Re: about showing all characters including non-printable, control etc

[Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com>]

Bernardo <bernardo.bacic@pobox.com> writes:

>> Apparently something has to be loaded to use whitespace-global-mode.
>> My emacs knows nothing about it.
>>
>> C-h i <RET> m <RET> i whitespace-global-mode <RET>
>>
>> Info doesn't know about it either.
>>
>> Finally:
>> grep -r whitespace-global-mode /usr/share/emacs/23.1.50
>> Shows the name has been aliased to:
>>  usr/share/emacs/23.1.50/etc/NEWS.22:***  `global-whitespace-mode'
>> is a new alias for `whitespace-global-mode'.
>>
>> M-x load-library <RET> global-whitespace-mode
>>
>> Loads the source file... but still setting the check call fails here:
>>
>>   M-x whitespace-toggle-s<tab>  fails to find anything
>>
>> Maybe more names are changed?
>> What version of emacs are you running.
> does M-x apropos RET whitespace RET
> list whitespace-mode?

yes... (thanks) under global-whitespace-mode
From what it says apparently if you have global-whitespace-mode on you
should have a WS on mode line that toggles `visualization' on/off.

I have that. `WS' with it on... what am I supposed to see?

When I go to one of the messages with the tab in it... I still don't
see them.
No one ever said what this mode is supposed to do...

I mentioned in my OP the vim command :l  that shows tabs and lots of
other stuff... in a line.

Is there a command in emacs that does that?... or is it an endless
bunch of jerking around to see tabs....sorry don't mean to be a wise
ass.  But this is getting to be a lot of jumping through hoops and no
results. 

I think I'll just stick to my home made defuns... but can you tell me
how to make this a toggle?  And how to make it apply to just the
current line.  The toggle would be the most important... in fact
showing the whole buffer would probably be more useful than not. 

(defun vi-list ()
  "Simulate a :set list in Vi."
  (interactive)
  (standard-display-ascii ?\t "^I")
  (standard-display-ascii ?\n "$\n")
  )

(defun vi-nolist ()
  "Simulate a :set nolist in Vi."
  (interactive)
  (standard-display-ascii ?\t "\t")
  (standard-display-ascii ?\n "\n")
  )

What would be really useful would be to set things up so that after
pressing M-x vi-list  The first scroll kind of motion would
automatically call vi-nolist.

That's pretty much how it works in vim.. I don't know the mechanics but
if you press :l  The current line is shown but soon as you move it
goes off.  nice.