cannot switch buffers in minibuffer window

cannot switch buffers in minibuffer window

[Frederik Fouvry]

This bug report will be sent to the Free Software Foundation,
not to your local site managers!
Please write in English, because the Emacs maintainers do not have
translators to read other languages for them.

Your bug report will be posted to the bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org mailing list,
and to the gnu.emacs.bug news group.

In GNU Emacs 21.2.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
 of 2002-08-29 on astest
configured using `configure  --host=i686-pc-linux-gnu --build=i686-pc-linux-gnu --target=i386-redhat-linux-gnu --program-prefix= --prefix=/usr --exec-prefix=/usr --bindir=/usr/bin --sbindir=/usr/sbin --sysconfdir=/etc --datadir=/usr/share --includedir=/usr/include --libdir=/usr/lib --libexecdir=/usr/libexec --localstatedir=/var --sharedstatedir=/usr/com --mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --with-gcc --with-pop --with-sound'
Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: POSIX
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: de_DE@euro
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: en_GB
  locale-coding-system: iso-latin-1
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Please describe exactly what actions triggered the bug
and the precise symptoms of the bug:

When I want to open a new file and start doing so (C-x C-f), but
then recall that I already have the file opened, and switch to it
with C-x o (buffer names being shorter than full file paths), I
can type in the buffer name, but not switch to the buffer because
"Cannot switch buffers in minibuffer window".

Is there no way Emacs can detect this condition and switch the
buffer in (one of) the main window(s)?  I guess the window in
which this should happen is the window the user was in just
before switching to the mini-buffer (information which I guess is
stored anyway, since aborting the command brings us back to that
window).

Thanks.

Recent input:
<escape> <backspace> A SPC s i m i l a r SPC a p p 
r o a c h SPC i s SPC t a k e n SPC <escape> <backspace> 
<escape> <backspace> h a s SPC b e e n SPC t a k e 
n SPC <up> C-e <left> <left> <left> <left> <left> <left> 
<left> <left> <left> <down> C-x C-f <up> <down> C-x 
b o <tab> <return> C-x b o t <tab> <return> <switch-frame> 
<switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> C-x b 
* M e s <tab> <return> C-x b <return> <C-down-mouse-1> 
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> 
<menu-bar> <help-menu> <report-emacs-bug>

Recent messages:
Mark set [3 times]
Fontifying frontpage.sty... (regexps................)
Mark set [2 times]
Saving file /home/HU/fouvry/mail/RMAIL...
Wrote /home/HU/fouvry/mail/RMAIL
(New file)
Mark saved where search started
call-interactively: Cannot switch buffers in minibuffer window
Quit
Loading emacsbug...done

Re: cannot switch buffers in minibuffer window

[Kevin Rodgers]

Frederik Fouvry wrote:

> When I want to open a new file and start doing so (C-x C-f), but
> then recall that I already have the file opened, and switch to it
> with C-x o (buffer names being shorter than full file paths), I
> can type in the buffer name, but not switch to the buffer because
> "Cannot switch buffers in minibuffer window".


I think you must mean `C-x b' instead of `C-x o'.


> Is there no way Emacs can detect this condition and switch the
> buffer in (one of) the main window(s)?  I guess the window in
> which this should happen is the window the user was in just
> before switching to the mini-buffer (information which I guess is
> stored anyway, since aborting the command brings us back to that
> window).

When you realize you don't want to complete the `C-x C-f' command, abort
it with `C-g'.  Then you can use `C-x b'.  Or if you've set the 
`enable-recursive-minibuffers' option, you could do `C-x o C-x b'.

-- 
Kevin Rodgers

Re: cannot switch buffers in minibuffer window

[Barry Margolin]

In article <mailman.374.1073765427.928.bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>,
 Kevin Rodgers <ihs_4664@yahoo.com> wrote:

> When you realize you don't want to complete the `C-x C-f' command, abort
> it with `C-g'.  Then you can use `C-x b'.  Or if you've set the 
> `enable-recursive-minibuffers' option, you could do `C-x o C-x b'.

I think his point is this: why doesn't Emacs just abort out of the 
minibuffer automatically for you, rather than display an error message 
and force you to abort and re-execute the command?

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA