Re: Emacs mode for GDB - 2 questions

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

    With a large array, if the top line was in the buffer it would scroll out of 
    view. I would like to be able to enter the three digits (0,5,2 in this case)
    into the header line.

That feature makes sense well enough, but as I said, it would
be difficult to implement.

But I have another idea for implementing it.  Suppose that line were
actually a separate window, with its mode line disabled, showing just
one line of some buffer.  That way you could indeed select it and edit
it as usual.  You could make the parts that should not really be edited
read-only.

This would require a new feature in the C code, but since it would
only affect the setting up of window structure, not redisplay,
it would be far easier.  It might actually be feasible.

We would need to decide on the UI for selection of these special
windows.

This leads to a further idea.  Suppose that every mode line (and every
header line) were actually a separate window, and formatting of mode
line elements was done by converting them into text in a buffer.  That
would be elegant in some ways.  The usage of memory for this would
be acceptable nowadays.

This would make it possible to copy text from a mode line or header
line by dragging the mouse across it, for example.

What do people think?