Different buffer background depending on if window active

Different buffer background depending on if window active

[Deniz Dogan]

I've always wanted to have the currently active window in Emacs have a
different background color to see which one I'm currently "in" easier.
 One could imagine this as a part of a much larger change to have a
whole set of different parameters depending on the currently active
window.

Has this feature been requested before?  Would it be cumbersome to
implement?  Is it desirable at all?  Can this be hacked together using
simple Emacs Lisp?

Thanks,
Deniz Dogan

Re: Different buffer background depending on if window active

[Stefan Monnier]

> I've always wanted to have the currently active window in Emacs have a
> different background color to see which one I'm currently "in" easier.
>  One could imagine this as a part of a much larger change to have a
> whole set of different parameters depending on the currently active
> window.

> Has this feature been requested before?  Would it be cumbersome to
> implement?  Is it desirable at all?  Can this be hacked together using
> simple Emacs Lisp?

It can probably be hacked together with a post-command-hook (or
a timer), together with face-remapping-alist.


        Stefan

Re: Different buffer background depending on if window active

[Johan Bockgård]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>> I've always wanted to have the currently active window in Emacs have a
>> different background color to see which one I'm currently "in" easier.
>>  One could imagine this as a part of a much larger change to have a
>> whole set of different parameters depending on the currently active
>> window.
>
>> Has this feature been requested before?  Would it be cumbersome to
>> implement?  Is it desirable at all?  Can this be hacked together using
>> simple Emacs Lisp?
>
> It can probably be hacked together with a post-command-hook (or
> a timer), together with face-remapping-alist.

Changing the background through face-remapping-alist currently only
works for the text portion of the buffer, not for the actual window.

Re: Different buffer background depending on if window active

[Lennart Borgman]

On Sun, May 17, 2009 at 11:19 PM, Deniz Dogan <deniz.a.m.dogan@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've always wanted to have the currently active window in Emacs have a
> different background color to see which one I'm currently "in" easier.
>  One could imagine this as a part of a much larger change to have a
> whole set of different parameters depending on the currently active
> window.
>
> Has this feature been requested before?  Would it be cumbersome to
> implement?  Is it desirable at all?  Can this be hacked together using
> simple Emacs Lisp?

An alternative that you can use is to customize the faces mode-line
and mode-line-inactive.

Re: Different buffer background depending on if window active

[Miles Bader]

bojohan+news@dd.chalmers.se (Johan Bockgård) writes:
> Changing the background through face-remapping-alist currently only
> works for the text portion of the buffer, not for the actual window.

That's a bug -- it should be applying the default face to the post-e-o-b
background in the same way it does to the pre-e-o-b background.

There's also a similar (and perhaps associated) bug: the cursor size is
wrong when the cursor is at e-o-b, if the default face has been changed
via face-remapping-alist.

I've tried to search for a fix for these before, but man... the emacs
display code is soooooo large....

[btw, "e.ob." = "end-of-buffer"]

-Miles

-- 
Quotation, n. The act of repeating erroneously the words of another. The words
erroneously repeated.

Re: Different buffer background depending on if window active

[Sean O'Rourke]

Lennart Borgman <lennart.borgman@gmail.com> writes:

> On Sun, May 17, 2009 at 11:19 PM, Deniz Dogan <deniz.a.m.dogan@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I've always wanted to have the currently active window in Emacs have a
>> different background color to see which one I'm currently "in" easier.
>>  One could imagine this as a part of a much larger change to have a
>> whole set of different parameters depending on the currently active
>> window.
>>
>> Has this feature been requested before?  Would it be cumbersome to
>> implement?  Is it desirable at all?  Can this be hacked together using
>> simple Emacs Lisp?
>
> An alternative that you can use is to customize the faces mode-line
> and mode-line-inactive.

At least on Cocoa/NextStep, you can set the frame parameter
`alpha' to a two-element list to have different alpha channels on
active and inactive frames.  I have

    (frame-parameter (selected-frame) 'alpha) ;; => (100 85)

which makes my other frame(s) slightly transparent.

I don't remember where I learned this, and have no idea where it
is documented.

/s

Re: Different buffer background depending on if window active

[Deniz Dogan]

2009/5/19 Sean O'Rourke <seano@cs.ucla.edu>:
> Lennart Borgman <lennart.borgman@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> On Sun, May 17, 2009 at 11:19 PM, Deniz Dogan <deniz.a.m.dogan@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I've always wanted to have the currently active window in Emacs have a
>>> different background color to see which one I'm currently "in" easier.
>>>  One could imagine this as a part of a much larger change to have a
>>> whole set of different parameters depending on the currently active
>>> window.
>>>
>>> Has this feature been requested before?  Would it be cumbersome to
>>> implement?  Is it desirable at all?  Can this be hacked together using
>>> simple Emacs Lisp?
>>
>> An alternative that you can use is to customize the faces mode-line
>> and mode-line-inactive.
>
> At least on Cocoa/NextStep, you can set the frame parameter
> `alpha' to a two-element list to have different alpha channels on
> active and inactive frames.  I have
>
>    (frame-parameter (selected-frame) 'alpha) ;; => (100 85)
>
> which makes my other frame(s) slightly transparent.
>
> I don't remember where I learned this, and have no idea where it
> is documented.

I extremely rarely use more than one frame, but very often more than
one window. It would be great if something like this was possible with
Emacs.