RE: [drew.adams@oracle.com: customizing hl-line-face should reset global-hl-line-overlay to nil]

["Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

    >     > However, please see my other email about using a face instead
    >     > of a user option (variable). Wouldn't that also take
    >     > care of this problem? That is, if there is no face variable,
    >     > and users change the face itself, then that would be
    >     > immediately reflected in the overlay, no?
    >
    >     It would.  But it would break other people's
    >     customizations as well.
    >
    > Do you really think that would affect a lot of people
    > negatively? I don't. I think that most users of hl-line
    > (both of them ;-)) will appreciate having a face to customize.

    I suspect the users who care about "having a face to customize" forms
    is an even smaller subset than those that will get annoyed by having
    their existing customizations break.  Note that hl-line-mode has been
    in Emacs since 1999.

    I think Martin's patch is correct.

I disagree, obviously. The users who might have customized that variable did
so precisely because the face that was its default value was inappropriate
for them. Some might even have created a new face to use, because no
existing face was appropriate. They are quite likely to be users who do care
about having a face to customize. This was a poor design from the beginning,
and it should be corrected, giving users a better way to customize the
feature, even at the minor cost of making them change their existing,
workaround customizations.

But if others agree with you that this is a big problem, then the face
should be added but the variable still left in place, with its default value
changed to the new face, instead of `highlight'. That (including Martin's
correction) makes the code much more complex than is necessary; I hope
others do not agree with you about this.