Re: Grouping related buffers

[Scott Frazer <frazer.scott@gmail.com>]

Corey Foote wrote:
> Hi everybody,
> 
> As you probably already know, modern window managers support virtual 
> desktops, which extend the workspace to multiple desktop areas. This 
> allows users to spread the windows they have open across multiple 
> workspaces, as an alternative to crowding them all on to one screen. I 
> find this helpful because I work on multiple projects at a time, and 
> having multiple desktops allows me to group the windows for each project 
> together in separate desktops.
> 
> I was wondering if there was a way to group related buffers in Emacs 
> through the use of, say, multiple buffer workspaces. For example, it 
> would be nice if when I display a list of existing buffers by typing C-x 
> C-b it would be possible to group the buffers in the list, and when I 
> called C-x b only the buffers in the current grouping would be 
> available. (To get at the others it would be necessary to change the 
> current buffer workspace.)

I'd suggest using the buffer-show package.  Here's some skeleton code
that works but is pretty lame (no completion, showing of current or
all tags, etc. is left as an exercise for the student :) ):

(require 'bs)

(defvar bs-group-buffer-tags nil
   "*List of group tags for a buffer")
(make-variable-buffer-local 'bs-group-buffer-tags)

(defvar bs-group-active-tag nil
   "*Active tag for showing buffer list")

(defun bs-group-add-buffer-tag (tag)
   (interactive "sAdd buffer tag: ")
   (setq bs-group-buffer-tags (add-to-list 'bs-group-buffer-tags tag)))

(defun bs-group-delete-buffer-tag (tag)
   (interactive "sRemove buffer tag: ")
   (setq bs-group-buffer-tags (delete tag bs-group-buffer-tags)))

(defun bs-group-set-active-tag (tag)
   (interactive "sSet active tag: ")
   (setq bs-group-active-tag tag))

(defun bs-group-must-show-function (buf)
   (save-excursion
     (set-buffer buf)
     (member bs-group-active-tag bs-group-buffer-tags)))

(defun bs-group-dont-show-function (buf)
   (not (bs-group-must-show-function buf)))

(setq bs-configurations
       (add-to-list 'bs-configurations
                    '("tagged"
                      nil bs-group-must-show-function
                      nil bs-group-dont-show-function
                      nil)))