RE: When do you prefer frames instead of windows?

[Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> During an Ediff Session, sometimes I have to leave the Control Panel
> to check something in a different window or buffer, or even on a
> different desktop.  When I get back to Ediff: where is my Control Panel?
> Yes, of course it is still where I left it, upper right corner of the
> screen, but obscured now by the terminal, firefox or any other odd
> window I happened to raise over it during my check-something-outside-of-
> ediff.  And even if the Control Panel is still visible on the screen,
> the mouse is no longer inside that Control Panel.

Yes, this is why Emacs should provide simple key sequences to raise
and refocus frames.

It's no different from what happens if you (one way or another)
select another window, if that window obscures (e.g. replaces) the
window you previously had selected.  You need an easy way to select
arbitrary windows and frames, including from the keyboard.

Wrt frames obscuring/overlapping other frames (for which the window
analogy is windows replacing other windows, or windows simply being
removed), it helps a lot if you let frames be automatically fit to
the size of their displayed text (within max & min limits you set).

> In order to get my ediff session back, I have to accurately raise
> the control panel, raise emacs (I *think* they are connected somehow,
> so maybe this is not necessary), place mouse accurately inside (tiny)
> Control Panel, pay attention not to nudge it out of there etc etc.

Yup.  A PITA.

> Compare to single frame ediff: move mouse anywhere into (large)
> emacs window, press C-M-Up, press C-L, continue with ediff.

Yes.

Consider binding a key to refocus the Ediff Control Panel frame.
You can bind it for just the duration of the Ediff command.  (The
function to raise and focus a frame is `select-frame-set-input-focus'.)

> And no, I will *not* enter a bug report for this, even if it were
> one ;-)

OK.