display value of links in mini-buffer (was: Re: bug archiving policy)

[Yuri Khan]

On Sun, 6 Dec 2020 at 16:29, Boruch Baum <boruch_baum@gmx.com> wrote:

> I've been having an awful time trying to update a simple bugfix patch to
> a recent bug report[1].

> [1] https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=42484

>From a message in that bug report:

> This turned out to be so suspiciously trivial, it may well be a bug-fix
> rather than a feature request. The org-mode code-base had already been
> setting the 'help-echo property for links, etc. in over a dozen places
> across several files, so there was clearly at one point an intention to
> do something with the property, but I don't see it being used *anywhere*,
> just defined. My guess is that at some point, this feature existed and
> got removed, but I don't have the resources (full git and email
> histories) to do that research.

The 'help-echo property is displayed in a tooltip when you point with
the mouse at the text that has this property.

The primary client of this property is the modeline, window borders,
and other parts of the UI you’re expected to interact with using a
mouse (and where you can’t actually move the point).

However, some modes also put 'help-echo property over text in a
buffer: buttons and links in Customize, links in Info, links in Eww,
diagnostics in Flymake. All of them would benefit from the behavior
you’re asking of Org: display tooltip text in the echo area when point
enters text so propertized.

There is a command ‘display-local-help’, bound to ‘<f1> .’, that can
be called manually. It would be nice to have a minor mode that would
basically invoke that whenever the point moves.

Basically, instead of bickering about Org maintainers not wanting to
track Org feature requests in the Emacs bug tracker, I propose that we
extend the scope of the request so that it becomes a genuine Emacs
feature request.