info: Yes indeed there's an option for that! Good catch, I had settings/Show combinator settings in alt-mode disabled that's why I never saw it...
3. As for enter there seems to be no way to do this. I don't get any factorio event when I press enter in the textfield.
   However I updated the code such that entering e in those fields just closes the gui (value from before is preserved).
   If you see a mod gui somewhere where enter works, can you point it out to me?

As for the PS:
Yes good point, I switched the monochrom panel to have A be the top signal. Note: When you place a new one this is applied, the old ones stay as they are.

For the color orders: Yes the good reason is this is the way factorio priorizes colors. E.g. if you add red+green signal to a standard lamp red gets priority etc. So basically I didn't define the order but just made some invisible combinators to filter to signal A-E and pass to the correct lamp part. So no way to change it currently. Sorry ;)

And finally: fixed that display-rows were not printable. That should fix also pipette problem when you have no items in hand.

Thanks again for the detailled report. It was explained very good and more often I get reports like "doesn't work" without any explanation. So your text was very helpful.

All changes will be in new version 0.18.0 (soon)

thanks for fixing lots of problems !

i program myself (although not in lua or for factorio), and thus i know those reports that only say "something is broken. fix it!". in contrast to those useless reports my detailed descriptions often resulted in replies like "shorter please. i don't have time to read a wall of text", followed by several questions which i had already answered in that wall of text which i had to repeat ... LOL, or not LOL, that is here the question :-)

If you see a mod gui somewhere where enter works, can you point it out to me?

i just came across a discussion on another mod where someone complained that he had to always push enter to confirm editing values. and this also included a link to a suggestion to the devs for changes in factorio. a keyword to look for is probably "lose_focus_on_confirm". thus there has to be some method to confirm entering values, and they were looking for a method to confirm those values without pushing enter (kind of "confirm_when_lost_focus" which will not happen since the devs said that factorio can lose focus on those fields by any number of reasons that are not intended to be confirmations).

here are the links to that discussion and to that suggestion :
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/factoryplanner/discussion/5d4f32673ed824000c941172
https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?f=221&t=73910