From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Two separate emacs running ?? Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:33:08 -0800 Organization: __________ Message-ID: <87ir7eneh7.fld@apaflo.com> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1187379709 32267 80.91.229.12 (17 Aug 2007 19:41:49 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:41:49 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Aug 17 21:41:46 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1IM7hY-0000uB-Op for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:41:45 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1IM7hY-0004Kf-9G for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 17 Aug 2007 15:41:44 -0400 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!newsgate.cistron.nl!xs4all!feeder.news-service.com!sn-xt-ams-06!sn-xt-ams-11!sn-xt-ams-04!sn-ams!sn-feed-ams-02!sn-post-ams-02!sn-post-sjc-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help User-Agent: gnus 5.10.6/XEmacs 21.4.15/Linux 2.6.19 Cancel-Lock: sha1:QfO0C6+XNXrH0SFicHnxNAPcRUw= Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Original-Lines: 99 Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:151086 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:46659 Archived-At: William Case wrote: >Hi; > >I am trying to figure out the best way to solve the following problem: > >I have a text file, c-notes.txt, which I open in a separate frame. I >use it to make lots of notes to myself as a go about learning the 'C' >language. I would probably like to start an elisp-notes.txt, etc. for >other languages. > >I would like to open these text files with a completely different set of >fonts, background colours, faces and minor modes from my usual emacs. I >would also like to restrict those frames or instances of emacs to a few >text files. > >Has anybody else done the same? I keep three different XEmacs instance running all the time. In this particular way there isn't any difference between XEmacs and Emacs, as far as I know, so the reasons and methods are perhaps of interest to you. First, my needs are tuned to running Linux with 15 virtual desktops arranged in a vertical 15x1 array, and using two monitors. Most of what I actual work on goes on the left screen, most of what is static and available in all desktops is kept on the right screen, and is tagged as "sticky" for the window manager so that it is available in all 15 desktops. (In essense, C-UpArrow or C-DnArrow moves to a different desktop, which will totally change everything visible on the left monitor while nothing changes on the right monitor.) For general editing I use an XEmacs server. It is without a visible frame and never goes away. I use an alias to invoke an editor (gnuclient, which I believe would be emacsclient for Emacs), so that it is a two letter command, "em", to start up an edit frame. (I also have a second alias that will use the current frame, using the -nw option, but I rarely ever do that.) The advantages of using an edit server are many! Each time it comes up, it has access to "history"... such as it will remember the last search pattern, the last kill buffer, and so on. If a previous invocation is still running, the files are there too (actually one can exit a frame and still have the files retained). Hence I can go to a different virtual desktop, or even invoke it a second time in the same desktop, and have all of the currently available buffers in the new frame. But, the reason there are three invocations of XEmacs always running is that sometimes that isn't what one wants. One invocation that uses so many buffers that it would just clog up the edit server is the one I read Usenet News with, using GNUS (for example, it has 17 buffers open right now). I also have some significantly different functions and, in particularl, different key bindings when reading News. So that one is distinctly different. The other is similar to what you've asked about, a "Notes" file editor. That frame sits over on the right monitor, and no matter which virtual desktop I'm in, it stays there. (It takes up most of the screen, but can be moved out of the way if I need the space now and then.) So there is an "edit server", a "News" and a "Notes" invocation of XEmacs running all of the time. These are each configured at least somewhat different. They are all invoked with a common standard configuration file, but the alias used to start them up adds another configuration file for each. Hence the server's alias has "-l .semacs", the News alias has "-l .gemacs", and the notes is just XEmacs with nothing special (but if it did it would have "-l .nemacs"). Note that I use a rather extensive standard config file, which compiled has a size of 40K, while the separate config files for different invocations are all relatively small, at just less than 3K, uncompiled. That is probably typical for anyone who tends to customize their own configuration and keeps doing it for a couple decades. >Could you point me to an existing solution? >(Yes, I looked. I couldn't find anything even close, but that could >have been a search criteria problem.) >Or, could you suggest a better way to go about solving this problem? > >I thought of constructing a /.emacs2 file and having a completely new or >separate instance of emacs for these files. How would I do that so that >emacs2 could find /.emacs2 and not /.emacs on start up, if it is even >possible? > >Any "getting started" strategies or pointers would be welcome. -- Floyd L. Davidson Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) floyd@apaflo.com