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

[Drew Adams]

> In emacs <21 (again, IIRC), the last column always contained 
> either "$", "\", or " " (representing a newline); you could not
> have lines with 80 "content" (non-newline) characters.  So you
> basically got 79 generally usable columns, if your window was
> 80 columns wide.
> 
> In current emacs, you get precisely the same results if you set
> the fringe style to `right-only', though the terminology has
> changed a bit: The last "column" (the fringe) contains either a
> fringe indicator or nothing, _but_ current emacs also allows
> the " " representing a newline to displayed in the fringe.  So
> again, you get 79 generally usable columns if your window is 80
> columns wide.
> 
> Thus, despite the new concepts, the amount of usable space is 
> the same, when you use only the right fringe.

I see. In effect, with only right fringe, you trade a fringe indicator for the \
(or $, if truncated) that was used before. Thanks for the clear explanation.

Turning off the fringe background helps a bit, but I guess I still prefer the \
or $ to the bold arrows (curled or right) used for this in the fringe.

I don't use truncate much - I admit that $ is about as ugly as the fringe bold
right arrow. But \ is much better than the fringe arrow, IMO.