Re: Opening multiple files in a single buffer?

[Gregory Heytings <ghe@sdf.org>]

Douglas Lewan:
>
>> I've now been using Emacs for many, many years, and there is perhaps a 
>> single feature I'm really missing, namely opening more than one file in 
>> a single buffer, with the contents of the files appearing one after the 
>> other in the same buffer, with some kind of visual separator between 
>> them. I don't know if that feature exists in other text editors.
>> 
>> For example, suppose you write a book, which has fifteen chapters in 
>> files chap1.tex, ..., chap15.tex.  Opening these files in a single 
>> buffer means that you could use isearch-{forward,backward} in the whole 
>> book.  (I know that multi-isearch-buffers could be used in this 
>> particular case, but it is not as convenient to use.)  You could also 
>> use query-replace on the whole book, or reindent all files, or execute 
>> shell-command on all files at once, and so forth.  (Again I know that 
>> all this can be done with already existing features, e.g. through 
>> dired, but again I find them not as convenient as what I have in mind.)
>> 
>> Each file would have its own major and minor modes, and the mode-line 
>> would adapt depending on the file corresponding to the buffer portion 
>> in which the point is currently located.
>> 
>> My question is: Is this feasible, or is the one-to-one correspondence 
>> between buffers and files too deeply rooted in Emacs' codebase that it 
>> is not feasible?  If it is feasible, could this feature be considered 
>> for implementation in a future Emacs version?
>
> I would say it's feasible, but probably awkward as stated. An 
> application that implements something similar via a sequence of buffers 
> with a way of navigating next and previous and providing appropriate 
> commands via a (map) function would probably be simpler to build and 
> manage. It would also be much more natural.
>

In fact, what I have in mind is not an additional application, but a core 
feature, that would be transparent (or almost transparent) to everything 
else.  It would not require a rewrite of any command.  For example it 
would also be possible to narrow the (multi-file) buffer to the last X 
lines of a file and the first Y lines of the next file in the buffer.

Gregory