Problems positioning and sizing Emacs frames

Problems positioning and sizing Emacs frames

[Dr Rainer Woitok]

Greetings,

I fail to position my Emacs frames  where I want them.   The first frame
should be opened with its right edge flush with the right screen edge of
the monitor, as in

   $ emacs --geometry 80x40-0+6 . &

According to  "C-h v initial-frame-alist"  I should set this variable so
it matches the Emacs specific entries  in ".Xresources" plus the "--geo-
metry" specification  from the  command line,  while variable  "default-
frame-alist" should contain the relevant settings  for frames opened la-
ter via "C-x 5 C-f".

Here is  how I set variables  "default-frame-alist"  and "initial_frame-
alist" in file "init.el":

(let* ((g (split-string                         (getenv "_EMACS_SIZE_") "x"))
       (l (*    3             (string-to-number (getenv "_WINDOW_OFFSET_"))))
       (p (list (cons 'font-parameter           (getenv "_EMACS_FONT_"))
                (cons 'top    (string-to-number (getenv "_WINDOW_TOP_")))
                (cons 'height (string-to-number (cadr g)))
                (cons 'width  (string-to-number (car  g)))

                '(horizontal-scroll-bars .   nil)
                '(left-fringe            .     0)
                '(right-fringe           .   nil)
                '(menu-bar-lines         .     0)
                '(tab-bar-lines          .     0)
                '(tool-bar-lines         .     0)
                '(vertical-scroll-bars   . right)
      ))   )
      (setq default-frame-alist (cons (cons 'left    l) p)
            initial-frame-alist (cons (list 'left '- 0) p)
)     )

These are the definitions of the environment variables used above:

$ env | grep -E '^_(EMACS|WINDOW)_'
_EMACS_FONT_=-bitstream-bitstream vera sans mono-medium-r-*--21-*-*-*-m-*-*-*
_EMACS_SIZE_=80x40
_WINDOW_OFFSET_=50
_WINDOW_TOP_=6
$

And here are the relevant lines from file ".Xresources":

$ grep ^Emacs .Xresources
Emacs*font: -bitstream-bitstream vera sans mono-medium-r-*--21-*-*-*-m-*-*-*
Emacs.geometry: 80x40
Emacs.menuBar: 0
Emacs.tabBar: 0
Emacs.toolBar: 0
$

But, sadly, it doesn't work as I expect :-(

Problem 1:

The edge of the physical screen cuts off part of the right scrollbar and
the right window decoration  of the initial frame  opened by the "emacs"
command above,  a vertical stripe  of approximately 14 pixels width, and
the window manager  reports the window geometry  as "79x40"  rather than
"80x40".  However, the frame's top edge is placed correctly 6 pixels be-
low the physical screen's top edge.

Problem 2:

When I open another frame by entering "C-x 5 C-f", the new frame has the
correct geometry of "80x40",  but is positioned at "+484+0"  rather than
at "+150+6",  and any further frame opened  is placed  29 pixels  to the
right rather than at the very same position as the previous frame.

What am I missing?  Any help appreciated :-)

Sincerely,
  Rainer

Re: Problems positioning and sizing Emacs frames

[Po Lu]

Dr Rainer Woitok <rainer.woitok@gmail.com> writes:

> Greetings,
>
> I fail to position my Emacs frames  where I want them.   The first frame
> should be opened with its right edge flush with the right screen edge of
> the monitor, as in
>
>    $ emacs --geometry 80x40-0+6 . &
>
> According to  "C-h v initial-frame-alist"  I should set this variable so
> it matches the Emacs specific entries  in ".Xresources" plus the "--geo-
> metry" specification  from the  command line,  while variable  "default-
> frame-alist" should contain the relevant settings  for frames opened la-
> ter via "C-x 5 C-f".
>
> Here is  how I set variables  "default-frame-alist"  and "initial_frame-
> alist" in file "init.el":
>
> (let* ((g (split-string                         (getenv "_EMACS_SIZE_") "x"))
>        (l (*    3             (string-to-number (getenv "_WINDOW_OFFSET_"))))
>        (p (list (cons 'font-parameter           (getenv "_EMACS_FONT_"))
>                 (cons 'top    (string-to-number (getenv "_WINDOW_TOP_")))
>                 (cons 'height (string-to-number (cadr g)))
>                 (cons 'width  (string-to-number (car  g)))
>
>                 '(horizontal-scroll-bars .   nil)
>                 '(left-fringe            .     0)
>                 '(right-fringe           .   nil)
>                 '(menu-bar-lines         .     0)
>                 '(tab-bar-lines          .     0)
>                 '(tool-bar-lines         .     0)
>                 '(vertical-scroll-bars   . right)
>       ))   )
>       (setq default-frame-alist (cons (cons 'left    l) p)
>             initial-frame-alist (cons (list 'left '- 0) p)
> )     )
>
> These are the definitions of the environment variables used above:
>
> $ env | grep -E '^_(EMACS|WINDOW)_'
> _EMACS_FONT_=-bitstream-bitstream vera sans mono-medium-r-*--21-*-*-*-m-*-*-*
> _EMACS_SIZE_=80x40
> _WINDOW_OFFSET_=50
> _WINDOW_TOP_=6
> $
>
> And here are the relevant lines from file ".Xresources":
>
> $ grep ^Emacs .Xresources
> Emacs*font: -bitstream-bitstream vera sans mono-medium-r-*--21-*-*-*-m-*-*-*
> Emacs.geometry: 80x40
> Emacs.menuBar: 0
> Emacs.tabBar: 0
> Emacs.toolBar: 0
> $
>
> But, sadly, it doesn't work as I expect :-(
>
> Problem 1:
>
> The edge of the physical screen cuts off part of the right scrollbar and
> the right window decoration  of the initial frame  opened by the "emacs"
> command above,  a vertical stripe  of approximately 14 pixels width, and
> the window manager  reports the window geometry  as "79x40"  rather than
> "80x40".  However, the frame's top edge is placed correctly 6 pixels be-
> low the physical screen's top edge.
>
> Problem 2:
>
> When I open another frame by entering "C-x 5 C-f", the new frame has the
> correct geometry of "80x40",  but is positioned at "+484+0"  rather than
> at "+150+6",  and any further frame opened  is placed  29 pixels  to the
> right rather than at the very same position as the previous frame.
>
> What am I missing?  Any help appreciated :-)

Your window manager decided to force some kind of sliding behavior on
Emacs.  Unfortunately, that is outside of Emacs's control.

Re: Problems positioning and sizing Emacs frames

[Dr Rainer Woitok]

Po Lu,

On Tuesday, 2022-12-20 09:41:35 +0800, you wrote:

> ...
> Your window manager decided to force some kind of sliding behavior on
> Emacs.

What is making you so sure?  You don't even know what window manager I'm
using.   And regardless of what kind of  windows I ask my window manager
to open it makes them the size I want and places them where I want.   In
particular I don't have this problem  with XEmacs frames  which at least
are somewhat akin to Emacs frames.

Sincerely,
  Rainer

Re: Problems positioning and sizing Emacs frames

[Po Lu]

Dr Rainer Woitok <rainer.woitok@gmail.com> writes:

>> Your window manager decided to force some kind of sliding behavior on
>> Emacs.
>
> What is making you so sure?  You don't even know what window manager I'm
> using.   And regardless of what kind of  windows I ask my window manager
> to open it makes them the size I want and places them where I want.

The fact that any further frames created moved to the right.  That is
not something any code in Emacs can do.

> In particular I don't have this problem with XEmacs frames which at
> least are somewhat akin to Emacs frames.

You can try building Emacs with the Lucid toolkit.

Re: Problems positioning and sizing Emacs frames

[Dr Rainer Woitok]

Po Lu,

On Tuesday, 2022-12-20 20:32:54 +0800, you wrote:

> ...
> > What is making you so sure?
> > ...
> 
> The fact that any further frames created moved to the right.  That is
> not something any code in Emacs can do.

I fear Emacs could:  by simply not  providing coordinates  to the window
manager, thus forcing the latter to make them up itself.

But this is a MINOR point anyway, I could even live with that.  The main
point was that Emacs  or my way of setting it up  caused the window size
and position  not to be dealt with  the way I wanted.   It could well be
that it's my set-up which forced Emacs  to pass wrong information to the
window manager,  but currently I don't see what's wrong and am therefore
asking the combined wisdom of this list.

Sincerely,
  Rainer

Re: Problems positioning and sizing Emacs frames

[Po Lu]

Dr Rainer Woitok <rainer.woitok@gmail.com> writes:

> I fear Emacs could:  by simply not  providing coordinates  to the window
> manager, thus forcing the latter to make them up itself.

All windows have parent relative coordinates under X, and when you
specify the `top' or `left' parameters, the "user-specified position"
hint is set which politely asks the window manager to place the window
where Emacs asked it to be.

The window manager is always able to ignore those hints.  Many window
managers do just that.

> But this is a MINOR point anyway, I could even live with that.  The main
> point was that Emacs  or my way of setting it up  caused the window size
> and position  not to be dealt with  the way I wanted.   It could well be
> that it's my set-up which forced Emacs  to pass wrong information to the
> window manager,  but currently I don't see what's wrong and am therefore
> asking the combined wisdom of this list.

Did you set `frame-resize-pixelwise' to t?

Re: Problems positioning and sizing Emacs frames

[Dr Rainer Woitok]

Po Lu,

On Tuesday, 2022-12-20 21:48:35 +0800, you wrote:

> ...
> Did you set `frame-resize-pixelwise' to t?

I didn't up to now.   However, setting it changed neither size nor posi-
tion of the initial frame,  but it slightly changed the window manager's
geometry information for the frames created via "C-x 5 Cf":  it returned
"1040x950+58+58"  for the first frame  and "1040x950+87+46" for the sec-
ond,  where the "1040x950" part  probably is the  "80x40" window size in
pixels, the difference between 58 and 87 still is 29 pixels to the right
while the difference between 58 and 46 is 12 pixels up,  which might not
have had any effect in my former tests because these frames were already
at "+xxx+0", and thus going farther up was just not possible.

I had set "frame-resize-pixelwise"  in my "init.el" file,  but according
to the documentation this file is only read  AFTER the initial frame has
been created.   Upon further reading  the documentation  I finally found
frame parameter "user-position",  and setting this to "t"  in both vari-
ables,  "default-frame-alist" and "initial-frame-alist"  at least solved
the positioning problems for the frames opened via "C-x 5 C-f".  Uff :-)

Another observation regarding the initial frame:  when I open a new file
in these frames and enter "C-u 90 O",  the gap in the uppermost line be-
tween the rightmost "O"  and the continuation symbol  in the fringe area
is roughly twice as wide in the "79x40" frame  as in the "80x40" frames.
Could this indicate some rounding effect  eventually causing the initial
frame becoming too wide and being cut off?

Sincerely,
  Rainer