GNU bug report logs - #4854
23.1.50; before-string overlay and show-paren-mode

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From: Stephen Berman <stephen.berman <at> gmx.net>
To: npostavs <at> users.sourceforge.net
Cc: 4854 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#4854: 23.1.50; before-string overlay and show-paren-mode
Date: Sun, 03 Jul 2016 16:33:12 +0200

On Fri, 01 Jul 2016 14:42:30 -0400 npostavs <at> users.sourceforge.net wrote:

[...]
> Stephen Berman <stephen.berman <at> gmx.net> writes:
>> These two things seem very strange: (i) enabling show-paren-mode and
>> getting the show-paren overlay somehow nullifies the unless test; (ii)
>> this effect only happens when the command is invoked via a key
>> sequence.
>
> It's because show-paren-mode uses a single (pair of) overlay(s) for all
> buffers and moves it to right place during idle time.  When you invoke a
> command with M-x the overlay pair gets moved to the minibuffer.  With a
> direct keybinding the overlay pair stays in the current buffer.

Thanks for the diagnosis, which is convincing.

> So I think this is not a bug, it's just how show-paren-mode works.

I guess you're right; yet this behavior seems to go against the spirit
of the way Emacs is intended to work, as suggested by the Emacs manual,
node `M-x': "Every Emacs command has a name that you can use to run it.
For convenience, many commands also have key bindings.  You can run
those commands by typing the keys, or run them by name.  Most Emacs
commands have no key bindings, so the only way to run them is by
name. [...]  Note that ‘forward-char’ is the same command that you
invoke with the key ‘C-f’.  The existence of a key binding does not stop
you from running the command by name."  Are there any other Emacs
commands that produce different behavior depending on whether they are
invoked with a key binding or by name?  Maybe it would be better to
unify the behavior of show-paren-mode.  (I briefly tried conditioning
the calls to move-overlay on whether the current buffer is a minibuffer,
but my attempt (which I didn't give much thought to) didn't work.)

I guess this bug can be closed, unless leaving it open might spur
someone to try and "improve" show-paren-mode.

Steve Berman

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