bug#72090: [Improvement] Option for disabling truncation symbols

bug#72090: [Improvement] Option for disabling truncation symbols

[the_wurfkreuz via Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors]

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I haven't found a way to disable truncation characters when I'm not using
line wrapping.
There is a way to make them appear as empty spaces:

(set-display-table-slot standard-display-table 'truncation ?\ )

However, this isn't a real solution because it still takes up buffer
space for no benefit.

In some cases, truncation symbols on the left side of the buffer seem
completely pointless. There's no additional context to be derived from them,
and they just clutter the buffer.

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bug#72090: [Improvement] Option for disabling truncation symbols

[Eli Zaretskii]

tags 72090 notabug
thanks

> Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2024 08:51:58 +0000
> From:  the_wurfkreuz via "Bug reports for GNU Emacs,
>  the Swiss army knife of text editors" <bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
> 
> I haven't found a way to disable truncation characters when I'm not using
> line wrapping.

What do you mean by "disable"?  If you mean force Emacs not to show
any glyph there, then there's no way of disabling that completely.

> There is a way to make them appear as empty spaces:
> 
> (set-display-table-slot standard-display-table 'truncation ?\ )
> 
> However, this isn't a real solution because it still takes up buffer
> space for no benefit.

Yes, and that's by design.

> In some cases, truncation symbols on the left side of the buffer seem
> completely pointless. There's no additional context to be derived from them,
> and they just clutter the buffer.

I don't agree that they are clutter.  They serve as a clear indication
that the line was truncated.  Since Emacs supports a feature whereby
only the current line is hscrolled, this indication is important.

I'm not interested in adding a feature that would disable these glyphs
on TTY frames.  (On GUI frames, Emacs does not show these glyphs by
default, and the continuation/truncation indications are shown on the
fringes.)

bug#72090: [Improvement] Option for disabling truncation symbols

[Eli Zaretskii]

[Please use Reply All to keep the bug tracker on the CC list.]

> Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2024 11:16:15 +0000
> From: the_wurfkreuz <the_wurfkreuz@proton.me>
> 
> > What do you mean by "disable"?
> 
> Initially, i had the need to disable wrapping. I know only one way of doing that, and it's by enabling truncation (setq-default truncate-lines t).
> But i still have the fringe area and its symbols, that show truncation. If i want to remove of the symbols and free up space for buffer characters, the logical step would be to disable the fringe area '(set-fringe-mode 0)'. After doing that, the fringe area disappears only visually, i still have the truncation symbols, but now they have a form of a dollar sign. So, essentially, the fringe area is still there and i have no option to completely remove it so that all possible buffer space is taken only by its characters. 
> 
> It looks reasonable for me, that users have the option to completely free up the buffer space from any indications and indication areas if they want it.

I can only suggest to use visual-line-mode, maybe it will come closer
to what you want.

bug#72090: [Improvement] Option for disabling truncation symbols

[Stephen Berman via Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors]

On Sat, 13 Jul 2024 08:51:58 +0000 the_wurfkreuz via "Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors" <bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org> wrote:

> I haven't found a way to disable truncation characters when I'm not using
> line wrapping.
> There is a way to make them appear as empty spaces:
>
> (set-display-table-slot standard-display-table 'truncation ?\ )
>
> However, this isn't a real solution because it still takes up buffer
> space for no benefit.
>
> In some cases, truncation symbols on the left side of the buffer seem
> completely pointless. There's no additional context to be derived from them,
> and they just clutter the buffer.

I don't know if truncation characters can be disabled, but maybe this is
good enough as a workaround:

(set-display-table-slot standard-display-table 'truncation ?\N{ZERO WIDTH SPACE})

Steve Berman