From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Steven Degutis Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: `auto-dim-other-windows` -- scrutiny invited Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2013 17:01:20 -0500 Message-ID: References: <87ehersl1c.fsf@wanadoo.es> <4CAC0625449A4494938E732EF60CC5E3@us.oracle.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=047d7b5d9d7d57b7bd04d9901c61 X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1365112906 18397 80.91.229.3 (4 Apr 2013 22:01:46 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2013 22:01:46 +0000 (UTC) Cc: "help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org" To: Drew Adams Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Apr 05 00:02:14 2013 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1UNsEX-0000F3-73 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 05 Apr 2013 00:02:13 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:32855 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UNsE8-0002G8-DP for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:01:48 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:60756) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UNsDt-0002G0-5U for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:01:37 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UNsDh-00086P-W9 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:01:33 -0400 Original-Received: from mail-pd0-f179.google.com ([209.85.192.179]:61939) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UNsDh-00084m-Nw for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:01:21 -0400 Original-Received: by mail-pd0-f179.google.com with SMTP id x11so1654808pdj.38 for ; Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:01:20 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:x-received:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id :subject:from:to:cc:content-type; bh=leylE+L5dvSaW/zlrpVJG3wASP50IA4vB9Jl2rv1l/E=; b=SwcVFG/sdcHrkXJ6J6p5QmS1ubOXpHIi9StE5mr7HblxI7dEuV7RfS6KCNEMRVtMWJ Nd2pyQ30vvlffvpeZ5gxOGbM43YXLfO2SdLq7rSnBmVKtpQfk20Ol0I8F8bBILIvaiRX HV1ZFiVzrhkS/1ve6FkUIJao5gDRCrIDfHpZVjq/o6ZfHJj+iVsJYLllrB0H04fCvSFD imnmb6mU3V1tko+F6JCS9W1Zmg9TX/c2KlKbgjW9O9mQ+d8qDXxDdOQdlUSh8KjqYTNh A4ccpwZSQrPdnnI9HHdmP4O7eTYoQcxQMxSBUejKKWoCvt+7nBghYIVhuSuj9/ik3WJG OgYQ== X-Received: by 10.68.251.98 with SMTP id zj2mr10997849pbc.95.1365112880869; Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:01:20 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: by 10.70.6.100 with HTTP; Thu, 4 Apr 2013 15:01:20 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <4CAC0625449A4494938E732EF60CC5E3@us.oracle.com> X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 3.x [fuzzy] X-Received-From: 209.85.192.179 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:90000 Archived-At: --047d7b5d9d7d57b7bd04d9901c61 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Thanks. The goal was to make it more obvious at a really quick glance where the cursor is. Thumbifying and iconifying won't suffice because generally I need all my windows open at once. Maybe I'm abnormal. For now I just made my hl-line face have a blue background. It's working well enough for now. -Steven On Thu, Apr 4, 2013 at 4:55 PM, Drew Adams wrote: > FWIW, and ignore this if it doesn't help - > > 1. I suggest you start by asking yourself *why* you want to distinguish the > selected window (or all the non-selected windows, which amounts to the same > thing). > > If the answer it just to *make clear which* window is selected, then > dimming any > of them is not a great approach, IMHO. If that's the only reason then > presumably you would want all of the windows to remain easy to read etc. > > If the answer is just to more or less remove the non-selected windows from > your > attention, then I'd suggest that there are better approaches, including > perhaps > scaling their text smaller. > > IOW, if you do not really care whether the non-selected windows are as > readable > as the selected window, and you do not want to be distracted by them but > would > prefer to more or less ignore them temporarily, then why bother wasting so > much > screen real estate on them? Taking up screen space with intentionally > dimmed > windows makes little sense to me. > > > 2. Out of the box, text scaling does not free up any screen real estate: > when > you shrink text its window does not also shrink. But if you use library > `face-remap+.el' then non-nil option `text-scale-resize-window' shrinks the > window along with the text. > > However, just resizing a window in conjunction with text scaling affects > only > the vertical space, not the horizontal space. And shrinking one window > grows > the adjacent windows, so in itself it is not a solution to try shrinking > all the > non-selected windows. The heights and widths of their frames would not > change. > > > 3. But you can also thumbify a frame, which is similar but it does shrink > the > frame. It shrinks the text of each of its windows (so you would not want > to > thumbify the frame that has the selected window). > > You can set the thumbifying shrink factor so that thumbified frames are > anything > from tiny (active desktop icons, in essence) to only slightly smaller than > normal. > > When you thumbify a frame, it puts its windows and text in the background > in > terms of your attention - and it frees up screen space. > > But the windows and text are still there and still usable. Depending on > the > shrink factor you choose, this effect is more or less pronounced. > > Even very tiny frames whose text is unreadable can be effective in terms of > searching text or monitoring process output. IOW, for some Emacs > operations you > do not actually need to be able to read the text clearly. > > (Ordinary frame iconifying is of course another solution to the attention > focus/distraction problem, albeit a somewhat coarse one. It too gets less > interesting frames out of the way. But you cannot see their content or > interact > with it.) > > http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs-en/download/face-remap%2b.el > http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs-en/download/thumb-frm.el > > Doc/screenshot of thumbified frames: > http://www.emacswiki.org/FisheyeWithThumbs > > --047d7b5d9d7d57b7bd04d9901c61 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Thanks.

The goal was to make it more ob= vious at a really quick glance where the cursor is.

Thumbifying and iconifying won't suffice because generally I ne= ed all my windows open at once. Maybe I'm abnormal.

For now I just made my hl-line face have a = blue background. It's working well enough for now.

=
-Steven


On Thu, Apr 4, 2013 at 4:55 PM, Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com&= gt; wrote:
FWIW, and ignore this if it doesn't help -

1. I suggest you start by asking yourself *why* you want to distinguish the=
selected window (or all the non-selected windows, which amounts to the same=
thing).

If the answer it just to *make clear which* window is selected, then dimmin= g any
of them is not a great approach, IMHO. =A0If that's the only reason the= n
presumably you would want all of the windows to remain easy to read etc.
If the answer is just to more or less remove the non-selected windows from = your
attention, then I'd suggest that there are better approaches, including= perhaps
scaling their text smaller.

IOW, if you do not really care whether the non-selected windows are as read= able
as the selected window, and you do not want to be distracted by them but wo= uld
prefer to more or less ignore them temporarily, then why bother wasting so = much
screen real estate on them? =A0Taking up screen space with intentionally di= mmed
windows makes little sense to me.


2. Out of the box, text scaling does not free up any screen real estate: wh= en
you shrink text its window does not also shrink. =A0But if you use library<= br> `face-remap+.el' then non-nil option `text-scale-resize-window' shr= inks the
window along with the text.

However, just resizing a window in conjunction with text scaling affects on= ly
the vertical space, not the horizontal space. =A0And shrinking one window g= rows
the adjacent windows, so in itself it is not a solution to try shrinking al= l the
non-selected windows. =A0The heights and widths of their frames would not c= hange.


3. But you can also thumbify a frame, which is similar but it does shrink t= he
frame. =A0It shrinks the text of each of its windows (so you would not want= to
thumbify the frame that has the selected window).

You can set the thumbifying shrink factor so that thumbified frames are any= thing
from tiny (active desktop icons, in essence) to only slightly smaller than<= br> normal.

When you thumbify a frame, it puts its windows and text in the background i= n
terms of your attention - and it frees up screen space.

But the windows and text are still there and still usable. =A0Depending on = the
shrink factor you choose, this effect is more or less pronounced.

Even very tiny frames whose text is unreadable can be effective in terms of=
searching text or monitoring process output. =A0IOW, for some Emacs operati= ons you
do not actually need to be able to read the text clearly.

(Ordinary frame iconifying is of course another solution to the attention focus/distraction problem, albeit a somewhat coarse one. =A0It too gets les= s
interesting frames out of the way. =A0But you cannot see their content or i= nteract
with it.)

http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs-en/download/face-remap%2b.el<= /a>
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs-en/download/thumb-frm.el

Doc/screenshot of thumbified frames:
ht= tp://www.emacswiki.org/FisheyeWithThumbs


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