no customisation of default window-splitting orientation (enhancement)

[Edward Welbourne]

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In GNU Emacs 21.2.1 (i386-debian-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
 of 2002-03-22 on raven, modified by Debian
configured using `configure  i386-debian-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr 
--sharedstatedir=/var/lib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --localstatedir=/var/lib 
--infodir=/usr/share/info --mandir=/usr/share/man --with-pop=yes --with-x=yes 
--with-x-toolkit=athena --without-gif'
Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: C
  locale-coding-system: nil
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Please describe exactly what actions triggered the bug
and the precise symptoms of the bug:

Many commands in emacs split the window if there's only one active
when they're invoked; they don't generally have any cause to care
whether horizontally or vertically, but they all split vertically
(i.e. with a horizontal divider halving the window height).  This made
perfect sense for as long as I was working on a screen with of order
80 columns; but now I'm using a window with 183 columns (one pane of
my fvwm is taken up by an emacs window with minimal decor) so my
preferred splitting orientation is horizontally (halve width with a
vertical divider); I `only' get 67 lines on screen at a time.

Some buffers (notably those (sometimes) created by commands that split
the window) close their window when they are closed - e.g. sending a
mail closes the window in which it was composed.  This made perfect
sense when I was on a screen where a split window was painful and only
tolerated because I needed to see one buffer while editing another.
However, now it means that I have to C-x 3 after closing such a
buffer, before doing anything that'd want to split the window if it
found only one window active; otherwise, I end up with a vertical
split rather than my preferred horizontal split.

It would be nice to have some way of telling all those functions,
which ensure they have a second window, (or, more likely, telling the
command to which they all delegate) that I prefer to split
horizontally rather than vertically.

Recent input:
a t i o <M-backspace> <M-backspace> <M-backspace> n 
o SPC c o n f i g SPC f o r C-g C-h i C-s s p l i t 
M-b C-s C-s C-s C-s C-x C-x m <return> M-> u C-s s 
p l i t C-r C-r C-s C-s C-e m <return> <mouse-1> <mouse-1> 
<mouse-1> <mouse-1> <mouse-1> <mouse-1> <mouse-1> <mouse-1> 
<mouse-1> <mouse-1> <C-down-mouse-2> <C-mouse-2> C-x 
0 C-x o C-h v t r u <tab> p a <tab> <return> M-x s 
e t - v a <tab> <return> M-p <return> n i l <return> 
C-x o M-x M-p M-p <return>

Recent messages:
byte-code: Quit
Mark saved where search started [2 times]
unzipping emacs-24.gz...done
Mark set
unzipping emacs-1.gz...done
Mark saved where search started
unzipping emacs-11.gz...done
scroll-bar-toolkit-scroll: Beginning of buffer
scroll-bar-toolkit-scroll: End of buffer
Type C-x 4 b RET to restore the other window.  C-M-v to scroll the help.