clone-buffer in Info

clone-buffer in Info

[Drew Adams]

I just discovered something I should probably have discovered years ago.

I often use `M-x clone-buffer' in Info, to be able to view different nodes at
the same time. In my own setup, Info windows are always dedicated, which is
(apparently) why I can do that. The nodes can be in different manuals.

Just now, for instance, for my reply to thread "questions about blink-cursor
mode", I compared Info nodes (emacs)Hooks and (elisp)Hooks in separate windows,
just by using `clone-buffer'.

I never realized that this possibility was only because I use dedicated windows.
I found that out by accident, by trying the same thing in `emacs -Q'. There,
it's not possible - when you navigate to a node, the cloned buffer follows.

Just using `set-window-dedicated-p' takes care of this and DTRT. But `M-:
(set-window-dedicated-p (selected-window) t)' is not something that many Emacs
users will think of doing, especially for this purpose. They wouldn't even know
that this would give them a way to look at multiple nodes (I assume this is not
documented as such).

It seems so useful, to me, to be able to have separate Info windows looking at
different nodes (possibly in different manuals), that I wonder if we shouldn't
somehow automatically DTRT in this regard. Either by automatically dedicating
the window whenever you use `clone-buffer' (in Info) or by some other means.

Or at least document this. I had no idea that this feature was _not_ available
out of the box without doing anything. Many Emacs users must have been losing
out on this.

Re: clone-buffer in Info

[martin rudalics]

 > I often use `M-x clone-buffer' in Info, to be able to view different nodes at
 > the same time. In my own setup, Info windows are always dedicated, which is
 > (apparently) why I can do that. The nodes can be in different manuals.
 >
 > Just now, for instance, for my reply to thread "questions about blink-cursor
 > mode", I compared Info nodes (emacs)Hooks and (elisp)Hooks in separate windows,
 > just by using `clone-buffer'.
 >
 > I never realized that this possibility was only because I use dedicated windows.
 > I found that out by accident, by trying the same thing in `emacs -Q'. There,
 > it's not possible - when you navigate to a node, the cloned buffer follows.

Here I don't have any problems cloning any Info buffers and navigating
them independently within their respective windows.  AFAICT this issue
was never related to dedicated windows - at least until recently.

martin

RE: clone-buffer in Info

[Drew Adams]

> Here I don't have any problems cloning any Info buffers and navigating
> them independently within their respective windows.  AFAICT this issue
> was never related to dedicated windows - at least until recently.

My bad. I was using C-x 5 2 to get the buffers in different frames, and then I
removed the wrong window, so I was in fact looking at the same buffer in both
frames. So I was mistaken, which is good. Thx.

Re: clone-buffer in Info

[A Soare]

> I often use `M-x clone-buffer' in Info, to be able to view different nodes at
> the same time. In my own setup, Info windows are always dedicated, which is
> (apparently) why I can do that. The nodes can be in different manuals.
> 

Also, you can duplicate the *info* , *shell* session with rename-uniquely.