Subject: bug#16493: 24.3.50; (setq search-invisible t) is useless, let's allow to turn visible-mode temporarily on

From: Stefan Monnier <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 11:48:00 -0500

>>>> We lack a way to reveal truly invisible text when performing a search
>>>> and replace.  The URL of a bracket link in Org is an example of such
>>>> truly invisible text.
>>> What do you mean by "truly invisible"?  Does that refer to text that's
>>> marked with an `invisible' text-property (as opposed to an overlay with
>>> that property)?
>> I guess Bastien meant toggling the value of `buffer-invisibility-spec'
>> while isearch is active.  Let's wait for Bastien to confirm this.
> Yes, I do confirm, thanks Juri.

Sounds confused.  I'm asking "how is it made invisible" and you answer by
referencing some way to make it visible.  All forms of invisible are
affected by buffer-invisibility-spec.

> I think the default behavior should be to open both invisible-with-a
> -text-property and invisible-within-an-overlay areas when performing
> a search-and-replace.

So, IIUC you're indeed talking about the text made invisible by
a text-property rather than an overlay, right?

I'm fine with making isearch "reveal" those as well.  Of course, "how"
is an important question: tweaking buffer-invisibility-spec means that
we don't just reveal the part of the text we're interested in, but all
other parts hidden in the same way as well.  An alternative would be to
temporarily remove the text-property.

        Stefan