bug#21649: 25.0.50; [PATCH] Allow M-x man to reuse an existing window

bug#21649: 25.0.50; [PATCH] Allow M-x man to reuse an existing window

[Nicolas Richard]

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When running M-x man RET man RET, then C-x o to select the newly created
window and then running M-x man RET sed RET, what you get is: two "man"
windows side by side. It would make sense to re-use the existing one.

How to best do that I do not know. If modifying the code is necessary,
here's an attempt at adding an option in Man-notify-method. (I'm not
attached to this implementation, and even less attached to the silly
name `manly' that I chose, btw.)


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From 2b812b1c9f91af2cf6116f1d4e334154ae44c724 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Nicolas Richard <youngfrog@members.fsf.org>
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 2015 10:50:07 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Allow M-x man to reuse an existing window

* man.el (Man-notify-when-ready): add `manly' option.
(Man-notify-method): augment docstring accordingly.
---
 lisp/man.el | 14 ++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+)

diff --git a/lisp/man.el b/lisp/man.el
index c5dbcba..a02ee79 100644
--- a/lisp/man.el
+++ b/lisp/man.el
@@ -91,6 +91,8 @@
 (require 'ansi-color)
 (require 'cl-lib)
 (require 'button)
+(require 'subr-x)
+(require 'seq)
 
 (defgroup man nil
   "Browse UNIX manual pages."
@@ -162,6 +164,8 @@ (defcustom Man-notify-method (if (boundp 'Man-notify) Man-notify 'friendly)
 bully      -- make the manpage the current buffer and only window (sf)
 aggressive -- make the manpage the current buffer in the other window (sf)
 friendly   -- display manpage in the other window but don't make current (sf)
+manly      -- like `friendly' but re-use a window displaying a man page if
+              possible (sf)
 polite     -- don't display manpage, but prints message and beep when ready
 quiet      -- like `polite', but don't beep
 meek       -- make no indication that the manpage is ready
@@ -1166,6 +1170,16 @@ (defun Man-notify-when-ready (man-buffer)
        (and (frame-live-p saved-frame)
             (select-frame saved-frame))
        (display-buffer man-buffer 'not-this-window))
+      (`manly
+       (and (frame-live-p saved-frame)
+            (select-frame saved-frame))
+       (if-let ((window (seq-some-p
+                         (lambda (window)
+                           (with-current-buffer (window-buffer window)
+                             (derived-mode-p 'Man-mode)))
+                         (window-list))))
+           (set-window-buffer window man-buffer)
+         (display-buffer man-buffer)))
       (`polite
        (beep)
        (message "Manual buffer %s is ready" (buffer-name man-buffer)))
-- 
2.4.6

bug#21649: 25.0.50; [PATCH] Allow M-x man to reuse an existing window

[Kaushal Modi]

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You can do the window control by customizing the `display-buffer-alist`
variable. That's a suggestion if you haven't yet looked at it.

Personally, I use the shackle package which is an interface to
customization of that variable. I mention this because I control where the
man/woman buffers open using this package (
https://github.com/kaushalmodi/.emacs.d/blob/master/setup-files/setup-shackle.el
 )

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bug#21649: 25.0.50; [PATCH] Allow M-x man to reuse an existing window

[Kaushal Modi]

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Here is the order in which the functions are called

M-x man -> Man-getpage-in-background -> Man-notify-when-ready ->
display-buffer (if Man-notify-method variable is set to 'friendly, which is
its default value)

You will get help about display-buffer-alist when you do `C-h f
display-buffer`.

You can also do `C-h v display-buffer-alist` and that will point you to the
`display-buffer` function documentation.

You can learn more about Display Action Functions by evaluating (info
"(elisp) Display Action Functions") or doing `C-h i g (elisp) Display
Action Functions`.

Using the shackle package allows you to set the display actions from a
higher level without having to customize the display-buffer-alist manually.

If you are interested in customizing display-buffer-alist manually, there
are few examples on emacs.stackexchange.com which might help you:

- http://emacs.stackexchange.com/a/12757/115
- http://emacs.stackexchange.com/a/2195/115
- http://emacs.stackexchange.com/a/338/115


On Mon, Oct 12, 2015 at 8:19 AM Nicolas Richard <youngfrog@members.fsf.org>
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Thanks for the hint. I haven't looked into it yet, indeed.
> display-buffer-alist is not very user-friendly (and isn't mentionned in
> the docstring of `man'). Your shackle config file looks easier but I
> don't see an obvious way to say "re use an existing window which
> displays a buffer of the same mode". Maybe I should just try it and
> see...
>
> Nicolas Richard.
>
>
> Kaushal Modi <kaushal.modi@gmail.com> writes:
> > You can do the window control by customizing the `display-buffer-alist`
> variable. That's a suggestion if you haven't
> > yet looked at it.
> >
> > Personally, I use the shackle package which is an interface to
> customization of that variable. I mention this because
> > I control where the man/woman buffers open using this package (
> >
> https://github.com/kaushalmodi/.emacs.d/blob/master/setup-files/setup-shackle.el
> )
>

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bug#21649: 25.0.50; [PATCH] Allow M-x man to reuse an existing window

[Nicolas Richard]

Hello Kaushal,

Thanks for the pointers.

What I mean is that customizing display-buffer-alist is not very
user-friendly even though I know how to use it. It is also not
mentionned in (info "(emacs) Window Choice"). OTOH it is a defcustom, so
I have mixed feelings about this variable.

Anyway, a possible way to achieve the effect I asked for is to add a
suitable entry in display-buffer-alist, but it requires writing an elisp
function (the predefined ones don't fit the bill). I'll be happy to
provide such a function if that is the preferred route.

Nicolas.

bug#21649: 25.0.50; [PATCH] Allow M-x man to reuse an existing window

[Kaushal Modi]

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Based on
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/log/?qt=grep&q=display-buffer-alist

copying Martin Rudalics and Chong Yidong for their comments.


--
Kaushal Modi

On Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 6:10 PM, Nicolas Richard <youngfrog@members.fsf.org>
wrote:

> Hello Kaushal,
>
> Thanks for the pointers.
>
> What I mean is that customizing display-buffer-alist is not very
> user-friendly even though I know how to use it. It is also not
> mentionned in (info "(emacs) Window Choice"). OTOH it is a defcustom, so
> I have mixed feelings about this variable.
>
> Anyway, a possible way to achieve the effect I asked for is to add a
> suitable entry in display-buffer-alist, but it requires writing an elisp
> function (the predefined ones don't fit the bill). I'll be happy to
> provide such a function if that is the preferred route.
>
> Nicolas.
>

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bug#21649: 25.0.50; [PATCH] Allow M-x man to reuse an existing window

[martin rudalics]

 > http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/log/?qt=grep&q=display-buffer-alist
 >
 > copying Martin Rudalics and Chong Yidong for their comments.

You probably might want to follow up the thread "display-buffer-alist
simplifications" on emacs-devel.

martin

bug#21649: 25.0.50; [PATCH] Allow M-x man to reuse an existing window

[martin rudalics]

 > Thanks for the hint. That's a very long thread however. I read the first
 > few messages but gave up for now for the following reason : I'd like to
 > address my bug report first, and it isn't about how difficult
 > display-buffer-alist is, even though I did mention that.

That thread explains why ‘display-buffer’ works as it does now.  It's
not useful to explain how ‘display-buffer’ works now.  So you did good
to give up soon ;-)

 > My concern is about making a *Man ...* window reusable. It can be done:
 > - by adding a new choice to Man-notify-method (which is what my patch does)
 > - by asking the user to customize display-buffer-alist, but in this case
 >    I think someone has to write a new function (similar to
 >    display-buffer-reuse-window except that it's not the same buffer, but
 >    another *Man ...* buffer -- e.g.
 >    display-buffer-reuse-window-with-matching-major-mode).
 > - maybe some other way
 >
 > If the question is of interest, which answer is the best ? If it's the
 > second, I could write such a function. Then we also somehow need to
 > advertise display-buffer-alist in the docstring of Man-notify-method.

Sorry, I must have missed your patch.  Probably I got confused by the
current state of emacs-devel.  Also I hardly ever use ‘man’ so I'm not
very competent to comment such an addition anyway.

How about writing an action function, say ‘man-display-buffer-my-way’, and
adding a clause like

       (`my-way
        (and (frame-live-p saved-frame)
             (select-frame saved-frame))
        (display-buffer man-buffer
        '((man-display-buffer-my-way ...)
        . nil)))

to ‘Man-notify-when-ready’?  This would hardly harm, satisfy anyone
asking for customization and likely introduce the first instance of an
action function outside of window.el.

And please don't drop 21649@debbugs.gnu.org from the list of recipients!

martin

bug#21649: 25.0.50; [PATCH] Allow M-x man to reuse an existing window

[Nicolas Richard]

martin rudalics <rudalics@gmx.at> writes:
> Sorry, I must have missed your patch.

Here's most of the patch :

+      (`manly
+       (and (frame-live-p saved-frame)
+            (select-frame saved-frame))
+       (if-let ((window (seq-some-p
+                         (lambda (window)
+                           (with-current-buffer (window-buffer window)
+                             (derived-mode-p 'Man-mode)))
+                         (window-list))))
+           (set-window-buffer window man-buffer)
+         (display-buffer man-buffer)))

> How about writing an action function, say ‘man-display-buffer-my-way’, and
> adding a clause like
>
>       (`my-way
>        (and (frame-live-p saved-frame)
>             (select-frame saved-frame))
>        (display-buffer man-buffer
>        '((man-display-buffer-my-way ...)
>        . nil)))

Sure, why not!

> And please don't drop 21649@debbugs.gnu.org from the list of recipients!

That was not intended. I probably hit R instead of F, sorry about that.

Nico.

bug#21649: 25.0.50; [PATCH] Allow M-x man to reuse an existing window

[martin rudalics]

 > Here's most of the patch :
 >
 > +      (`manly
 > +       (and (frame-live-p saved-frame)
 > +            (select-frame saved-frame))
 > +       (if-let ((window (seq-some-p
 > +                         (lambda (window)
 > +                           (with-current-buffer (window-buffer window)
 > +                             (derived-mode-p 'Man-mode)))
 > +                         (window-list))))
 > +           (set-window-buffer window man-buffer)
 > +         (display-buffer man-buffer)))
 >
 >> How about writing an action function, say ‘man-display-buffer-my-way’, and
 >> adding a clause like
 >>
 >>        (`my-way
 >>         (and (frame-live-p saved-frame)
 >>              (select-frame saved-frame))
 >>         (display-buffer man-buffer
 >>         '((man-display-buffer-my-way ...)
 >>         . nil)))
 >
 > Sure, why not!

Maybe we could add something like ‘display-buffer-reuse-mode-window’ to
window.el.  In that case I'd proceed as follows:

(1) The frame(s) to scan for a suitable window should be determined by a
‘reusable-frames’ entry just as in ‘display-buffer-reuse-window’.

(2) Allow to specify the desired (parent) mode via an ALIST ‘mode’
entry.  As value we could allow a single mode or a list of modes.  Then
a window showing a buffer in the same mode as the buffer we want to
display should maybe given preference to a window showing a buffer in
another mode, derived from the same parent mode.  If a same-mode-window
exists on another and a derived-mode-window exists on the selected
frame, one of these should be given preference consistently.

(3) Not use functions like ‘if-let’ and ‘seq-some-p’.  window.el is
preloaded and if not utterly necessary I'd prefer not loading subr-x.el
there.  BTW, I have no idea from where you get ‘seq-some-p’.  Did you
compile your patched man.el with emacs -Q?

WDYT?

martin

bug#21649: 25.0.50; [PATCH] Allow M-x man to reuse an existing window

[Nicolas Richard]

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martin rudalics <rudalics@gmx.at> writes:
> (2) Allow to specify the desired (parent) mode via an ALIST ‘mode’
> entry.  As value we could allow a single mode or a list of modes.  Then
> a window showing a buffer in the same mode as the buffer we want to
> display should maybe given preference to a window showing a buffer in
> another mode, derived from the same parent mode.  If a same-mode-window
> exists on another and a derived-mode-window exists on the selected
> frame, one of these should be given preference consistently.

Well, it took a bit of time but here I am ! Could you please review the
following patch ?


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From 1623ed372ffce726c4f5b20ca2f333a9e5ba6f92 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Nicolas Richard <youngfrog@members.fsf.org>
Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2016 12:33:05 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Add new function display-buffer-reuse-mode-window

* lisp/window.el (display-buffer-reuse-mode-window): New function.
* doc/lispref/windows.texi (Display Action Functions): Document it.
---
 doc/lispref/windows.texi | 17 ++++++++++++
 lisp/window.el           | 68 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 85 insertions(+)

diff --git a/doc/lispref/windows.texi b/doc/lispref/windows.texi
index 7186791..c52bf0e 100644
--- a/doc/lispref/windows.texi
+++ b/doc/lispref/windows.texi
@@ -2395,6 +2395,23 @@ Display Action Functions
 entry (@pxref{Choosing Window Options}), raises that frame if necessary.
 @end defun
 
+@defun display-buffer-reuse-mode-window buffer alist
+This function tries to display @var{buffer} by finding a window
+that is displaying a buffer in a given mode.
+
+If @var{alist} contains a @code{mode} entry, its value is a major mode
+(a symbol) or a list of major modes.  If @var{alist} contains no
+@code{mode} entry, the current major mode of @var{buffer} is used.  A
+window is a candidate if it displays a buffer that derives from one of
+the given modes.
+
+The behaviour is also controlled by entries for
+@code{inhibit-same-window}, @code{reusable-frames} and
+@code{inhibit-switch-frame} as is done in the function
+@code{display-buffer-reuse-window}.
+
+@end defun
+
 @defun display-buffer-pop-up-frame buffer alist
 This function creates a new frame, and displays the buffer in that
 frame's window.  It actually performs the frame creation by calling
diff --git a/lisp/window.el b/lisp/window.el
index 620f4ed..4586994 100644
--- a/lisp/window.el
+++ b/lisp/window.el
@@ -6721,6 +6721,74 @@ display-buffer-reuse-window
 	(unless (cdr (assq 'inhibit-switch-frame alist))
 	  (window--maybe-raise-frame (window-frame window)))))))
 
+(defun display-buffer-reuse-mode-window (buffer alist)
+  "Return a window based on the mode of the buffer it displays.
+Display BUFFER in the returned window. Return nil if no usable
+window is found.
+
+If ALIST contains a `mode' entry, its value is a major mode (a
+symbol) or a list of modes.  A window is a candidate if it
+displays a buffer that derives from one of the given modes. When
+ALIST contains no `mode' entry, the current major mode of BUFFER
+is used.
+
+The behaviour is also controlled by entries for
+`inhibit-same-window', `reusable-frames' and
+`inhibit-switch-frame' as is done in the function
+`display-buffer-reuse-window'."
+  (let* ((alist-entry (assq 'reusable-frames alist))
+         (alist-mode-entry (assq 'mode alist))
+	 (frames (cond (alist-entry (cdr alist-entry))
+		       ((if (eq pop-up-frames 'graphic-only)
+			    (display-graphic-p)
+			  pop-up-frames)
+			0)
+		       (display-buffer-reuse-frames 0)
+		       (t (last-nonminibuffer-frame))))
+         (inhibit-same-window-p (cdr (assq 'inhibit-same-window alist)))
+	 (windows (window-list-1 nil 'nomini frames))
+         (buffer-mode (with-current-buffer buffer major-mode))
+         (allowed-modes (if alist-mode-entry
+                            (cdr alist-mode-entry)
+                          buffer-mode))
+         (curwin (selected-window))
+         (curframe (selected-frame)))
+    (unless (listp allowed-modes)
+      (setq allowed-modes (list allowed-modes)))
+    (let (same-mode-same-frame
+          same-mode-other-frame
+          derived-mode-same-frame
+          derived-mode-other-frame)
+      (dolist (window windows)
+        (let ((window-mode (with-current-buffer
+                               (window-buffer window)
+                             major-mode))
+              mode? frame?)
+          (setq mode?
+                (cond ((memq window-mode allowed-modes)
+                       'same)
+                      ((let ((major-mode window-mode))
+                         (derived-mode-p allowed-modes))
+                       'derived)))
+          (when (and mode?
+                     (not (and inhibit-same-window-p
+                               (eq window curwin))))
+            (if (eq curframe (window-frame window))
+                (if (eq mode? 'same)
+                    (push window same-mode-same-frame)
+                  (push window derived-mode-same-frame))
+              (if (eq mode? 'same)
+                  (push window same-mode-other-frame)
+                (push window derived-mode-other-frame))))))
+      (let ((window (first (nconc same-mode-same-frame
+                                  same-mode-other-frame
+                                  derived-mode-same-frame
+                                  derived-mode-other-frame))))
+        (when (window-live-p window)
+          (prog1 (window--display-buffer buffer window 'reuse alist)
+            (unless (cdr (assq 'inhibit-switch-frame alist))
+              (window--maybe-raise-frame (window-frame window)))))))))
+
 (defun display-buffer--special-action (buffer)
   "Return special display action for BUFFER, if any.
 If `special-display-p' returns non-nil for BUFFER, return an
-- 
2.4.5


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-- 
Nicolas.

bug#21649: 25.0.50; [PATCH] Allow M-x man to reuse an existing window

[martin rudalics]

 > Well, it took a bit of time but here I am ! Could you please review the
 > following patch ?

Thanks for the patch!

+(defun display-buffer-reuse-mode-window (buffer alist)
+  "Return a window based on the mode of the buffer it displays.
+Display BUFFER in the returned window. Return nil if no usable
                                        ^
+window is found.
+
+If ALIST contains a `mode' entry, its value is a major mode (a
+symbol) or a list of modes.  A window is a candidate if it
+displays a buffer that derives from one of the given modes. When
                                                             ^
+ALIST contains no `mode' entry, the current major mode of BUFFER
+is used.

Please consistently use two spaces after each sentence in doc-strings,
comments etc.

+      (dolist (window windows)
+        (let ((window-mode (with-current-buffer
+                               (window-buffer window)
+                             major-mode))
+              mode? frame?)
+          (setq mode?
+                (cond ((memq window-mode allowed-modes)
+                       'same)
+                      ((let ((major-mode window-mode))
+                         (derived-mode-p allowed-modes))
+                       'derived)))

It's not nice to bind a buffer-local variable like ‘major-mode’ in a
completely unrelated buffer just for calling ‘derived-mode-p’.  Please
do that either within the ‘with-current-buffer’ form above, somehow like

       (dolist (window windows)
         (let (window-mode window-derived-mode mode? frame?)
	  (with-current-buffer (window-buffer window)
	    (setq window-mode major-mode)
	    (setq window-derived-mode (derived-mode-p allowed-modes)))
           (setq mode?
                 (cond ((memq window-mode allowed-modes)
                        'same)
                       (window-derived-mode
		       'derived)))

or simply write

                       ((with-current-buffer (window-buffer window))
                          (derived-mode-p allowed-modes))
                        'derived)))

instead.

+      (let ((window (first (nconc same-mode-same-frame

This gets me

In end of data:
window.el:8617:1:Warning: the function ‘first’ is not known to be defined.

here.

Thanks again, martin

bug#21649: 25.0.50; [PATCH] Allow M-x man to reuse an existing window

[Nicolas Richard]

Thanks for your review, martin. I pushed the modified commit to master
as 2d382515bfdb44d585bda6515f8d03f9056a83ef.

I'm marking this bug as done since one can now do 
(setq display-buffer-alist
      (list
       (cons "\\`\\*Man .*\\*\\'"
             (cons
              #'display-buffer-reuse-mode-window
              '((inhibit-same-window . nil))))))
to get the effect mentionned in the initial report.

-- 
Nicolas.

bug#21649: 25.0.50; [PATCH] Allow M-x man to reuse an existing window

[martin rudalics]

 > I'm marking this bug as done since one can now do
 > (setq display-buffer-alist
 >        (list
 >         (cons "\\`\\*Man .*\\*\\'"
 >               (cons
 >                #'display-buffer-reuse-mode-window
 >                '((inhibit-same-window . nil))))))
 > to get the effect mentionned in the initial report.

Please add a NEWS entry for this.

Thanks, martin

bug#21649: 25.0.50; [PATCH] Allow M-x man to reuse an existing window

[Nicolas Richard]

martin rudalics <rudalics@gmx.at> writes:
> Please add a NEWS entry for this.

Sure. Done.

Nicolas.

bug#21649: 25.0.50; [PATCH] Allow M-x man to reuse an existing window

[Nicolas Richard]

martin rudalics <rudalics@gmx.at> writes:
> Maybe we could add something like ‘display-buffer-reuse-mode-window’ to
> window.el.  In that case I'd proceed as follows:
>
> (1) The frame(s) to scan for a suitable window should be determined by a
> ‘reusable-frames’ entry just as in ‘display-buffer-reuse-window’.
>
> (2) Allow to specify the desired (parent) mode via an ALIST ‘mode’
> entry.  As value we could allow a single mode or a list of modes.  Then
> a window showing a buffer in the same mode as the buffer we want to
> display should maybe given preference to a window showing a buffer in
> another mode, derived from the same parent mode.  If a same-mode-window
> exists on another and a derived-mode-window exists on the selected
> frame, one of these should be given preference consistently.

Looks ok ! I'll give it a try and provide a patch based on your
suggestion.

>         BTW, I have no idea from where you get ‘seq-some-p’.  Did you
> compile your patched man.el with emacs -Q?

It is from seq.el, but apparently it was a slightly out of date emacs
build. From the ChangeLog:

ChangeLog.2:    Rename seq-some-p to seq-some and seq-contains-p to seq-contains

Nico.

bug#21649: 25.0.50; [PATCH] Allow M-x man to reuse an existing window

[martin rudalics]

> I'll give it a try and provide a patch based on your
> suggestion.

Fine.  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks, martin