GNU bug report logs - #19471
Can't copy display-string text

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Message #12 received at control <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: npostavs <at> users.sourceforge.net
To: "Kelly Dean" <kelly <at> prtime.org>
Cc: 19471 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#19471: Emacs can't copy text
Date: Sun, 03 Jul 2016 23:31:09 -0400

retitle 19471 Can't copy display-string text
severity 19471 wishlist
found 19471 25.0.95
quit

"Kelly Dean" <kelly <at> prtime.org> writes:

> Do:
> C-h i g (elisp)translation keymaps RET
> C-HOME C-SPACE DOWN M-w
> C-x b foo RET C-y
>
> What it looks like you copied is ⌜(elisp)Top > Keymaps > Translation Keymaps⌝. But when you paste it, you instead get
> ⌜File: elisp.info,  Node: Translation Keymaps,  Next: Key Binding Commands,  Prev: Remapping Commands,  Up: Keymaps⌝
>
> I suppose that's rational in some twisted sense, but it's unreasonable user-unfriendliness for a text editor.
> See my message ⌜Re: Correspondence between web-pages and Info-pages⌝ in emacs-devel for why this matters.
>
> I tried switching the buffer to fundamental mode in order to copy the
> text, but that didn't solve the problem, so Emacs apparently has some
> kind of low-level text-mangling voodoo that hijacks kill-ring-save.

It's implemented by an overlay with a display property.  Normal Emacs
text copying commands work on the underlying text, rather than the
displayed one.  You can see the what overlays/properties are in effect
by doing C-u C-x = on the string in question.

Perhaps we could add some feature to be able to copy the displayed
string instead of the underlying text.

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