Re: Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[Felix E. Klee]

David Kastrup wrote:
>> Is this really neccessary? Preview-LaTeX takes for example "\emph{bla bla
>> bla}" and passes it to an external tool, latex, which creates an image
>> that replaces the corresponding text. Wouldn't it be possible to let the
>> user specify another tool (probably a simple lisp function) instead that
>> takes "\emph{bla bla bla}", processes it and creates soem text (eg. "*bla
>> bla bla*", faces might be problematic) that is used to replace "\emph{bla
>> bla bla}"?
> 
> That would be close to useless.  The main problem with preview-latex
> is that images themselves are not editable, and the larger the unit
> becomes (like a whole figure), the less convenient for editing.  When
> you enter such an image, it gets replaced by its source text.  You
> can already let preview-latex let an environment like \emph be
> replaced by a _graphic_.  The main problem is not that it is a
> graphic, but that you can't edit it because the relation between its
> looks and the source text can't be reestablished, and that its line
> breaks are completely different and so on.
> 
> You demand something that has all the editing disadvantages of an
> image without an obvious advantage to show.

Here are some advantages for displaying text instead of images:
1. It is faster.
2. It might be more readable when the face that is used is similar or
   identical to the default face.
3. Text can be wrapped when a line gets too long.

> No, if this feature is supposed to be usable separately, it must have
> a way to specify text properties affixed to the source text instead
> of merely a replacement text.

That would be a cool feature, but is not absolutely neccessary, IMHO.

Felix