RE: I'm looking for a project management system for Emacs

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

> I'm looking for a project management system in Emacs...
> 
> 1. When I have many files open, switching to another buffer is a bit
> cumbersome, even when using Ido.  I'd like that system to have
> something like "ido-switch-buffer-within-project".
> 
> 2. Files of the project might not be located in one folder (so
> e.g. Projectile probably won't work for me).  Rationale: there may be
> a few files somehere down the ~/Documents hierarchy and /one/ file in
> ~/org.  On the other hand, I'd like to be able to specify that "this
> file and all files in that directory belong to this project", without
> manually listing all the files in "that directory".  It would then be
> best if adding a file into the specified directory (or tree) would add
> it /automatically/ to the project.
> 
> 3. One file may belong to more than one project.  Rationale: see above.
> 
> 4. It would be great if I could mark some /global/ variables
> project-dependent, i.e., each variable would have its "project
> instance", and switching between projects would mean changing its
> value accordingly.  (It would probably also need some kind of
> persistence, too.)  Rationale: org-clock-history;).
> 
> 5. Of course, I'd like to be able to visit/kill all files/buffers
> related to the project with one command.  Also, adding a project (and
> a file/files to an existing project) should be possible in some
> interactive way (though using some Elisp variable for that might be
> acceptable).
> 
> 6. On the other hand, window configuration management is not a must
> for me - currently I work 98% of the time on a small netbook and
> usually have only one window open anyway.  I'm planning to use a
> larger monitor in some time, though, so while not necessary, this
> would be a nice bonus.
> 
> Is there anything in existence that would help me?  Are there any
> potentially useful features I did not think of that people find
> useful?

Icicles offers several features that you can use in various ways to
support various definitions of projects and project management.
This page is a good starting point to info about some of these.  It
also points to info about using Dired and Emacs bookmarks for
project definition and management.

http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Icicles_-_Support_for_Projects

Others will perhaps provide info about all-in-one predefined
approaches.  Icicles, Bookmark+, and Dired+ offer instead a
toolbox of features that you can put to use as you like.

See also the EmacsWiki CategoryProject page, which is a table of
contents for the wiki pages about project-mgt support.  It is a
good starting place when thinking about defining projects and
your own project-management system:

http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/CategoryProject