smooth-scroll-margin vs scroll-margin

[agriffis]

(I tried to report this within Spacemacs but it seems like [SPC h I] doesn't do anything from terminal emacs-client.)

The default setting for smooth-scroll-margin is 5, but the default for scroll-margin is 0. This means that when one presses C-f to scroll forward by a page, the cursor is at the very top of the window according to scroll-margin. Then pressing any key will adjust the scrolling for smooth-scroll-margin, which is a jarring experience every time.

Furthermore, I tried to work around this by setting smooth-scroll-margin 0 but that seems to disable smooth scrolling entirely, causing emacs to revert to the recentering behavior.

System Info

• OS: gnu/linux
• Emacs: 24.5.1
• Spacemacs: 0.105.20
• Spacemacs branch: master (rev. 9c7250a)
• Graphic display: nil
• Distribution: spacemacs
• Editing style: vim
• Completion: helm
• Layers:

(auto-completion better-defaults git github
                 (clojure :variables clojure-enable-fancify-symbols t)
                 emacs-lisp html markdown org python django
                 (syntax-checking :variables syntax-checking-enable-tooltips nil)
                 themes-megapack)

[agriffis]

This is my current workaround:

  (setq scroll-margin 1)
  (setq smooth-scroll-margin 1)

which avoids the jarring effect, and gets as close to 0 as allows smooth scrolling to still take effect.

[NJBS]

I'd also like to add that this behavior occurs with evil-scroll-line-down (C-e) and evil-scroll-line-up (C-y). scroll-margin stopped being set in this commit in favor of smooth-scroll-margin, but it seems that not all scrolling methods respect smooth-scroll-margin.

[sooheon]

I've found I don't need to touch smooth-scroll-margin.

  (setq scroll-conservatively 101
        scroll-margin 3
        scroll-preserve-screen-position 't)

This will replicate evil scrolloff behavior pretty well in my experience.

[StreakyCobra]

(I tried to report this within Spacemacs but it seems like [SPC h I] doesn't do anything from terminal emacs-client.)

#5902 and #5912

[sooheon]

@agriffis try this:

   with dotspacemacs-smooth-scrolling nil

  (setq scroll-conservatively 101
        scroll-margin 0
        scroll-preserve-screen-position 't)

[agriffis]

@sooheon that works for me, thanks

[syl20bnr]

So we don't need smooth-scrolling ?

[sooheon]

In my recent experience, no. Those three default variables will do it for me, and often better: for example, at least for me, the way it behaves after some screenwise movements like C-f or G is better. W/ smooth-scroll, the margin is sometimes not respected until you make a linewise movement.

[syl20bnr]

I tried without smooth-scrolling and the result was not satisfying, the point is jumping depending on the responsiveness which is not the case with smooth-scrolling.

I investigated to make smooth-scrolling to work with smooth-scrolling-margin to 0, turns out it is not trivial. The number of lines computed is not very reliable (especially for the bottom of the window) and word wrap is not easy to handle. smooth-scrolling tries to keep the point on screen at all costs, if it fails then the point jumps.

[syl20bnr]

Actually I retested and found that scroll-conservatively does the job, like @sooheon.
I pushed #6097 to let people test in their config.

[TheBB]

Since nobody complained in nine days I'm marking this as fixed.

[d12frosted]

Fixed with released of Spacemacs v0.200. Let us know if you still have any problems with this issue.