Re: Scrollbar thumbs

[Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org>]

Jason Rumney <jasonr@gnu.org> writes:
> Even Emacs 19 had line wrapping, so counting CR characters as the file
> is read (as some simple text editors do) has never been the solution to
> this problem.  The only solution seems to be to render the entire buffer
> offscreen in background

Yes.  In other words, a complete (and _massive_ in terms of code) change
in Emacs' internal model, to one which is more complex (lots of caching)
and hugely impractical for very large files.

The toolkit change, by contrast, is apparently quite small, and would
simply make the toolkit allow more application flexibility.  No existing
GTK apps would be affected.  AFAICT, the only reason GTK _hasn't_
changed is because of a dogmatic refusal to believe any model except
their own is valid.

Even if every Emacs author suddenly decided they _wanted_ to rewrite
Emacs to accommodate GTK, it wouldn't happen, simply because it's not
even remotely practical.  But as I understand it, GTK could easily
change given a decision to allow it.

I think GTK is in general, a pretty nice toolkit, but not every
application is exactly The Gimp, and this sort of head-in-the-sand
behavior is very disheartening.

-Miles

-- 
Year, n. A period of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments.