Re: org-capture: keeping window visible during date entry

[Christoph Groth <cwg@falma.de>]

Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:

> On Thu, Jun 14 2012, Christoph Groth wrote:

>> How to ensure that the buffer which was active when org-capture was
>> executed remains visible during date entry?

> I've had the same annoyance. The attached patch is *not* a real
> solution to the problem, as it still produces some weird windowing,
> and I have no idea if it will wreck other uses of capture, but it does
> preserve gnus windows so you can see the information you're trying to
> capture. It's at least a pointer in the right direction…

Yes, the problems are mostly due to calls to delete-other-windows which
is used quite often in org (19 times) and other emacs packages as well.

I would say that a proper solution would be to reserve
delete-other-windows for interactive use and to replace it by something
more sensible which ensures that a given window is well visible but
tries to preserve the visibility and arrangement other windows if
possible.  That hypothetical function could be given the minimum
required height for the current window.

Does anyone know of such functionality already existing anywhere in the
emacs world?  If not, I believe it would be useful to think of something
like this.  Given current screen sizes, it would be good to replace most
uses of delete-other-windows by something more gentle.  But this is a
topic for the general emacs mailing list.