From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: floyd@barrow.com (Floyd L. Davidson) Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: emacs for everything? Date: Fri, 03 Dec 2004 10:55:13 -0900 Organization: __________ Message-ID: <87llcfdun2.fld@barrow.com> References: <87pt2ej98v.fsf@node1.ddorf.de> <87zn1g2t5j.fld@barrow.com> <876540gxzw.fld@barrow.com> <87653u4x4t.fld@barrow.com> <86sm6voy32.fsf@ketchup.de.uu.net> <87llcmupnv.fld@barrow.com> <87y8gkr8p1.fld@barrow.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1102104030 10719 80.91.229.6 (3 Dec 2004 20:00:30 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2004 20:00:30 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Dec 03 21:00:24 2004 Return-path: Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1CaJbL-0006SU-00 for ; Fri, 03 Dec 2004 21:00:24 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.33) id 1CaJkx-0001GT-Mg for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 03 Dec 2004 15:10:19 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!HSNX.atgi.net!falcon.america.net!eagle.america.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help User-Agent: gnus 5.10.6/XEmacs 21.4.15/Linux 2.6.5 Cancel-Lock: sha1:U1oS3EX1eCwYEG1MUQk9nxIHpEI= Original-Lines: 96 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.124.156.106 Original-X-Trace: eagle.america.net 1102103853 209.124.156.106 (Fri, 03 Dec 2004 14:57:33 EST) Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 03 Dec 2004 14:57:33 EST Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:127130 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org 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: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:22547 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:22547 Kai Grossjohann wrote: >floyd@barrow.com (Floyd L. Davidson) writes: > >It could be quite useful to use workspaces according to project. (For >the right value of "project" ;-) I'm thinking this also depends on characteristics that I had not accounted for before, which might be very different for different users. I am retired, and what I'm describing exists on a workstation which is rarely ever rebooted and where I am *always* logged in. Physical security is absolute (and external to the computer), so I have no need to ever log out. In a work environment, where even so much as walking down the hall for a breath of air means logging out, would not want to use the same configuration. And of course there may be an infinite variety in between those extremes. >Hm. At one point, I did use one of my spare workspaces for a specific >task: for testing a web application. So I created another Firefox >window and an xterm, tail -f'd the right logfile in the xterm, and >clicked away in Firefox to see what would happen. That was a good >experience. However, I can't seem to get myself to using workspaces >that way. > >Do you allocate workspaces dynamically, or are they more or less >static? That is, do you always have the same set of projects and do >you always know which project will be in which workspace? Or do you >use the same workspace for one project today and for another tomorrow? Technically it is about 50-50 between dynamic and static, but the effect is just about the same as if it were totally static. First, my FvwmPager window is set up in a 1x15 vertical matrix, which can sit on the left side of a screen, and is adjusted in size so that it is about 5/8" wide (on the one that is used for the dual monitors, where it is on the right side screen and is therefore in the middle of the entire display area), and just less than 1/2" per desktop in height. (The whole Pager window is an inch or so short of the full vertical height of the screen.) That provides me with a single vertical position as the "identity" by which I think of each virtual desktop. Here is a snapshot of the entire (dual) screen layout: http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson/misc/root.gif What happens to be in each window is fairly well set, and is more historical than anything else. The top window has a "scratch" pair of xterms with a bash command line. The next three are pretty much assigned to specific things. The next 4 get fairly random selection for whatever I am doing at the moment, though that is still pretty much divided up too, as the lower two of those are almost certainly going to have xterms logged into other hosts on my local network. Then there are two desktops that rarely ever get used, followed by 5 that have specific things done (all of them are related to web browsing, and there are 4 with opera running under different user names). So out of 15, two rarely ever get used, and only four of the desktops change very often. And my mental cue as to where something is relates the vertical position with different types of work. I simply do not commit to memory anything about where I'm at when working, even when an interuption moves me to a different desktop. The pattern is all I need to know, not the specifics. If I select the wrong desktop, moving the mouse half and inch and clicking again gets me the right one. But... One problem with this is that if I do log out, when I log back in the process of setting it all up again to be exactly where I left off, is annoyingly long. Only three xterms are executed by fvwm as it initiates, and all of the rest of that gets done manually. As you can imagine, I am relutant to log out except when absolutely necessary. >Hm. Ion supports the dynamic workspace allocation well: it allows you >to enter a name, then it creates a workspace by that name. And you >can select a workspace by name. This means that if you always use the >project name as workspace name, then it doesn't matter which set of >projects you happen to work on today. I would guess that if a person developed the same regimen with name selection that I have with vertical positioning, it would be essentially identical. The only difference is that I can look at the FvwmPager window and sometimes, though not always, see something odd that indicates what is on a particular desktop, and then selection is instant. -- Floyd L. Davidson Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) floyd@barrow.com