Hi Al, I like these suggestions. In the language of my previous email, you're pointing out that for
S=preview-show-away-from-point, D=preview-at-point-display, P=preview-protect-point, not all 2^3=8 combinations make sense in practice, and it's nicer to tweak one variable than three. Maybe we call the combined option 'preview-visibility-style' to avoid having a non-mode end in '-mode'? One worry is that I have found it tricky to reason about code when one setting controls many logically unrelated features. For instance, 'preview-leave-open-previews-visible' (which I'm to blame for) affects two different sorts of behavior. Every time I revisited code that referenced it, I had to reread its docstring and try to recall which side effect was in play. Splitting into 'preview-keep-stale-images' and 'preview-at-point-display' should fix that. I worry that 'preview-visibility-style' might be similarly complicated (we'd at least need a crisp docstring). One compromise would be to keep the individual knobs S/D/P and layer 'preview-visibility-style' as a preset that simply sets S/D/P to the combinations you listed. That saves users from juggling three booleans, but allows the code to read in terms of simple predicates and retains flexibility for users who might want some "nonstandard" combination. (There's some precedent for such presets in cc-mode, org, ...) Regarding the preset list, I'd be fine dropping 'off-point-deferred. 'preview-protect-point' was added only ~1.5 years ago with the purpose of supporting auto/live previewing via what we're now calling the 'always preset. Whenever I've advertised it, it was in tandem with 'preview-leave-open-previews-visible', so I doubt many people are using it on its own. In any event, no flexibility would ultimately be lost via the "preset" route. Thanks, best, Paul _______________________________________________ bug-auctex mailing list [email protected] https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-auctex
