Re: [PATCH] New option to make C-x 4 a use file-less ChangeLog buffers (was Re: git history tracking across renames (and emacs support))

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@IRO.UMontreal.CA>]

> You can't do with a with a file name,

What makes you think we can't.  It's rather the contrary: buffer names
for file buffers can be chosen much more freely compared to most
non-file buffers (where the main identifying mark is the buffer name).

> and, on a tangent, I think this is what many people like the "project
> drawer" for: to know whence a file comes by looking at their screen.

I don't know what's the "project drawer", so I'll take your word for it ;-)

>> It's called uniquify-min-dir-content.
> Oh so it does exist.  Can it be set buffer-locally?

Hmm... I think I answered this one earlier this morning, but no
I believe it only works as a global setting (more specifically, looking
at the code, it seems like it could support it, but trying it out, it
seems that buffer-local settings lead trigger a bug somewhere).

> But don't you find it useful in a buffer list (C-x b, C-x C-b, etc) to
> know _whom_ that *mail* is for? Or what project that *vc-dir* is
> editing?

No.  If there's more than one, then the buffer-name would tell me, and
if there's only one, I normally remember what it was about.

>>> If it did, would you be happy with "*changes for emacs*", "*changes for
>>> typer*" and the like?
>> It needs to be dynamic: what if I later open some "changes" for
>> .../src/emacs/work?
> Did you mean a file named *changes*?

No, I meant just another one of those buffers.

> If you did, it's like opening some
> "*grep*" file today (I've just checked: it's uniquified, correctly).  If
> you didn't I don't understand the problem.  To be clear, I was talking
> about always having a (potentially short) suffix.

Currently:
- I open ..../src/emacs/work/README I get "README"
- I open ..../src/typer/work/README I get "README | typer" and the
  previous "README" gets renamed to "README | emacs"
- I open ..../src/emacs/master/README, I get "README | emacs/master"
  and the previous 2 get renamed to "README | emacs/work" and
  "README | typer/work".
- If I kill two of those buffers, the remaining one reverts to just "README"

IMO, the same dynamic (re)naming should hold for "*changes to <foo>".

>                João (who would like it known that he used "whom" and
>                     "whence" having no idea if he botched it)

Duly noted.  I can't guarantee that it was used properly, but at least
my english-as-a-third-language-trained-brain did not find it jarring.


        Stefan