Subject: Re: bug#19661: wrapping before window-width (new wrap-column text property?)

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 20:00:39 +0200

> Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 18:46:34 +0100
> From: martin rudalics <[email-masked]>
> CC: [email-masked]
> 
>  > Sorry for being dense, this being just the first weekday for me, but
>  > what "windows code" does that, please?
> 
> The one that calculates the text size of windows.

OK, but I fail to see how this, or anything similar, can provide the
features being discussed.

>  > In any case, telling the display engine where to start the display is
>  > a far cry from telling it how to lay out the screen from that point
>  > onwards.
> 
> My point was to _not_ change the code of the display engine.

Why not?

>  > Providing an API is not equivalent to implementing it.  In order for
>  > us to be able to provide such an API, the display engine should
>  > implement the support such an API will need.  And that's the hard part
>  > of the job -- how to perform this layout.  Once we figure that out,
>  > providing an API for controlling it will be easy.
> 
> It essentially would have to subdivide a window into rectangles.  And I
> would do that on the window(s) level to avoid the hard part of the job.

Well, like I said, I consider such (ab)using of windows a kludge.