Re: switch-to-buffer: for interactive use only

[Glenn Morris]

Glenn Morris wrote:

> Fix switch-to-buffer?
>
> Eg make it call pop-to-buffer-same-window in the non-interactive-case?
> Then make a new function
> switch-to-buffer-sometimes-fails-and-you-probably-dont-want-this
> that does what the old version used to?

Or better still, just add an optional MAYBE-FAIL argument to
switch-to-buffer, defaulting to nil, but t in interactive use.
If nil, s-t-b will choose another window if the current one is
unsuitable (eg dedicated or a minibuffer); otherwise it will return an
error. I think that would make the distinction clear.

I mean, say 90% of the current uses of s-t-b are "wrong".
If you fix s-t-b, you've reduced the amount of other code you have to
change by a factor of 9.

On the other hand, if more than say 10% of the current uses are "right",
then you probably should not be saying it should not be used in Lisp
code.