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Re: help-window-select and info-lookup-symbol
From: |
martin rudalics |
Subject: |
Re: help-window-select and info-lookup-symbol |
Date: |
Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:32:25 +0200 |
User-agent: |
Thunderbird 2.0.0.21 (Windows/20090302) |
> It seems to me that C-h S and C-h f are so similar that both commands
> should honor the value of help-window-select. In fact, there are a lot
> of (third party) packages with a display-documentation-in-other-window
> command but there seems to be no agreement whether the window should be
> selected or not. Especially annoying is the fact that XEmacs usually
> selects the other window while Emacs usually does not.
C-h f is a self-contained function while C-h S falls back on `info' for
displaying its findings. Obviously, a common approach to handle these
and similar cases would be desirable.
> It would be very nice if you, the Emacs maintainers, could make a rule
> or style-guide how this should be done. E.g. should other packages look
> at help-window-select or is that an "internal" variable of help-mode?
Currently `help-window-select' is an "internal" variable of help-mode.
> I understand that restoring the window configuration after pressing q in
> the help window (or info window, or w3m buffer) is sort of tricky and it
> gets very complex if multiple frames are involved, yet selecting the
> help window is what many users expect. Since restoring is so tricky it
> would also be helpful if there were some general functions to do it
> properly.
Restoring an old window configuration is awfully tricky. Let W1 denote
the window configuration before invoking help, W2 the configuration
after invoking help (and after any `fit-window-to-buffer' and balancing
stuff), and W3 the configuration when you press `q'. A brute force
approach (currently used by info or backtrace) simply restores W1 whe
you press `q' which all so often drives me mad because it destroys the
windows and window-buffer associations I have created in between.
Now theoretically, I could restore W1 if and only if the configurations
W2 and W3 are equal. In practice, however, this approach often failed
here. Hence, I tried to base the comparison on a weaker predicate of
equality which ignored the identities of buffers displayed in other
windows and the relative sizes of windows. I got it to work for help
buffers but was not able to make it work realiably with info buffers.
martin
- help-window-select and info-lookup-symbol, Helmut Eller, 2009/07/19
- Re: help-window-select and info-lookup-symbol,
martin rudalics <=
- Re: help-window-select and info-lookup-symbol, Helmut Eller, 2009/07/21
- Re: help-window-select and info-lookup-symbol, martin rudalics, 2009/07/21
- Re: help-window-select and info-lookup-symbol, Helmut Eller, 2009/07/21
- Re: help-window-select and info-lookup-symbol, martin rudalics, 2009/07/21
- Re: help-window-select and info-lookup-symbol, Helmut Eller, 2009/07/21
- Re: help-window-select and info-lookup-symbol, martin rudalics, 2009/07/22
- Re: help-window-select and info-lookup-symbol, Helmut Eller, 2009/07/22
- Re: help-window-select and info-lookup-symbol, martin rudalics, 2009/07/26
- Re: help-window-select and info-lookup-symbol, Helmut Eller, 2009/07/26
- Re: help-window-select and info-lookup-symbol, martin rudalics, 2009/07/26