Re: pop-up bottom window for temporary buffers

[martin rudalics <rudalics@gmx.at>]

 > I would like to have a pop-up bottom window for temporary buffers like
 > compilation, Completions, etc. It should split-vertically the whole
 > frame even if root window was split horizontally.
 > For example: Before M-x compile:
 >
 > +------+------+
 > |      |      |
 > |      |      |
 > |      |      |
 > +------+------+
 > After:
 >
 > +------+------+
 > |      |      |
 > +------+------+
 > |             |
 > +------+------+
 >
 > I.e. it should be something like ecb-compilation-window, but without
 > ECB because I don't want to use ECB and CEDET. Actually I see two ways
 > to make described behavior but both have their drawbacks.
 >
 > 1) Use split-root.el or popwin-el modules.
 > Drawback: they use delete-other-windows function and then rebuild
 > previous windows tree after root window is split as required. They
 > invalidate all references to existed earlier windows in your code(or
 > code of any module).

In fact these also break overlays with a window property.

 > For example it's hard to make elscreen module to work with
 > them(because elscreen saves current-window-configuration and then
 > creates another one).
 >
 > 2) Set window-min-height variable to its minimal possible value(1) and
 > call split-window-vertically during emacs startup minimizing window
 > height after it's created. Then use this window for temporary buffers
 > setting its height as required.
 > Drawbacks: Small annoying window with annoying modeline on the bottom
 > of the frame, doesn't work with emacs --daemon.

You can get rid of the modeline but you can't get rid of the one-line
window because Emacs doesn't allow zero height windows.

 > Are there more elegant ways to do that without drawbacks?

If you have bazaar installed try doing something like

bzr branch bzr://bzr.savannah.gnu.org/emacs/window-pub window-pub

Then you can pop up an arbitrary number of windows on any side of a
frame.

martin