How to Prevent org-global-cycle Glitch

Question

I'm having an issue when using (org-global-cycle) from a subheading followed by (org-cycle).

For example in the following org file:

* Level 1 Heading 1
** Level 2 Heading 1
** Level 2 Heading 2
*** Level 3 Heading 1
    Test

If the cursor is at *** Level 3 Heading 1{cursor here} and I hit S-<TAB> everything will fold up to * Level 1 Heading 1{cursor here}... properly. But the if I use <TAB> to view the level 2 headings I instead get:

* Level 1 Heading 1...
*** Level 3 Heading 1{cursor here}
    Test

Any clue what's going on? I'm running emacs.exe -q with Emacs 24.5.1 and org-mode 8.2.10 when I use -q and 8.3.6 when running with my config.

Answer 1

I can tell you what's going on, but it is not clear to me whether we should call it a bug or glitch. When you get the position of the cursor in the unfolded document (using (point)) you get 84. Now, when you use the global folding and everything folds to the first headline, your cursor may seem to be positioned at * Level 1 Heading 1{cursor here}, but you can test that the buffer position is still 84. So, the cursor is still positioned at the end of the level 3 headline. When you do an `(org-cycle), it just opens the contents under that headline (and the headline itself).

To prevent this behavior, you need to execute any action which has an influence on the cursor. E.g. moving it one space. Even executing the (point) statement to get the position will end up placing the cursor in the visible region, so the first execution in the above setup will return 84, the second invocation 20.