Re: Display problems with `before-string' in overlay

[Stefan Monnier]

> A note: What makes me a bit upset is more that I get the feeling that you
> think the bug is unimportant

Actually, I do think so: the position where the cursor is displayed when
placed on a before-string (or a display string) has always been
fairly approximate.  E.g. Whether to display it *before* or *after* the
display string should depend in most cases on the stickiness of the property
(i.e. would insertion of a char at point insert it before or after the
display string?), but AFAIK we still don't do that: we just choose one of
the two arbitrarily (sometimes just because it's convenient or it seemed
right in some circumstance, or because "that's how it worked in earlier
releases").  So as a user, I expect the cursor movement to be a bit odd in
the presence of display strings.

I agree that this situation should be improved, but as long as the position
is chosen arbitrarily anyway, I don't see it as a big problem if this
arbitrary choice happens to be occasionally in the middle of the display
string rather than at one of its ends.


        Stefan