I want to keep track of some stuff happening in the buffer, with elisp, and display indicators depending on that stuff. To that end, I need to cache calculated data for different parts of the file, and then quickly access and update that data. Specifically, this will be going on in Org-mode, and my data is associated with individual headings.
The conundrum here is, how do I best store this data, in memory, so it's associated with headings but not visible and not written to the file? I.e. when I insert or remove text in one place, points later in the file need to keep data associated with them—I can't just use text positions as keys in a dictionary (not without lots of hassle). It's also preferable that hidden data is not copied around together with yanked text.
To clarify, I'm aware that I can add properties on Org headings, or create IDs and associate my data with them—but I want to do this without any changes to the content.
So far it seems that ‘text properties’ might vaguely be what I want—if I can add my own custom fields in properties on headings. Elisp documentation notes that these properties are copied when text is yanked, and suggests putting them on an overlay instead. I'm rather hazy yet on how overlays function at all (though will probably need them for the indicators). Is this the best route, or maybe I'm looking in an entirely wrong place? Any nice rakes here for me to step on or shoot my feet?
Meanwhile, ‘invisible text’, popular in web search results, is not the thing I need—as afaict it's written to the file.
reddit
with the Emacs tag is the best place for lots of opinions / discussion. If you need help adding text-properties to store hidden data, then please provide a minimal working example and explain where it is that you are having problems. The data can be stored with text properties. The data can be stored in a variable that is buffer local. The data can be stored in a global variable. The data can be stored in a separate file. The data can be stored in a separate buffer that is not written to a file.