bug#9084: 24.0.50; displaying man pages splits the window and formats the text for the full width of the whole frame rather than for the width of the window the text is displayed in, which is only 1/2 the width of the frame

[lee <lee@yun.yagibdah.de>]

Juri Linkov <juri@jurta.org> writes:

> You are asking for functionality that is not specific to
> manpages. Typical text width in all buffers that I see is no more than
> 75 characters: in Dired buffers, in Info buffers, in source code
> buffers, etc.

Then the manpages as emacs formats them are an exception to that.

> Usually there is no point in making the window wider than the text
> displayed in all these buffers.  I think the width of the window
> and other parameters of window configurations should be specified
> at more general level.

I agree.  Dynamic window layout is one of emacs' strengths, and it would
make sense to give users more control over it.  That would include
functions like `frameify-window-layout' and `frameify-window'.  They
would make the windows currently displayed, or a particular window,
respectively, behave as if these windows were frames.

>> When your window is 230 characters wide, you could set Man-width to 70
>> and display three pages side by side?
>
> There was a plan to implement functionality where you can define
> arbitrary window layouts, e.g. you will be able to define a layout
> to display three manpage dedicated buffers side by side, etc.

Does this plan involve functionality to freeze window layouts or to
"frameify" windows?  There isn't much point in laying out windows in any
particular way when dynamic window layout continues to automatically
destroy an overall layout.  Users shouldn't be expected to specify
window layouts for a potentially huge number of different buffers in
order to always dynamically get the overall window layout they want when
this can be avoided by something as simple (for the user) as
"frameifying" a window.