Re: overlays?

[lee]

Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> writes:

> Dnia 2014-03-18, o godz. 02:40:35
> lee <lee@yun.yagibdah.de> napisał(a):
>
>> Hi,
>> 
>> could someone please shed a light on the purpose of overlays?  I`m
>> wondering under what circumstances they are used, or need to be used.
>> Are they a feature that has been obsoleted by font-lock, or are they
>> still needed?
>
> With the risk that I say something stupid: isn't font-lock used for
> syntax highlighting?

With hi-lock-mode, either overlays are, or font-lock is used.  I`d have
to check if it potentially uses both.  Perhaps I can somehow make it use
overlays just to see what happens.

My understanding was that it may depend on the display/terminal whether
font-lock or overlays is/are used.  This understanding seems to be
obviously wrong.  They are suited for different circumstances.

> If yes, then: what about i-search (using overlays) in a font-lock'ed
> buffer?

What about it?  Does it use overlays?


-- 
Knowledge is volatile and fluid.  Software is power.