bug#43572: Feature request: make it possible to choose whether the first lines of the minibuffer should be displayed instead of the last ones

[Gregory Heytings]

> > Could you please provide a recipe which would demonstrate a problem 
> > with the technique I propose?  AFAICS, the flag is reset immediately 
> > when read_minibuf() / read-from-minibuffer has ended.
>
> That is true, but read_minibuf enters recursive-edit, and while that is 
> active, any call to resize_mini_window will be affected.

This seems to be a really minor problem.  What kind of problems could 
happen because during a recursive edit while icomplete or ido or ... is 
active, redisplay is asked to start displaying at BOB?  Do you really 
believe this could lead to a non-minor problem?

> Using a text property for this is easy and mostly boilerplate, and it 
> completely avoids this issue.

Then I wonder why this did not happen earlier (and wonder when it will 
happen).  A bug report about this exact problem has already been filed 
five years ago (bug#24293).  Five years ago.  And the patch I'm proposing 
is less than ten lines long, and would be most welcome today.

> I already explained why your design is problematic.  And so did Stefan.

No, Stefan helped me to improve my design.

> So I don't see why a recipe would be needed.

Indeed, if the only remaining problem is that during a recursive edit 
while icomplete or ido or ... is active, redisplay is asked to start 
displaying at BOB instead of BOL, I don't think such a recipe would be 
convincing.