Re: [RFC] Add :invisible face attribute

[Jean Louis <bugs@gnu.support>]

* Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> [2024-12-21 07:54]:
> [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
> [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
> [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]
> 
>   > Introduce :invisible face attribute which makes foreground to be the
>   > same as background rendering the text invisible; or when :invert-video
>   > is also in effect, background is the same as foreground.
> 
> Why is this feature worth having>  What is useful about it?

It would be useful to me:

I have tables made out of Box Drawing Characters which I display in
the Org file and which I would like to use for multi-column display of
some information. Here is not a proper, though similar example:

╔════════════════════════╦════════╦══════════════════════════════╦═══════╗
║ Total number of people ║ 242775 ║ Total Hyperdocuments         ║ 64891 ║
╠════════════════════════╬════════╬══════════════════════════════╬═══════╣
║ People in last week    ║ 18     ║ Hyperdocuments in last week  ║ 186   ║
╠════════════════════════╬════════╬══════════════════════════════╬═══════╣
║ People in last month   ║ 175    ║ Hyperdocuments in last month ║ 879   ║
╚════════════════════════╩════════╩══════════════════════════════╩═══════╝

In some cases I do not want Box Drawing Characters be displayed, then
I would make them simply invisible on the top level of Emacs instead
of changing the underlying library to display " " space.

I was in fact thinking that invisible property already exists in
Emacs. Just these days I started using tables with the " " space to
solve that problem. It looks as below:
                                                                          
  Total number of people   242775   Total Hyperdocuments           64891  
                                                                          
  People in last week      18       Hyperdocuments in last week    186    
                                                                          
  People in last month     175      Hyperdocuments in last month   879    
                                                                          
Property invisible helps to remove some for display or demonstration unwanted characters.

Jean Louis