Re: customizing emacs windows

[Ivan <ivanushka@yahoo.com>]

On събота, Май 26 2007, Tim X wrote:

> Ivan <ivanushka@yahoo.com> writes:
>
>> On петък, Май 25 2007, Ivan wrote:
>>
>>> First, thanks for your messages. Sorry if I wasn't quite clear in my
>>> request. I almost managed to achieve what I needed with simple
>>> Emacs-commands. I defined a function in .emacs that opens buffers and
>>> splits windows and I called that function on Emacs start. I used
>>> commands such as split-window-vertically, find-file, other-window and
>>> so on. It is not perfect because I have problems controlling which
>>> window which buffer to display as one of the things I start is - run
>>> Slime and Slime does some strange things with the windows. I also have
>>> problems controlling windows's sizes. 
>>>
>>> My requirements are very simple for now - I need the Emacs frame
>>> devided into several windows with particular sizes. Each window should
>>> display a particular buffer.
>>
>> As a matter of fact what I'm trying to do is make Emacs provide an
>> integrated development environment for Lisp development like
>> Eclispe. I need several buffers:
>> 1. REPL
>> 2. Log output buffer
>> 3. Project's source files tree
>> 4. Web browser
>
> Something which may provide some ideas or some code you could borrow is the
> emacs window manager. I think it may be mentioned on the emacs wiki site
> (http://emacswiki.org) and at one time, I think there was a Debian package for
> it. 

I found this while looking it up:

http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/XWindowEmacsManager

> From memory, it only works for XEmacs, but it may have some code or ideas you
> could use to create the function you want. 
>
> Another possibility depends on your window manager. I use Sawfish, which is a
> light weight window manager written in 'rep', which is essentially a lisp
> dialect. However, it has support for window groups, named desktops etc and the
> ability to send specific windows to specific workspaces and positions. It would
> probably be possible to use a combination of emacs and rep to control frame
> placement and some emacs functions to divide up the frames according to how you
> want them. 

I use Windows on my desktop. Other times I only have a console.

> When using slime, I open three frames, send them to different workspaces and
> have a function key defined to switch between the frames. In one frame I have a
> buffer witht he source code in it, in another frame, I have the slime REPL and
> log window and in the third frame, I have w3m. I've thought about automating
> the whole process, but to be honest, haven't bothered because I restart emacs
> so rarely that its not really been necessary. I usually have about 15 different
> workspaces and different emacs frames on most of them. I then just switch
> between workspaces using two function keys or by moving the mouse to the left
> or right edge of the screen. 

My target is one Emacs frame divided into several windows just like in
Eclipse. In tune with the Emacs ideology the active window should be
controled with a kbd shortcut and not only with the mouse.

Switching workspaces is tiring for the eyes. A contemporary display
should be enough for a window representing an IDE.

> A package able to open frames, divide them up into windows, associate specific
> buffers with the windows and distribute the frames over specific workspaces
> would be very handy. The ability to define 'groups' of such would be even more
> useful than just the ability to save your config on exit and restore it. 

I'd rather have buffer - window association and control over windows's
size and position. Currently even if we manage to set this up, many
functions (for example describe) open windows within Emacs and on
closing them the set-up is broken.