bug#44078: 26.3; `tabulated-list-mode': Use it in any mode and for part of a buffer

[Drew Adams]

Feature request:

I'd like to see `tabulated-list-mode' be usable for only part of a
buffer.  How?  Dunno.  Text property maybe, analogous to property
`keymap'?

One of its greatest weaknesses is that it's (only) a major mode.  It's
buffer-wide, which means you can't do anything else in the buffer.  You
can't use `tabulated-list-mode' for just some table(s) (tabulated info)
within a buffer.  This greatly limits its usefulness, IMO.

In the beginning, IIRC, there was only the major mode `outline-mode'.
Later we added `outline-minor-mode'.  That at least took care of the
problem of not being able to use it with another major mode.

But for `tabulated-list-mode' I think we need more than just to add a
minor-mode version.  We really need a way to confine its effect to a
part of a buffer.

In GNU Emacs 26.3 (build 1, x86_64-w64-mingw32)
 of 2019-08-29
Repository revision: 96dd0196c28bc36779584e47fffcca433c9309cd
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 10.0.18362
Configured using:
 `configure --without-dbus --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32
 --without-compress-install 'CFLAGS=-O2 -static -g3''