> From: Carsten Dominik <carsten.domi...@gmail.com> > Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:58:15 +0200 > Cc: "emacs-orgmode@gnu.org List" <emacs-orgmode@gnu.org>, > Eli Zaretskii <e...@gnu.org> > > > I guess Eli simply means, in a general way, that overlays do negatively > > impact > > display performance, as you said as well a couple of times: > > Yes, but Eli says that Org already severely tests the > display engine, and he uses the word "mess", even though > we mostly use text properties for faces and other > display-related things.
Well, don't interpret "mess" too literally ;-) > Of course, Org already uses overlays, for example for > folding (as does outline.el), and for temporary marking > of text like during src block editing. But as your digging > shows, I ave avoided them in the past, and we are also not > using them for org-indent.el, for example. > > The reason why I said "overlays would be better" is simply > that they would allow to add display properties in a > persistent way that would not interfere that our > font-lock-unfontify-region function removes face and > invisibility text properties. So they are "better" for > implementing hand-made faces selection that should overrule > font-lock. Overlays should be OK as long as they aren't too many, and as long as you don't move them around too much, particularly in post-command-hook or some such.
