Re: finger-pointer curser as default for mouse-face text

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) writes:

> David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:
>
>>> Why do preview-latex images need to have mouse-face property ?
>>> Images can have mouse-2 bindings even without that.
>>
>> But the mouse-face property is the normal way to indicate that using
>> mouse-2 will do something different from pasting.
>
> What visible effect do you get for an image when moving the mouse
> over it?

Transparent areas of the image turn green (or whatever your highlight
color is).  preview-latex explicitly places a transparent border
around images to achieve that effect.  Even if the image is not
transparent, some part of the line spacing usually turns green.

> You can also change the mouse pointer shape.

But that's not the "traditional way" since it was not available for as
long.  And it's beside the point, anyway, since it does not provide
any better idea about when to interchange mouse-1 and mouse-2.

>> So what?  preview-latex images don't have a non-standard binding
>> for mouse-1.  So I am citing it as an example that will cause
>> trouble and requires a migration plan instead of a sudden change.
>
> It was one way to avoid the mouse-1 remapping (by trivial code
> rewrite).
>
> I have little hope of finding a perfect solution (i.e. one which
> works for everything without anything having to adapt to some kind
> of method to fine-tune the behaviour in specific cases).  Maybe it's
> ok if it works in 95% of all cases (and the remaning 5% must be
> tweaked a little to work).

Sure.  That's why I say we need a migration plan.  Providing an
option, and then at some time making that option a default is not a
migration plan.  We need to define what an application needs to do in
order to get consistent behavior both with and without that option,
and we need to get the message out.  And then, at one time, people can
hope to turn this option on and off according to their preferences
without expecting to get something completely inconsistent.  And when
we arrive at that stage, it might make sense switching the default of
the option.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum