Re: Render a buffer or string to a simpler string?

[Dmitry Gutov]

esabof@gmail.com writes:

> It shouldn't be very hard to create such a function in elisp - the subset of 
> display properties you need is probably not very large.

Doing that independent of rendering engine wouldn't be very durable, the
tests using the result wouldn't be protected against display engine bugs
and changes in behavior. And there are fine details like `line-prefix'
values priorities (what if we have several such properties on one line?)
that I think only expressed at C level.

> Also, how hard it would be to put a single transparent image on top of a 
> frame? This would allow more robust pop-ups, as well as other UI elements by 
> using SVG.

There was a discussion a little while ago about generalizing
`x-show-tip' so it could be used to render popups of this kind. It's a
nice idea, although it would benefit only the users of future Emacs
releases.