Re: finding the face of a popup

[Tim X <timx@nospam.dev.null>]

Allan Gottlieb <gottlieb@nyu.edu> writes:

>
> I believe that the description of a face given by placing point
> over a field and typing C-u C-x = should tell you
> the face of a popup that is triggered when the mouse is over that
> field.
>

I think the problem with that is that you are mixing up two different
levels of the application. The popup/tooltip is a function of the mouse
location. The  C-u C-x = describes what is around point and the tool tip is
not really around point - in fact, technically, you could define a tool tip
that pops up whenever the mouse enters the (buffer - its not done because
that would be annoying, but it could be done).

With respect to your other point of list-faces-display not being good
enough because you might have more than one face with the same color -  I
think thats a non-issue. There are only a couple of faces you cannot put
point on - tooltip and modeline are two obvious ones. For the others, you
can use the C-u C-x =.  However, the main reason I think its a non-issue is
that its not a common or frequent problem and when it is, you do have a
solution - even if its not what you would want in your ideal
world. Personally, I'd rather see effort put into extending/improving
things that are more frequently an issue, such as support for better fonts
or development environments that can provide more of the features we see in
more modern systems, such as the stuff being done with semantic and cedet
etc. 

Regardless of different opinions, the really good thing is that if you feel
its important enough that C-u C-x = displays information about a tooltip
which may be triggered nearby, then you can go and implement it. Unlike
other closed systems, we don't have to endlessly winge about missing
features hoping someone hears us and does what we want - instead we can
just go off and do it. 

Tim


-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au