Re: Feeling lost without tabs

[Emanuel Berg]

Javier <nospam@nospam.com> writes:

> I think dealing with frames in windows/mac is much
> more difficult than in linux.  In windows, having
> multiple frames open will overfill the taskbar.
> Window managers in Linux are more powerful and have
> better ways of dealing with multiple frames by
> virtual desktops or iconifying windows.

I didn't know Emacs frames were shown separately in the
taskbar of GUIs. I don't use a WM, and in X I use
Openbox which doesn't come with a taskbar, I think (if
it does, I never saw it, and I'm happy with
that). Perhaps some Gnome or KDE piece of software
synch with Emacs to display not just Emacs, but is
reactive to the state of Emacs as well. If so, it would
be interesting to know how they do that? Is this kept
in a file or otherwise made available to the outside
world?

> Some usefuld keybindings for dealing with frames ...

I don't like your taste in keys (the function and arrow
keys) because of the reach thing I've talked about many
times, but cred for not only writing Elisp but also
sharing it for everyone to see/use!

> (setq pop-up-frames t)

That didn't work for me. Or perhaps I want something
else. I want everything to pop up in the same window,
as it were when the command was invoked, and I don't
that window to change in size.

My case,

(defun new-message ()
  (interactive)
  (if (get-buffer "*Group*") (gnus-post-news 'post "")
    (progn
      (gnus)
      (new-message) )))
      
still (with `pop-up-frames') destroys my two-pane
layout. I guess I need something like (setq
keep-window-layout t)?
      
> You will never again see a split screen unless you
> ask explicitly for it with C-x 2.

I do that so often I have my own shortcut for that:
M-o. And it is DWIM: with one window open, M-o splits
it (and does `other-window'); with two windows open,
M-o is just `other-window':

(defun other-window-or-split ()
  (interactive)
  (if (= 1 (count-windows)) (split-window-vertically))
  (other-window 1) )

I have M-p `delete-other-window' - "o" and "p" are next
to each other, and require minimal hand/finger
movements.

> That has its drawbacks, like completition buffers
> popping up in a new frame.  Sometimes the frames will
> remain in the background and it seems that nothing
> has been opened, specially in console mode.

Completions may be a special case since you are typing
in the minibuffer. I think completion should be avoided
but sometimes I use it as a reference. For that usage,
I suppose the minibuffer and the completion of an
actual command is just in the way. Perhaps the
`apropos' command is better for that usage.

-- 
underground experts united