RE: bind a hotkey to toggle variable

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

> > See the Elisp manual, node `Defining Commands'.
>
> thanks Adams, I'll read the manual carefully.
> 
> btw, I'm using your elisp library and having my pop-up-frames variable
> default setting to t, Recently I'm trying IDE-like 'nav' mode from
> google code, and the setting of pop-up-frames starts conflict with
> nav, because for 'nav' it's better open files in same frame. So this 
> question occured.

I'm not familiar with `nav' mode, and I don't know which of my libraries you
mean. But I'm not surprised that some other code (e.g. `nav') has some problems
with non-nil `pop-up-frames'.

Unfortunately, it's all too common that code, including some vanilla Emacs
distribution code, does not play well with non-nil `pop-up-frames'. Developers
who use nil `pop-up-frames' seem too often not to test their code also with the
value non-nil. (And they especially seem not to test it using a standalone
minibuffer frame.)

To be able to use non-nil `pop-up-frames', users really have to jump through
quite a few hoops, and few actually bother. One-On-One Emacs helps make life
with non-nil `pop-up-frames' easier, but you can still run into other code that
can't handle it.

Frankly, I'm always surprised that, 20-30 years after the introduction of
graphic displays and window managers, most people still use Emacs windows, not
frames, for most buffers. That Emacs doesn't play very well with non-nil
`pop-up-frames' could explain that in part, but why people still use Emacs
windows so much is generally a mystery to me.

I've preferred frames over Emacs windows ever since frames became available, but
we're a tiny minority in that camp. And my impression is that each of us tames
the attendant problems slightly differently.

Wrt working with `nav': I know nothing about it, but perhaps there is an easy
way (e.g., using a mode hook or `same-window-*'), to use nil `pop-up-frames' for
`nav' buffers only. That should be doable, I would think.

BTW, googling a bit for `emacs nav' gives me the impression that `nav' is used
in particular with a terminal, not necessarily with a window manager. In that
case (i.e., if you are not using a window manager), is there much value in
having non-nil `pop-up-frames'? Dunno.