Re: compilation/grep buffer advice

[Kevin Rodgers <kevin.d.rodgers@gmail.com>]

Phil Carmody wrote:
> I like the idea of burying the result of a successful 
> compilation, but keeping errors visible, and started 
> using the code snippet that was recently posted here 
> to achieve that.
> 
> However, I got annoyed by it burying grep results too.
> This quick hack overcomes that limitation, but I'm not
> sure what kind of condition to include to test the buffer
> name:
> 
> (setq compilation-finish-function
>       (lambda (buf str)
>         (if (string-match "compilation" (buffer-name buf))
>             (if (string-match "exited abnormally" str)
>                 (message "compilation errors, press C-x ` to visit")
>               (run-at-time 1 nil 'delete-windows-on buf)
>               (message "NO COMPILATION ERRORS!"))
>           (message "didn't look like a compilation"))))

Rather than testing the buffer name, you could test the major-mode
variable: By default, M-x compile sets it to compilation-mode and
M-x grep sets it to grep-mode.  That's not comprehensive, as the
compilation-start function takes a MODE argument, but at least
major-mode is constrained to be a proper major mode whereas the buffer
name could be anything returned by compilation-start's NAME-FUNCTION.

> What other kinds of functions apart from grep use compilation 
> mode? Is it better to have 'compilation' a special case to be
> handled by optionally burying, or 'grep' the special case that
> does nothing? 

Compilation mode is highly generalized so that many other modes
can be implemented on top of it.  Such modes ought to set major-mode
via compilation-start's MODE, so I think you'd be better of testing
(eq major-mode 'compilation-mode).

You might also consider moving the test out of the
compilation-finish-function and into compilation-mode-hook:

(defun my-compilation-finish-function (buffer string)
   (if (string-match "exited abnormally" string)
       (message (substitute-command-keys
		"Compilation errors, type \\[next-error] to visit"))
     (run-at-time 1 nil 'delete-windows-on buffer)
     (message "No compilation errors")))

(add-hook 'compilation-mode-hook
	  (lambda ()
	    (if (eq major-mode 'compilation-mode)
		(set (make-local-variable 'compilation-finish-function)
		     'my-compilation-finish-function))))

-- 
Kevin Rodgers
Denver, Colorado, USA