Re: Changing startup horizontal window split behaviour

[Andrew Walrond]

Andrew Walrond wrote:
> When I start emacs with more than one file specified on the command
> line, the emacs display is split horizontally with a buffer-list
> displayed in the top window and the first file in the bottom window.
> 
> How can I change this behaviour, in general? Could I perhaps have a
> vertical split or not display a buffer list?
> 

The list wasn't very forthcoming, but #emacs was more forthcoming, so I
thought I'd share what I learned here where web-searches might find it.

First, to stop emacs from opening a buffer-list on startup, just set
this variable
        inhibit-startup-buffer-menu
to t in .emacs

Second, although I haven't managed to stop the window from being split,
it's possible to delete the extra window by adding this to .emacs:
        (add-hook 'emacs-startup-hook 'delete-other-windows)

Another little gem is how to get the buffer-list (C-x C-b) and other
special buffers to appear in the current-window, rather than the
other-window. This is achieved by adding this to .emacs
        (nconc same-window-buffer-names '("*Buffer List*" "*Help*"))

Andrew Walrond