Re: Getting column position accounting for overlays

[Yuri D'Elia]

On 05/08/15 17:21, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> I would almost have expected something to extract the visualized string
>> between two points, like `buffer-substring' but iterating through
>> overlays; but couldn't find any (did I miss it?)
> 
> The overlay strings are directly accessible via 'overlay-get', so why
> would anyone need the feature you expected to exist?

I don't think we're on the same line of thought.

The usage scenario is pretty simple: assume a terminal display.
I want to determine the current /visual/ column at point.

(current-column) will not account for overlays that have a 'display
property of a different length than the overlay range.

It's really that simple.

The second part is a consequence: if I want to have a string of the
current line as seen by the user, I have to manually iterate through
overlays, handle 'display manually and reassemble the line myself.
There's no buffer-substring equivalent that gives me the string "with
'display overlays" between two points.