changed output of buffer-list?

[Joost Kremers <joostkremers@yahoo.com>]

Hi all,

I'm following the Ubuntu emacs-snapshot packages from Damien Cassou at
https://launchpad.net/~cassou/+archive/emacs . Just now, when I upgraded
to the lastest snapshot, my favourite buffer switching package,
swbuff.el, broke. Granted, swbuff.el hasn't seen any update since 2003,
so perhaps I shouldn't be expecting it to still work, but I think the
cause of the problem lies in some change to Emacs itself that affects
the output of `buffer-list'.

Here is the output of `buffer-list' in an Emacs snapshot from a couple
of weeks ago (which I still have running in a VirtualBox VM; I've
wrapped the output a bit):

,----
| Elisp> (buffer-list)
| (#<buffer *ielm*> #<buffer *scratch*> #<buffer *eshell*>
|  #<buffer *Minibuf-1*> #<buffer  *Minibuf-0*> #<buffer *Messages*>
|  #<buffer  *code-conversion-work*> #<buffer  *Echo Area 0*> #<buffer  *Echo Area 1*>)
| 
| Elisp> (emacs-version)
| "GNU Emacs 24.3.50.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu)\n of 2013-03-19 on gold, modified by Debian"
`----

I typed this in an Elisp interaction buffer called `*ielm*'. Notice how
this buffer is the first buffer in the output of `buffer-list'. Now,
after the lastest update, doing the same thing gives the following
output (this is my "normal" Emacs instance, so there are a few more
buffers):

,----
| Elisp> (buffer-list)
| (#<buffer .article> #<buffer  *Minibuf-1*> #<buffer swbuff.el>
|  #<buffer *ielm*> #<buffer *scratch*> #<buffer *eshell*>
|  #<buffer  *Minibuf-0*> #<buffer *Messages*> #<buffer *code-conversion-work*>
|  #<buffer  *Echo Area 0*> #<buffer  *Echo Area 1*>
|  #<buffer  *Pandoc output*> #<buffer *Compile-Log*>
|  #<buffer  *edit-server*> #<buffer *Packages*> #<buffer *OfflineIMAP*>
|  #<buffer  *mu4e-proc*> #<buffer  *mu4e-loading*>
|  #<buffer *Backtrace*> #<buffer *Help*> #<buffer  *mu4e-main*>
|  #<buffer  *server*> #<buffer  *code-converting-work*>)
| 
| Elisp> (emacs-version)
| "GNU Emacs 24.3.50.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.6.0)\n of 2013-04-11 on fermium, modified by Debian"
`----

Notice that even though the buffer `*ielm*' is active, the first buffer
in the list is actually `.article'. (Which is the buffer in which I'm
writing this post. I switched to `*ielm*' just to perform the test
above; I used `C-x b', bound to `switch-to-buffer', to switch.)

So my question basically is this: what might be causing this change in
the output given by `buffer-list' and is it something that should be
considered a bug? Or should a package such as swbuff.el simply not rely
on the active buffer being the first in the list?

TIA


Joost



-- 
Joost Kremers                                   joostkremers@fastmail.fm
Selbst in die Unterwelt dringt durch Spalten Licht
EN:SiS(9)