Re: fill length of visual line mode

[Harald Hanche-Olsen <hanche@math.ntnu.no>]

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> (2014-10-03 21:20:07 UTC)]

> I'm not opposed to a patch that would let it obey fill-column
> (optionally).  But it does beg the question: what if the window is
> smaller than fill-column?  Should it then fill at the window's edge or
> should it continue as if truncate-lines is set?

Filling at the window's edge is the only reasonable option, IMO.

The behaviour of web browsers was mentioned earlier. But you have the
CSS property max-width to modify that. I have – and frequently use – a
bookmarklet that lets me set the max-width property on the body
element in order to improve readability. It beats adjusting the
browser window itself.

Perhaps emacs could have a variable max-fill-column which, when set,
could govern visual line mode in this way? If set to t, it would mean
use the value of fill-column. Or if set to a number, ignore
fill-column and use the number itself. It shouldn't be allowed to
override fill-column in the other use cases, though. Perhaps
visual-line-max-fill-column would be a better name, if perhaps a bit
unwieldy.

– Harald