RE: should frame names be unique?

["Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> > It is not the best design to have multiple frames with
the
> > same name. When you choose a frame by its name via the
> > minibuffer or a menu, it's possible to see duplicate
names
> > that represent different frames - there is then no way
to
> > know which name corresponds to which frame.
> 
> Try
> 
>   (setq frame-title-format
>         '(multiple-frames ("F"
>                            (:eval (number-to-string
>                                    (length (memq
(selected-frame)
>
(frame-list)))))
>                            " %b")
>                           ("" invocation-name "@"
system-name)))

This is about commands that interact with user frames. It's
not appropriate to ask users to name their frames in some
particular way. But perhaps I misunderstand you.

> I'm not opposed to making frame names unique, but first,
I'd like to
> hear about the use-cases where it matters.

Think of the Frames menu. If you have multiple frames
showing the same buffer, then you will have multiple
identical entries in the Frames menu. No way to know which
is which, which makes them pretty useless.

> I.e. what uses of frame-names are we talking about
> (select-frame-by-name?  The Frames menu?)?

Yes, both. Though select-frame-by-name apparently removes
duplicates, so AFAICT it doesn't even let you select some of
the frames (a bug?).

(The example that brought this up was an Icicles
multi-command version of select-frame-by-name.)

> What is the difference between those frames showing the
same buffer
> (is it just to display two different parts of a buffer, if
so do the
> various frames play different roles?  Are they on
different screens?
> Can you see their names in the title bar? ...)

I can't answer any of those questions. Perhaps Damon can. He
is the one who reported the problem using multiple frames
with the same name.