Re: address@hidden: asymmetries and contradictions in shell navigation using C-a and C-e on a prompt line]

[Richard Stallman]

    The reason it does this is because the minibuffer input field is at the
    end of the buffer, and can have a size of zero.  Thus any inserted
    characters will have nil values for their properties, including the
    `field' property.  Also, it's important that the field code recognize
    that there's an empty field there, so that commands such as C-a don't
    act wierdly when nothing's been typed into the minibuffer. 

    However, I think this can be handled by making the minibuffer input use
    an overlay for the input field, instead of relying on the nil-properties
    inserted at the end of the buffer.

That part bothers me.  Can we assign a coherent meaning to a field
property on an empty overlay?