RE: how to tell what's in the fringe? (lazy fringe)

[Drew Adams]

> > So far, the only real lack (from foregoing fringe) I'm 
> > aware of is the one reported in bug #3550, but if
> > additional UI feedback becomes available _only_ in the
> > fringe, then perhaps I'll need to reconsider. That would
> > be a shame, IMO, but I'm probably a minority of
> > one in not being a fan of fringe.
> 
> You're certainly not the only one (I don't mind it though).
> 
> I don't have any pre-20 emacs

Pre-21. Emacs 20 uses $ for line truncation, not fringe.

> here to confirm, but my recollection is
> that the old behavior was to actually reserve the final column on the
> line for the line truncation/wrapping indicator -- i.e., there _was_ a
> kind of fringe before, but only on the right side.

No. The indicator, $, simply takes the place of the \ that is used normally for
wrapped lines. With or without truncation, without fringe the window right edge
is right up against the last displayed character of the line (which might be a
newline). When a line is truncated, one less character is displayed - it is
replaced by $.

> So to emulate the old-style behavior in the current emacs, 
> you could set the fringe-style to `right-only' (and if seeing the 
> non-indicator fringe annoys you, remove the background color
> attribute from the `fringe' face).

No, that's not the same, even ignoring the annoyance of a different background.
An extra column is needed for the fringe, regardless of whether any line is too
long.

Anyway, life without fringe is fine. Hopefully it will remain so - no user
feedback should _depend_ on users showing the fringe.

Typically, there is always an alternative way for users to get feedback: If they
turn off tooltip-mode, they can still see tooltips - in the echo area.
Relegating the line-truncation indicator to _only_ the fringe is a UI (design)
bug, IMO. I hope we do not continue that approach.