Re: should frame names be unique?

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

>> 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 was just proposing a way that gives a unique name to each frame.
Those people who suffer from the problems you cite may like to use it.
I'm not suggesting it as a general solution, which is obvious since I'm
not sure what is the problem.

>> 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.

Yup, pretty useless.  So if it hurts, don't do that.

>> 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?).

Not a bug: a fundamental limitation of the command: you can't select by
name and at the same time distinguish between two objects that have the
same name.

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

Yes, but I don't know where it fits: if it just creates different names
in the names-list without actually changing the frame names, then the
problem is the same as the Frames menu: you can select any frame, but
you have no way to know beforehand which name corresponds to which frame
(among those that have the same 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.

So you're not faced with this problem in practice.  It's just
a hypothetical issue?


        Stefan