Why does buffer list not stay stable?

[Samuel Wales]

I have a vexing problem with buffer ordering.

I very frequently use next-buffer and previous-buffer[1]
to navigate to buffers.  If I am in a buffer and create a
few more, I want all of them to be next to each other in the
buffer list.

I treat the list like a ring (or want to) -- I want the two
commands to go in opposite directions on the ring.  I don't
care where the beginning and end of the buffer list are.

But I want buffers that I create or switch to to be
*nearby*.

And I want the two commands to be *opposites*.  Doing one a
few times then the other the same number of times should
return me to the same buffer.

But it doesn't always work like that.  Some buffers end up
far away from where I am, for no apparent reason.  And the
commands are not opposites.  This is disconcerting.

If I am in an org mode buffer (say), and do egg-status, this
brings up a buffer with diffs in it.  If I then call a
function that calls pop-to-buffer or switch-to-buffer, it
takes me to a new buffer.[2] so far so good.

Yet the egg-status buffer is nowhere to be seen (i.e. very
far away on the ring).

Any ideas here?


P.S.  I have also noticed that w3m buffers cluster together.
I assume it's unrelated, although it is sometimes annoying.


[1] I also tried a raise-buffer I came across many years
ago, and bury-buffer.

[2] Please disregard windows here.  99% of the time I
use a single window.  I almost never split them.  I have
pop-up-windows and same-window-* set to try to enforce this
and most of the time they work (except where commands fail
to respect pop-up-windows).

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