Re: 8 line identical minibuffer & *Shell Command Output*

[Kevin Rodgers <ihs_4664@yahoo.com>]

Dan Jacobson wrote:

> Really ugly:
> $ emacs --no-site-file -q -eval '(and(shell-command "seq 9")(shell-command "seq 8"))'
> One sees a 8 line high minibuffer totally wastefully repeating an 8
> line *Shell Command Output* buffer.  They occupy the bottom half of
> the screen.

Uh, so what?  (It's not the minibuffer, it's the echo area).  Emacs has
behaved as documented:

| shell-command is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `simple'.
| (shell-command COMMAND &optional OUTPUT-BUFFER ERROR-BUFFER)
|
| Execute string COMMAND in inferior shell; display output, if any.
| With prefix argument, insert the COMMAND's output at point.
|
| If COMMAND ends in ampersand, execute it asynchronously.
| The output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell Command*'.
| That buffer is in shell mode.
|
| Otherwise, COMMAND is executed synchronously.  The output appears in
| the buffer `*Shell Command Output*'.  If the output is short enough to
| display in the echo area (which is determined by the variables
| `resize-mini-windows' and `max-mini-window-height'), it is shown
| there, but it is nonetheless available in buffer `*Shell Command
| Output*' even though that buffer is not automatically displayed.  If
| there is no output, or if output is inserted in the current buffer,
| then `*Shell Command Output*' is deleted.

 > $ grep -i ^emacs .Xresources
 > Emacs*bitmapIcon: on
 > Emacs*font: fixed
 > Emacs.geometry: 95x35+-6+-6
 > Emacs*FontSet: -*-big5-0,-adobe-*-iso8859-1

The default values of `resize-mini-windows' and `max-mini-window-height'
are `grow-only' and 0.25 respectively.  0.25 times 35 (the frame height)
is 8.75, which is larger than 8 (the number of lines in the minibuffer
window).

 > GNU Emacs 21.2.2 (i386-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars) of
 > 2002-10-16 on raven, modified by Debian

On GNU Emacs 21.3.1 (i386-pc-solaris2.7, X toolkit), the *Shell Command Output*
buffer is not displayed.

-- 
<a href="mailto:&lt;kevin.rodgers&#64;ihs.com&gt;">Kevin Rodgers</a>