Re: `auto-dim-other-windows` -- scrutiny invited

[Joost Kremers]

Steven Degutis wrote:
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> Hmm, it seems that using overlays could allow the dimming to be per-window
> instead of per-buffer.
>
> But overlays have a few quirks.
>
> First, they're still per-buffer. You can copy them around different
> buffers, but each buffer has to have its own. So if we were going to use
> them to dim other windows, every buffer would have to always have an extra
> overlay in it.

i only skimmed the rest of this thread so perhaps i'm suggesting
something that's already been mentioned, but couldn't you do it the
other way around? instead of dimming all other windows, why not
highlight the selected one? apply some magic to the default font perhaps
and then undo that effect is the selected window. i have no idea if
something like that might work, but it may be worth a look.

another hint might be to look at ace-jump-mode: it dims everything in
the current frame except for a number of jump targets. there might be
some useful ideas in there.

finally, you might want to consider that there are windows whose
contents are meant to be seen even if they're not selected. i don't know
of any good heuristic to find those windows, so you may want to consider
adding a customise option that the user can use to set his or her
favourite "do not dim" buffers, which are not dimmed when displayed in
some non-selected window (preferably a list of regexps, i'd say).


-- 
Joost Kremers                                   joostkremers@fastmail.fm
Selbst in die Unterwelt dringt durch Spalten Licht
EN:SiS(9)