missing Parameter Expansion Flag?

[Atom Smasher <atom@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

let's say i set a string to print "xxxyyy" with the "xxx" in the default 
color and the "yyy" in red:
	foo="xxx${fg[red]}yyy"

which results in:
	print ${foo}
	xxxyyy

	print ${(V)foo}
	xxx^[[31myyy

in the first example above, the "yyy" is red.

now, let's say i want to count the characters in that string:
	print ${#foo}
	11

and of course, i can expand the meta-chars, and count the result of that:
	print ${#${(V)foo}}
	12

*but* i don't see how to count the string so that it just counts the 
printing characters (xxxyyy). i want to count it so the count returns 6, 
which is how many printable characters are in the string. intuitively, i 
would think there should be a parameter expansion flag to do that, but i 
can't find it. is there another (good*) way? should there be a flag for 
that?

* good, above, means i don't want to filter out characters based on ascii 
values.


--
        ...atom

 ________________________
 http://atom.smasher.org/
 762A 3B98 A3C3 96C9 C6B7 582A B88D 52E4 D9F5 7808
 -------------------------------------------------

	"Some folks look for answers
	 others look for fights,
	 some folks up in treetops
	 just looking for their kites"
		-- Grateful Dead