Comment 94 for bug 129403

scottydm: Using your method, when the spaces are appearing in the margin of the
previous line, maybe a dot should show for each space even when "show non-
printing characters" is off, then the dots could disappear when a non-space
character is typed. Or if you want to be more literal with the "show
nonprinting characters" setting and not reword it, then use notation in the
margin to indicating the changing number of spaces. Notation would indicate the
number of spaces in a compact way that requires little if any scrolling and
would be one step farther away from showing nonprinting characters than if a
dot per character were shown. Or indicate the number of dots in the toolbar.

Having "show nonprinting characters" off doesn't hide all the things that will
be hidden in the finished document anyway, so it doesn't really need to do a
perfect job except for semantic reasons. For example, if "show nonprinting
characters" is off, with default settings, you can still see frame borders that
don't show in the page preview or when printed, and you still won't see images
that you've inserted. I think the purpose of having "show nonprinting
characters" off is to make the document somewhat prettier and easier to read
for the composer, not to do as good a job as will be done for the recipient of
the document. The wording of the option could be changed to "show all
nonprinting characters" if necessary.

Which raises my "edit mode" and "reader mode" idea, which I've discussed
elsewhere. Reader mode would be what you get when you first open a document.
Images would show, but no frame borders and no non-printing characters - like
when previewing the page - until the document body is clicked, which would put
you in edit mode in which the document would appear is it currently would. But
that's off-topic.

My second proposal, which you didn't like, was just an easy way to eliminate
the current bug. I mentioned it just in case people were scared off by my first
proposal.