From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Drew Adams" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: RE: link appearance and soft face properties Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 09:53:06 -0700 Message-ID: References: <87zmtlsoqf.fsf@jurta.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1119286912 7345 80.91.229.2 (20 Jun 2005 17:01:52 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 17:01:52 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Jun 20 19:01:51 2005 Return-path: Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DkPdT-0000Nm-01 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 20 Jun 2005 19:00:35 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DkPji-0000SI-Q3 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 20 Jun 2005 13:07:02 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1DkPef-0007D3-5P for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 20 Jun 2005 13:01:49 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1DkPeN-00075I-PS for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 20 Jun 2005 13:01:35 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DkPeM-00071H-3A for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 20 Jun 2005 13:01:30 -0400 Original-Received: from [141.146.126.228] (helo=agminet01.oracle.com) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA:24) (Exim 4.34) id 1DkPYv-00021Q-GJ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 20 Jun 2005 12:55:53 -0400 Original-Received: from agminet01.oracle.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by agminet01.oracle.com (Switch-3.1.7/Switch-3.1.7) with ESMTP id j5KGr7ts007719 for ; Mon, 20 Jun 2005 11:53:07 -0500 Original-Received: from rgmsgw300.us.oracle.com (rgmsgw300.us.oracle.com [138.1.186.49]) by agminet01.oracle.com (Switch-3.1.7/Switch-3.1.7) with ESMTP id j5KGr77Y007695 for ; Mon, 20 Jun 2005 11:53:07 -0500 Original-Received: from rgmsgw300.us.oracle.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by rgmsgw300.us.oracle.com (Switch-3.1.4/Switch-3.1.0) with ESMTP id j5KGr6BX012258 for ; Mon, 20 Jun 2005 10:53:06 -0600 Original-Received: from dradamslap (dradams-lap.us.oracle.com [130.35.177.126]) by rgmsgw300.us.oracle.com (Switch-3.1.4/Switch-3.1.0) with SMTP id j5KGr6Mr012253 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5 bits=128 verify=NO) for ; Mon, 20 Jun 2005 10:53:06 -0600 Original-To: X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) In-Reply-To: <87zmtlsoqf.fsf@jurta.org> X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1506 Importance: Normal X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAAI= X-Whitelist: TRUE X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:39183 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:39183 > Providing a link face (that inherits etc.) and using it for all > links (i.e. places where the code in fact "follows a link" upon > click) would let users customize, in a single place, how links > appear. (If we provided buffer-local faces, users would also be > able to easily customize link appearance on a per-buffer basis.) I can't imagine other useful face attributes for the `link' face than underline. For example, changing its foreground color will make different faces inheriting from it indistinguishable (like visited and unvisited links in Info, or file names and line numbers in grep and compilation). So I see the `link' face mainly as a way to turn link underlining off. But then it should be possible to do that on a per-buffer basis to turn underlining off in some modes (e.g. in grep and compilation) but leaving it in others (e.g. in Info). Turning underlining on/off is certainly one application of this. There is also the choice of whether links should use a special face (e.g. underlining, or blue text) or a special mouse-face or both. WRT the face property, this means whether or not links should be discernable without moving the mouse over them. Emacs has used different ways to represent links in the past, I believe. Links in Info are now underlined and blue, and a mouseover removes the underlining and the blue foreground and makes the background green (by default). Links in Dired use the same mouseover highlighting, but do not use any highlighting for the face property. And so on. The feature I was proposing would let Emacs developers and Emacs users: 1) Define the global (default) appearance of links (both face and mouse-face properties) in a single place. 2) Define the local appearance of links on a per-buffer (e.g. per mode) basis. And the same idea would apply to buttons and other user-interface objects that use faces.