Re: how to control isearch for invisible text

[David Kastrup]

"Drew Adams" <address@hidden> writes:

> More importantly, I think the option should be documented - perhaps
> in the section on invisible text, if there is to be no isearch
> toggle for it. If you want to remove the user option and make it a
> plain `defvar', that's your choice; I have no actual example that
> will dissuade you. End of story.

The doc string mentions outline.el and hideshow.el.  Both of those
don't have invisible text as much as hidden text, text that clearly is
part of the buffer, with the invisibility being a display aspect and
not a text aspect.  The overlays will also get an
`isearch-open-invisible' property allowing them to open.  For this
sort of thing, the default setting of search-invisible, namely `open',
makes sense.  I don't see where a different setting would make sense
in connection with those modes which cater with appropriate properties
for opening in searches. `open' might be less necessary when someone
uses reveal-mode, but I have not checked it.

In short: I fail to see where a global setting of search-invisible to
anything other than `open' would make even remotely sense with the
mentioned outline.el and hideshow.el.

For dired-mode, this is not as clearcut in my case.  When I hide
aspects of the buffer away with an explicit command, it is less likely
that I actually would want to find them.  And those overlays don't use
`isearch-open-invisible' seemingly, which again seems to match what is
useful and likely the intent of the user.

So in short, I see nothing worth changing here.  If your needs as a
programmer are sufficiently strange that you'll need to meddle with
those variables, you'll be reading the source file for searches,
anyway.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum