Re: confusing info in C-u C-x =

[Andreas Schwab]

Werner LEMBERG <address@hidden> writes:

> Pressing C-u C-x = on an underlined space character in mew shows this:
>
>     character: SPC (040, 32, 0x20, U+0020)
>     ...
>
>   There is an overlay here:
>    From 14 to 15
>     face                 [underline]
>     mew                  t
>
>   ...
>
> What does the `From 14 to 15' mean?

It is supposed to be the overlay start and end, but uses the overlay that
has been put at the character in the help buffer instead of the original
overlay.  This was apparently a deliberate choice so that you can do C-u
C-x = on a character in the *Help* buffer and still get information on the
text properties and overlays:

2004-05-05  Kenichi Handa  <address@hidden>

        * descr-text.el (describe-char): Copy the character with text
        properties and overlays into the first line, and call
        describe-text-properties on it.

Unfortunately that has the side effect of losing the original overlay
position.

Andreas.

-- 
Andreas Schwab, SuSE Labs, address@hidden
SuSE Linux Products GmbH, Maxfeldstraße 5, 90409 Nürnberg, Germany
PGP key fingerprint = 58CA 54C7 6D53 942B 1756  01D3 44D5 214B 8276 4ED5
"And now for something completely different."