Re: before-string property has no effect if display property is empty string

[Richard Stallman]

    >     The documentation leads me to believe that the before-string and
    >     display properties of an overlay should be orthogonal.  However, the
    >     before-string is not displayed if the display property is the empty
    >     string.
    >
    > I think the thing to do is document this.

    This is not clear.  For example, linum.el makes empty overlays with
    before-string properties and no display property at all.  And this
    works.  So why shouldn't it work when there is a display property that
    is the empty string?

Logically it ought to work, but do we have anyone who can debug it and
fix it?  Would you like to debug it?