selection and font sizing in fred

[chrispi@merle.acns.nwu.edu]

i am constructing a cognitive science research platform, which includes an
"electronic book"-like apparatus.  i can flip through pages of text which
has been formatted in the standard interchange (RTF) format and search for
strings, etc.

when finishing a search, it is appropriate to highlight (select) the found
string (which can be done with MCL's (set-selection-range ...) function, but
if the sought string is on the current page, i don't want to redraw the whole
screen just to alter the select region (it's distracting and time-consuming
in a document rife with multiple font styles...).  is there a method of
redrawing just small portions of the larger view? it says that (set-
selection-range ...) should update the window display -- though it doesn't --
why?

also, it would be very useful to be able to include "section headings" which
are in larger font sizes than the standard text.  i fear, though, that the
large fonts will alter the line-spacing of the whole fred-window (which would
be bad).  does anyone have a patch to this behavior (documented in the MCL 
handbook)?

thanks,

chris