help et. al - use different frame instead of splitting frame?

help et. al - use different frame instead of splitting frame?

[Christopher Howard]

Hi, use Emacs with multiple frames, one on each monitor, and typically one window per frame. Now that I have lots of frame space, I find it annoying when functions like (describe-function) split the frame I am on. I am wondering if it is possible to change something so that functions like that instead display the buffer in a different frame.

Looking for someplace to start, I dove down into `describe-function' source code and eventually found myself trying to hack temp-buffer-window-show, so that its display-buffer call got passed another frame, i.e., from `get-other-frame'. Aside from thinking there must be some simpler solution, I also couldn't get this to work consistently. It worked on the first call to describe-function but not after that.

I also looked a bit into override temp-buffer-show-function but changing this variable didn't seem to have any effect.

-- 
📛 Christopher Howard
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🌐 http://gem.librehacker.com

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RE: [External] : help et. al - use different frame instead of splitting frame?

[Drew Adams]

> I find it annoying when functions like (describe-function)
> split the frame I am on. I am wondering if it is possible
> to change something so that functions like that instead
> display the buffer in a different frame.

Just customize `special-display-buffer-names'
or `special-display-regexps'.

E.g., I use `special-display-buffer-names'
to put *Help* and *Completions* buffers in
their own frames that look different.  I put
other *...* buffers in frames with a third
look by setting `special-display-regexps' to
("[ ]?[*][^*]+[*]").

A "special-display" buffer is shown in its own
dedicated frame (you can get more refined than
that, if you like).

Emacs will tell you that these options are
obsolete.  But they're simple to use and they
still work perfectly fine.

If you instead want to complicate your life,
you can do what those options do and much,
more by customizing `display-buffer-alist'
or its ilk.  See the Elisp manual, node
`Displaying Buffers' and all of its progeny.

https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Displaying-Buffers.html

Re: [External] : help et. al - use different frame instead of splitting frame?

[Björn Bidar]

Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:

>> I find it annoying when functions like (describe-function)
>> split the frame I am on. I am wondering if it is possible
>> to change something so that functions like that instead
>> display the buffer in a different frame.
>
> Just customize `special-display-buffer-names'
> or `special-display-regexps'.
>
> E.g., I use `special-display-buffer-names'
> to put *Help* and *Completions* buffers in
> their own frames that look different.  I put
> other *...* buffers in frames with a third
> look by setting `special-display-regexps' to
> ("[ ]?[*][^*]+[*]").
>
> A "special-display" buffer is shown in its own
> dedicated frame (you can get more refined than
> that, if you like).
>
> Emacs will tell you that these options are
> obsolete.  But they're simple to use and they
> still work perfectly fine.
>
> If you instead want to complicate your life,
> you can do what those options do and much,
> more by customizing `display-buffer-alist'
> or its ilk.  See the Elisp manual, node
> `Displaying Buffers' and all of its progeny.
>
> https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Displaying-Buffers.html

Another option is to use pop-up-frames instead if you want to go fully
frames instead of windows.

Pop-up-frames will make every new window open a new frame instead.

RE: [External] : help et. al - use different frame instead of splitting frame?

[Drew Adams]

> Another option is to use pop-up-frames instead if you want to go fully
> frames instead of windows.
> 
> Pop-up-frames will make every new window open a new frame instead.

Yes, but all of the frames will use the same
parameters, from `default-frame-alist'.

Using `special-display-*' your "special"
frames can have different parameters from
the other, regular frames.

Re: help et. al - use different frame instead of splitting frame?

[Yuri Khan]

On Wed, 15 May 2024 at 08:57, Christopher Howard
<christopher@librehacker.com> wrote:

> Hi, use Emacs with multiple frames, one on each monitor, and typically one window per frame. Now that I have lots of frame space, I find it annoying when functions like (describe-function) split the frame I am on. I am wondering if it is possible to change something so that functions like that instead display the buffer in a different frame.
>
> Looking for someplace to start, I dove down into `describe-function' source code and eventually found myself trying to hack temp-buffer-window-show

You either went too deep or not deep enough ;)

The place you want is called display-buffer-alist and it’s a variable
containing rules for activating various windows. See the manual and
one of several tutorials on it, like this one:

https://www.masteringemacs.org/article/demystifying-emacs-window-manager