Re: scratch/tzz/auth-source-reveal-mode 4a7c98d 3/3: Create and document auth-source-reveal-mode

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>
> Cc: monnier@iro.umontreal.ca,  emacs-devel@gnu.org
> Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2020 18:15:05 +0000
> 
> EZ> Alternatively, if the purpose is to display some text as something
> EZ> else, we already have display properties and overlays that can be (and
> EZ> are) used for implementing such features; why not use them instead?
> 
> I would welcome help in implementing the prettify-text-* internals
> better (supporting bidirectional script and anything else you would
> consider required) and asked for help with it earlier. I'll need a hand
> from someone knowledgeable, or at least a pointer to code that provides
> the same functionality as `prettify-symbols-mode' in a way that's
> acceptable. I listed the functionality in (1) above.

I would like first to understand why you thought about using the
prettify-symbols-mode technique for this.  The natural features to use
for displaying some text instead of what's in the buffer are 'display'
text properties and overlay strings, and the natural feature for
hiding some text is the 'invisible' text property.  So why didn't you
use these features to begin with?  What am I missing?

Thanks.