Subject: bug#1221: overlay before- and after-string and help-echo

From: Glenn Morris <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:47:18 -0400

Package: emacs
Version: 23.0.60
Severity: minor

This bug is extracted from #1176, which contained several issues.

The help-echo property of an overlay with a display string does not
affect any before-string or after-string.

I class this as a minor problem since one can work around it by
applying the help-echo property by hand to the before- and
after-string; though this does lead to a slight glitch of the
help-echo disappearing as one moves across the boundary of the display
part.

Example:

(let ((buff (generate-new-buffer "overlay test"))
      o)
  (with-current-buffer buff
    (insert "text")
    (setq o (make-overlay (point-min) (point-max)))
    (overlay-put o 'help-echo "help!")
    (overlay-put o 'display "display")
    (overlay-put o 'before-string "before string")
;;; (overlay-put o 'before-string (propertize "before string" 'help-echo "help!))
    (overlay-put o 'after-string "after string")
    (pop-to-buffer buff)))

Only "display" has help-echo. The commented out part illustrates the
work-around.