Re: current-column and display (space :align-to) properties

[Michael Mauger <mmaug@yahoo.com>]

Richard M. Stallman writes:

> 
>     Along the lines of a question that arose a couple of weeks ago re: 
counting 
>     before and after properties when calculating current-column, should the 
>     space :align-to and :width properties be reflected in current-column?
> 
> I think this is part of the to-do item to write a version
> of current-column that takes account of pixel widths.
> 

Actually, on Dec 22nd, during a discussion with Drew titled "current-column and 
invisible text", you said:

> I think that is a bug.  I see two possible meaningful ways to handle
> an overlay before-string: either ignore it, or count its contents.
> The latter seems more correct.
>
> Would someone like to look at this bug, and ack?

I think a basic solution to this (report integer column number with no 
accounting for font widths) is needed now (before the release) since many of 
the display properties are new and cause inconsistent behavior in some basic 
functions.  

I've looked at the code, and understand where the changes are needed, but am 
not very comfortable with Emacs internals.  I'll take a look and see if I can 
puzzle my way thru but my time for it is limited.

-- Michael