Re: completion buffer - unsuitable column width

[Dan Nicolaescu]

David Reitter <address@hidden> writes:

  > On 2 Mar 2009, at 20:33, Stefan Monnier wrote:
  > 
  > >> I don't know how to fix this given that there seems to be no way to
  > >> calculate the (average) character width of text with a given face.
  > >
  > > That's unfortunate, indeed.
  > >
  > >> I haven't encountered such an issue with 22.
  > >
  > > The code in Emacs-22, just used a hard-coded 79.
  > 
  > OK, perhaps we could use something like
  > 
  > (if (assq 'default face-remapping-alist) 79  (window-width))
  > 
  > to cover at least the case that I've encountered.
  > 
  > A grep over the source, looking for (window-width), reveals other
  > suspicious uses.
  > I haven't examined it further, but take simple.el, line-move-visual:
  > 
  >       (cond ((eq (nth 1 posn) 'right-fringe) ; overflow-newline-into-
  > fringe
  >          (setq temporary-goal-column (- (window-width) 1)))
  > 
  > `temporary-goal-column' refers to buffer columns; window-width does not.
  > 
  > Or, abbrev.el:
  > 
  >     (while abbrev-list
  >       (if (> (+ first-column 40) (window-width))
  >           (progn
  > 
  > first-column seems to refer to the buffer, again.
  > 
  > Or, term.el:
  > `term-window-width' uses (window-width) and I would assume that this
  > (`term-width') is what is used by processes running in the terminal
  > (COLUMNS).

term.el relies on using a fixed width font.  Trying to not do so in a
terminal emulator is simply not worth the effort.