# HG changeset patch
# User Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
# Date 1239440048 0
# Node ID 12eccf796fc2f4517aa60585d11c51dc7ff5c2e4
# Parent  43afcb8b92d4cfab3cb338d4e3c826f530e3687c
(Overlays): Overlays don't scale well.  See
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2009-04/msg00243.html.

diff -r 43afcb8b92d4 -r 12eccf796fc2 doc/lispref/display.texi
--- a/doc/lispref/display.texi	Fri Apr 10 15:46:37 2009 +0000
+++ b/doc/lispref/display.texi	Sat Apr 11 08:54:08 2009 +0000
@@ -1148,6 +1148,14 @@
 beginning and end.  It also has properties that you can examine and set;
 these affect the display of the text within the overlay.
 
+@cindex scalability of overlays
+The visual effect of an overlay is the same as of the corresponding
+text property (@pxref{Text Properties}).  However, due to a different
+implementation, overlays generally don't scale well (many operations
+take a time that is proportional to the number of overlays in the
+buffer).  If you need to affect the visual appearance of many portions
+in the buffer, we recommend to use text properties.
+
 An overlay uses markers to record its beginning and end; thus,
 editing the text of the buffer adjusts the beginning and end of each
 overlay so that it stays with the text.  When you create the overlay,