>
> While I understand the desire to follow the `C-x 2` and `C-x 3` 
> tradition, these numbers don't actually carry much useful intuition. How 
> 'bout `C-x w -` and `C-x w |` instead?
>
> Of course, it'd also be nice to bring together/closer the root and 
> non-root variants of those operations, but I have no good suggestion 
> here, other than to suggest to use a new command which doesn't accept a 
> numeric argument at all and only uses `C-u` to choose between a root 
> split and non-root split.  That's because I personally never use that 
> numeric argument, and prefer to resize the windows afterwards rather 
> than try to guess sizes beforehand.
>

Fully agreed.  I we're going to put window commands on C-x w, I thought I 
might share the part of my configuration that deals with windows (see 
attached), which I adapted to that new prefix.

     C-x w | split-window-right
C-u C-x w | split-root-window-right
     C-x w - split-window-below
C-u C-x w - split-root-window-below
     C-x w d delete-window
     C-x w o delete-other-windows (mnemonic "only")
     C-x w h window-height-adjust with + - = (repeatable)
     C-x w w window-width-adjust with + - = (repeatable)
     C-x w f tear-off-window
     C-x w m maximize-window-toggle
C-u C-x w m minimize-window
     C-x w s window-toggle-side-windows
     C-x w ! window-toggle-dedicated
     C-x w b balance-windows
C-u C-x w b balance-windows-area
     C-x w c window-configuration
             left (winner-undo) right (winner-redo) (repeatable)
             s (save in register) r (restore from register)
     C-x w n/p select-next-window select-previous-window (repeatable)
     C-x w up/down/left/right select-window-{up,down,left,right} (repeatable)
     C-x w M-up/M-down/M-left/M-right swap-windows-{up,down,left,right} (repeatable)