RE: compilation-highlight-duration

[Drew Adams]

Juri Linkov <address@hidden> writes:

> > Another good indication method is persistent (i.e. non-flashing!)
> > overlays highlighted with a special face on matching lines in
> > compilation output buffer and source code buffer.
>
> IMO it would be a lot more distracting if the highlight persisted
> (when should it go away?).

It should go away on user request.

FYI -

My Emacs-20 code highlighted grep regexps:

 - everywhere, in the compilation buffer
 - one by one, in source-code buffers, when next-error was called.

Highlighting the source code this way helps a user keep track of where he's
been.

The highlighting was persistent.

The compilation-buffer highlighting was done with font-lock. I did not
provide a way for a user to remove just this regexp highlighting, but that
might be useful as a toggle. I know I sometimes toggle search-page
highlighting on/off when using the Google toolbar.

The source-code regexp highlighting was not done with font-lock. A user
could remove it (without affecting font-lock highlighting) in any of several
ways:

 - font-lock-mode twice (easy, if it's bound to a key)
 - revert the buffer
 - use my command `highlight' (with negative prefix arg) on a region
 - ...

 Drew

P.S. Similarly, to help users keep track of lines they've visited, I also
highlighted visited line numbers in buffer *Occur*.