bug#9790: Cleaning up nobreak-char-display

bug#9790: Cleaning up nobreak-char-display

[Chong Yidong]

See emacs-devel discussion at
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2011-10/msg00747.html

After Emacs 24.1, we should clean up the nobreak-char-display mechanism.
The highlighted chars should be in a variable, not hardcoded.  The name
`nobreak-char-display' should probably be changed.  Also, we should
figure out how to deal with the different Unicode space characters.

bug#9790: Cleaning up nobreak-char-display

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Chong Yidong <cyd@gnu.org> writes:

> After Emacs 24.1, we should clean up the nobreak-char-display mechanism.
> The highlighted chars should be in a variable, not hardcoded.  The name
> `nobreak-char-display' should probably be changed.  Also, we should
> figure out how to deal with the different Unicode space characters.

The latter was fixed earlier this year, I think?

As for having the former in a variable -- is that warranted?  It would
mean slowing redisplay down a bit, I guess?  I don't know whether that's
worth it.

Any opinions?

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#9790: Cleaning up nobreak-char-display

[Juri Linkov]

>> After Emacs 24.1, we should clean up the nobreak-char-display mechanism.
>> The highlighted chars should be in a variable, not hardcoded.  The name
>> `nobreak-char-display' should probably be changed.  Also, we should
>> figure out how to deal with the different Unicode space characters.
>
> The latter was fixed earlier this year, I think?
>
> As for having the former in a variable -- is that warranted?  It would
> mean slowing redisplay down a bit, I guess?  I don't know whether that's
> worth it.
>
> Any opinions?

To address specific needs for highlighting Unicode space characters,
in bug#44236 I resorted to the GNU ELPA package 'markchars' that has
the variable 'markchars-nobreak-space-pattern' with a list of
Unicode space characters.

bug#9790: Cleaning up nobreak-char-display

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Juri Linkov <juri@linkov.net> writes:

>>> After Emacs 24.1, we should clean up the nobreak-char-display mechanism.
>>> The highlighted chars should be in a variable, not hardcoded.  The name
>>> `nobreak-char-display' should probably be changed.  Also, we should
>>> figure out how to deal with the different Unicode space characters.
>>
>> The latter was fixed earlier this year, I think?
>>
>> As for having the former in a variable -- is that warranted?  It would
>> mean slowing redisplay down a bit, I guess?  I don't know whether that's
>> worth it.
>>
>> Any opinions?
>
> To address specific needs for highlighting Unicode space characters,
> in bug#44236 I resorted to the GNU ELPA package 'markchars' that has
> the variable 'markchars-nobreak-space-pattern' with a list of
> Unicode space characters.

So if there's a package that does provide this functionality, then we
don't really need to have it in-core, either (since it doesn't seem like
this is a feature tons of people crave), and I'm closing this bug report.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#9790: Cleaning up nobreak-char-display

[Drew Adams]

Various posts in this thread essentially propose different blanket approaches, i.e., paint something with a broad brush.  Some want such brushwork in some contexts; others don't.

What's needed, I think, are (1) a fine-grained mechanism to control which chars get highlighted and how and where/when, (2) default applications of that mechanism to specific contexts, and (3) user ability to control things.

No broad brushwork will be satisfactory, I think.  I think some form of #1 is the starting point - without that, I don't see a good solution.

I mentioned my library `highlight-chars.el', which provides support for #1: ways to highlight any set of chars, and control where/when/whether that's done.  Maybe take a look at what it offers, as food for thought or even perhaps reuse?

https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/download/highlight-chars.el