Re: Emacs's handling of line numbers [from bug#5042]

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2010 10:00:45 -0700
> From: Mark Lillibridge <address@hidden>
> CC: address@hidden, address@hidden, address@hidden
> 
>     The issue is that font-lock mode, goto-line, linum mode, and perhaps
> other features need to treat them differently.  These features want to
> widen to the "application" restriction when processing the current
> buffer, ignoring any temporary restriction.

But if this is the problem you want to solve, you cannot solve it by
introducing yet another kind of restriction: there's always a chance
that a command will want to use the "application" restriction, when
one is already in place, because, e.g., you have font-lock or whatever
active.  And then you are back at the same problem.

IOW, by introducing 2 kinds of restriction, you don't solve the
problem, you just push it a bit farther.

Moreover, I'm not sure I see the problem that is grave enough to
justify this.  The 3 examples you mentioned can be solved by
programming the features to do what you want (I believe font-lock
already solved it, albeit not too elegantly).  I understand now the
difference between two classes of use of restriction (thanks to all
who labored to explain that to this old fart), but are there
_practical_ use-cases where the current situation gets in our way so
badly that such a new feature would be justified?  I wonder.