how to keep a permanent buffer list open?

how to keep a permanent buffer list open?

[Brendan Miller]

when I launch emacs I'd like to keep a permanent buffer list open to
one side, so I can visually keep track of what buffers I have open,
without opening and closing the buffer list.

Is there some customisation out there like that, or can someone give
pointers on the elisp to open an emacs window on startup and populate
it with a buffer list, or ibuffer, or whatever?

Basically, I want this to perform the save function that tabs would
i.e. letting me visually keep track of what files/buffers I have open
and switch between them with a mouse click. I figure a buffer list
would be better for keeping track of a large number of buffers, that
would overflow on a tabbar.

Thanks,
Brendan

RE: how to keep a permanent buffer list open?

[Drew Adams]

> when I launch emacs I'd like to keep a permanent buffer list open to
> one side, so I can visually keep track of what buffers I have open,
> without opening and closing the buffer list.

Use a dedicated window for buffer *Buffer List* (if you use `C-x C-b' for
`buffer-menu' or `list-buffers').

Re: how to keep a permanent buffer list open?

[Richard Riley]

Brendan Miller <catphive@catphive.net> writes:

> when I launch emacs I'd like to keep a permanent buffer list open to
> one side, so I can visually keep track of what buffers I have open,
> without opening and closing the buffer list.
>
> Is there some customisation out there like that, or can someone give
> pointers on the elisp to open an emacs window on startup and populate
> it with a buffer list, or ibuffer, or whatever?
>
> Basically, I want this to perform the save function that tabs would
> i.e. letting me visually keep track of what files/buffers I have open
> and switch between them with a mouse click. I figure a buffer list
> would be better for keeping track of a large number of buffers, that
> would overflow on a tabbar.
>
> Thanks,
> Brendan
>

I suspect you will tire of that quite soon because of the excessive
screen real estate it consumes - emacs has a very fast buffer display
facility you might consider trying (the open buffers list is quite large
normally because of temp files etc),

I use this

(defalias 'list-buffers 'ibuffer)
(setq ibuffer-shrink-to-minimum-size t)
(setq ibuffer-always-show-last-buffer nil)
(setq ibuffer-sorting-mode 'recency)
(setq ibuffer-use-header-line t)


and

C-x C-b runs the command list-buffers, which is an alias for `ibuffer'
in `emacs-init.el'.

A hot key to open, and a single key to close.

As a new Emacs user you might also consider the excellent ido-mode. My
settings for it are simply

(require 'ido)
(ido-mode)

best of luck!

-- 
Google Talk : rileyrgdev@googlemail.com  http://www.google.com/talk
O< ascii ribbon campaign - stop html mail - www.asciiribbon.org

Re: how to keep a permanent buffer list open?

[Sven Bretfeld]

Hi Brendan

Brendan Miller <catphive@catphive.net> writes:

> Basically, I want this to perform the save function that tabs would
> i.e. letting me visually keep track of what files/buffers I have open
> and switch between them with a mouse click. I figure a buffer list
> would be better for keeping track of a large number of buffers, that
> would overflow on a tabbar.

I would suggest a customized tabbar that splits buffers into groups.
The following is what I have. It groups Tabs into Dired, User, Mail and
temporary buffers (*-buffers). Only one group is visible at a time. You
can browse the buffers and groups with the Windows key (super) plus
arrows. You can make your own groups easily by following the same model. 

Hope it helps,

Sven

(defun tabbar-buffer-groups ()
   "Return the list of group names the current buffer belongs to.
 This function is a custom function for tabbar-mode's
 tabbar-buffer-groups. This function group all buffers into 3
 groups: Those Dired, those user buffer, those LaTeX buffer,
 those emacs buffer etc. Emacs buffer are those starting with *."
   (list
    (cond
     ;; ((string-equal "*" (substring (buffer-name) 0 1))
     ;;  "tmp Buffers"
     ;;  )
     ((eq major-mode 'dired-mode)
      "Dired Buffers"
      )
     ((eq major-mode 'latex-mode)
      "User Buffers"
      )
     ((eq major-mode 'bibtex-mode)
      "User Buffers"
      )
     ((eq major-mode 'org-mode)
      "User Buffers"
      )
     ((eq major-mode 'emacs-lisp-mode)
      "User Buffers"
      )
     ((eq major-mode 'message-mode)
      "Gnus Buffers"
      )
     ((eq major-mode 'mail-mode)
      "Gnus Buffers"
      )
     ((eq major-mode 'gnus-group-mode)
      "Gnus Buffers"
      )
     ((eq major-mode 'gnus-summary-mode)
      "Gnus Buffers"
      )
     ((eq major-mode 'gnus-article-mode)
      "Gnus Buffers"
      )
     (t
      "Emacs Buffer"
      )
     )))

(setq tabbar-buffer-groups-function 'tabbar-buffer-groups)

;; «tabbar-keybindings» (to ".tabbar-keybindings")

(global-set-key [(s-right)] 'tabbar-forward)
(global-set-key [(s-left)] 'tabbar-backward)
(global-set-key [(s-up)] 'tabbar-backward-group)
(global-set-key [(s-down)] 'tabbar-forward-group)

Re: how to keep a permanent buffer list open?

[Brendan Miller]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 3064 bytes --]

Thanks for your replies; however, I think I may not have been clear in
communicating what I want to do.

I've attached a screenshot that shows the behavior I want in gedit. In
particular, on the left hand side of the gedit screenshot you can see
a list of all open buffers in gedits "documents" list.

This is the UI behavior I want becaue it lets me visually keep track
of all buffers. It also is fairly space efficient, or at least good
enough for my needs.

The main problem with tabs for me is that I tend to have a lot of
documents open, and they don't scale. So in other editors I usually
turn tabs off and open a buffer list of some kind like in gedit. In
firefox I use the tree style tabs plugin:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5890

So maybe given the gedit screenshot, and a look at the firefox plugin,
someone will know if this is doable in emacs. I haven't dealt with
elisp much at all, so some pointers would be welcome.

I actually use this "side tab" behavior in maybe 4 different editors,
so I'd like to work out something similar if possible, as I am very
used to it, and like it.

For the time being I have tabbar turned on.

Thanks,
Brendan

On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 7:51 PM, Richard Riley <rileyrgdev@gmail.com> wrote:
> Brendan Miller <catphive@catphive.net> writes:
>
>> when I launch emacs I'd like to keep a permanent buffer list open to
>> one side, so I can visually keep track of what buffers I have open,
>> without opening and closing the buffer list.
>>
>> Is there some customisation out there like that, or can someone give
>> pointers on the elisp to open an emacs window on startup and populate
>> it with a buffer list, or ibuffer, or whatever?
>>
>> Basically, I want this to perform the save function that tabs would
>> i.e. letting me visually keep track of what files/buffers I have open
>> and switch between them with a mouse click. I figure a buffer list
>> would be better for keeping track of a large number of buffers, that
>> would overflow on a tabbar.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Brendan
>>
>
> I suspect you will tire of that quite soon because of the excessive
> screen real estate it consumes - emacs has a very fast buffer display
> facility you might consider trying (the open buffers list is quite large
> normally because of temp files etc),
>
> I use this
>
> (defalias 'list-buffers 'ibuffer)
> (setq ibuffer-shrink-to-minimum-size t)
> (setq ibuffer-always-show-last-buffer nil)
> (setq ibuffer-sorting-mode 'recency)
> (setq ibuffer-use-header-line t)
>
>
> and
>
> C-x C-b runs the command list-buffers, which is an alias for `ibuffer'
> in `emacs-init.el'.
>
> A hot key to open, and a single key to close.
>
> As a new Emacs user you might also consider the excellent ido-mode. My
> settings for it are simply
>
> (require 'ido)
> (ido-mode)
>
> best of luck!
>
> --
> Google Talk : rileyrgdev@googlemail.com  http://www.google.com/talk
> O< ascii ribbon campaign - stop html mail - www.asciiribbon.org
>
>
>
>

[-- Attachment #2: gedit_buffers.png --]
[-- Type: image/png, Size: 63811 bytes --]

Re: how to keep a permanent buffer list open?

[Suvayu Ali]

On Friday 22 January 2010 12:03 PM, Brendan Miller wrote:
> Thanks for your replies; however, I think I may not have been clear in
> communicating what I want to do.
>
> -----8<-----8<-----
>
> So maybe given the gedit screenshot, and a look at the firefox plugin,
> someone will know if this is doable in emacs. I haven't dealt with
> elisp much at all, so some pointers would be welcome.

You can try speedbar, and set it to display buffer list. I believe you 
can even make it display within the already open emacs frame instead of 
the default behaviour of a separate frame on the side.

Hope this points you in the correct direction. Good Luck.
-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.

Re: how to keep a permanent buffer list open?

[Brendan Miller]

That does look promising, thanks.

On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 1:56 PM, Suvayu Ali <fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Friday 22 January 2010 12:03 PM, Brendan Miller wrote:
>>
>> Thanks for your replies; however, I think I may not have been clear in
>> communicating what I want to do.
>>
>> -----8<-----8<-----
>>
>> So maybe given the gedit screenshot, and a look at the firefox plugin,
>> someone will know if this is doable in emacs. I haven't dealt with
>> elisp much at all, so some pointers would be welcome.
>
> You can try speedbar, and set it to display buffer list. I believe you can
> even make it display within the already open emacs frame instead of the
> default behaviour of a separate frame on the side.
>
> Hope this points you in the correct direction. Good Luck.
> --
> Suvayu
>
> Open source is the future. It sets us free.
>