bug#43572: Feature request: make it possible to choose whether the first lines of the minibuffer should be displayed instead of the last ones

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>
> Cc: ghe@sdf.org,  43572@debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2020 19:18:39 -0400
> 
> > This could be a useful new feature, but we still need to decide what
> > should the display engine do when the chunk of text marked with this
> > new indication (some text property, probably?) cannot all of it be
> > displayed.  Should it then display only its first part, only its last
> > part, something else?
> 
> I think this can be controlled with the position of point (which
> I guess should be presumed to be somewhere within the "important
> chunk").  The idea would be to maximize the amount of chunk that's
> displayed, but under the usual constraint that point is displayed.

Sure, point is important.  But it doesn't solve the problem I had in
mind.  Suppose you have text like this:

   xxxxxxxxxxxxx[xxxxxxxxxxxx|xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]xxxxxxxxxxx

where [...] denotes the portion of text indicated as "important
chunk", and | denotes the position of point.  Suppose further than the
available screen estate is insufficient to display all of the
"important chunk" -- which part would you want to see on display: the
part before point? after point? centered at point? something else?