Bug in display

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Peter Gordon writes:

 > Most of the time I, and I would assume most others,  use fixed fonts
 > with xemacs.

The problem is not "fixed", it's "antialiased."  I see the same
problem with the fixed-cell TrueType font Bitstream Vera Sans Mono.

 > So would it be possible to treat fixed fonts as a special case.

If you want fixed, unantialiased fonts, build without Xft, use bitmap
fonts, and you will have no problems.

 > As a naive user, the amount that needs to be deleted seems to be
 > the size of the cursor.

Which is reported incorrectly by Xft.  The error depends on the screen
geometry (dpi, at least) position on the screen, and the size and
family of the font; it may also depend on attributes like weight and
slant.  We lose.

I just tried Abiword for first time in a while; it suffers from
similar artifacts.  I believe that this is a hard problem; I'd be very
pleased if someone would prove me wrong, but I can't afford the time
right now.