bug#5641: wishlist: menubar button for terminal buffers

bug#5641: wishlist: menubar button for terminal buffers

[Praveen A]

Hi,

I have been using emacs terminal mode (ansi-term) extensively as my
primary terminal emulator program. The big reason is support for
properly rendering Indic text (this is important to see file names and
outputs from localised programs properly while using terminal - both
of them quite common if you happen to use a Indic locale). One thing I
found lacking is an easy way to swicth between terminals. Currently
they are treated just as other buffers and if you happen to have lot
of buffers, switching between terminals are not easy, especially when
you have lot of buffers opened by erc. And add to it, there is no way
to differentiate between already opened terminals. I would like to
request an easier way to switch between terminals. Something like what
erc provides or just a menubar button (like the buffers menu - with
just terminal buffers listed).

Thanks
Praveen

-- 
പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍
<GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call!
<DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak?
(as seen on /.)

bug#5641: wishlist: menubar button for terminal buffers

[Kevin Rodgers]

Praveen A wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have been using emacs terminal mode (ansi-term) extensively as my
> primary terminal emulator program. The big reason is support for
> properly rendering Indic text (this is important to see file names and
> outputs from localised programs properly while using terminal - both
> of them quite common if you happen to use a Indic locale). One thing I
> found lacking is an easy way to swicth between terminals. Currently
> they are treated just as other buffers and if you happen to have lot
> of buffers, switching between terminals are not easy, especially when
> you have lot of buffers opened by erc. And add to it, there is no way
> to differentiate between already opened terminals. I would like to
> request an easier way to switch between terminals. Something like what
> erc provides or just a menubar button (like the buffers menu - with
> just terminal buffers listed).

Have you tried running each terminal in its own frame, and then
switching among frames to view the terminals?

-- 
Kevin Rodgers
Denver, Colorado, USA

bug#5641: wishlist: menubar button for terminal buffers

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Praveen A <pravi.a@gmail.com> writes:

> I have been using emacs terminal mode (ansi-term) extensively as my
> primary terminal emulator program. The big reason is support for
> properly rendering Indic text (this is important to see file names and
> outputs from localised programs properly while using terminal - both
> of them quite common if you happen to use a Indic locale). One thing I
> found lacking is an easy way to swicth between terminals.

(I'm going through old bug reports that unfortunately weren't resolved
at the time.)

`C-x b ans TAB' will commonly list all the ansi term buffers.

> Currently they are treated just as other buffers and if you happen to
> have lot of buffers, switching between terminals are not easy,
> especially when you have lot of buffers opened by erc. And add to it,
> there is no way to differentiate between already opened terminals. I
> would like to request an easier way to switch between
> terminals. Something like what erc provides or just a menubar button
> (like the buffers menu - with just terminal buffers listed).

Adding a menu bar entry under Terminal that lists all terminal buffers
would be easy enough to add -- but I'm not sure it would be very
useful.  As you point out, the terminal buffers usually have very
similar names (*ansi-term*<1>, *ansi-term*<2>...).

But perhaps the new menu thing could also try to list some other
distinguishing factors, like the current working directory?  Is there
anything else we could use?

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#5641: wishlist: menubar button for terminal buffers

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> Adding a menu bar entry under Terminal that lists all terminal buffers
> would be easy enough to add

I thought we had grown a way to generate menu items on the fly?  But
looking through the documentation and code, I can't seem to find it.  Is
adding stuff to `menu-bar-update-hook' still the way to do this?

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#5641: wishlist: menubar button for terminal buffers

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> But perhaps the new menu thing could also try to list some other
> distinguishing factors, like the current working directory?

I've now added this to Emacs 28.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no