Re: Allowing point to be outside the window?

[Kévin Le Gouguec]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> From: Kévin Le Gouguec <kevin.legouguec@gmail.com>
>> Cc: Po Lu <luangruo@yahoo.com>,  Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>,
>>   emacs-devel@gnu.org
>> Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2021 16:39:01 +0100
>> 
>> > I detest this behaviour, and that Emacs doesn't (currently) do it is a
>> > large part of the reason why I use Emacs.  With these other programs I
>> > experience a constant background stress, that the careless or accidental
>> > depression of a key causes BANG!!! and the text I was reading
>> > disappears for ever, being overwritten by the text around point.
>> 
>> I don't see how (what I understand of) Po's proposition could lead to
>> such catastrophic text Armageddon.  And in any case, Emacs's trusty undo
>> would surely come and save the day.
>
> Undo doesn't undo display operations, only editing operations.

Right; on my first read (and second, and third… I did try to understand
Alan's problem scenario and its consequences, but I obviously failed), I
interpreted "[disappearing] forever, being overwritten" as describing an
editing hazard (akin to erasing the selection in a single keystroke when
delete-selection-mode is on) rather than a "sudden shift of viewport"
issue.

FWIW I find the absence of a blinking cursor conspicuous enough to
remind me that the cursor is actually somewhere else (and that typing in
text or moving around will bring me back to this cursor), but I
understand the concern.

"Keep the feature opt-in" sounds like a good way to avoid surprises;
even for people who might enable the feature, maybe having a fringe
indicator at the top or the bottom of the window (to indicate in which
direction point lies) would help?  (Especially if it blinks according to
blink-cursor-mode)