Re: emacs commands / emacs windows / coordination

[Eli Zaretskii]

On 31 Dec 2001, Miles Bader wrote:

> The following message is a courtesy copy of an article
> that has been posted to comp.emacs as well.

I don't think it's a good idea to do such cross-posting, since 
emacs-devel is not an email gateway into comp.emacs, and is meant for 
a different kind of audience.

> Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> writes:
> > Lisp code that wants not to disrupt user's window configuration should use
> > save-window-excursion.
> 
> `save-window-excursion' works better for situations where there's a
> recursive edit, but commands like the vc checkin &c don't use a
> recursive edit (and they shouldn't), and so can't use that.

In what sense does save-window-excursion ill-suited for Lisp programs 
that don't use recursive edit?  I don't see any such considerations in 
the ELisp manual, and some Lisp packages do use it without a recursive 
edit.

> I think Joachim's idea -- to pop up windows by splitting the current
> window, so that deleting it restores the old state -- is interesting,
> at least for those users that tend to use complicated window
> structures in a frame.

This suggestion is IMHO less desirable than a feature that allows you to 
run arbitrary Lisp code and restore the window configuration after that 
code finishes.  One problem with splitting the current window is that 
it's unreliable: if the current window is too small, it might be 
impossible to split it.