Subject: bug#10135: 24.0.91; `special-display-regexps' is still not respected (again)

From: Stefan Monnier <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:59:37 -0500

>> > 5. C-x 5 2
>> > In step 5, a special-display frame should also be used, for the same
>> > reason, but it is not.
>> I could agree that it's a problem, but IIUC this is not a new issue,
>> since I think that's how C-x 5 2 has always worked, right?
> You are right, sir - my bad.

Thanks for confirming.

> Feel free to close this bug or (IMO better) keep it open, perhaps as
> a wishlist item.

The fact that it's not new doesn't change the fact that you dislike
this behavior, so it's not a reason to close the bug.

> Since the buffer displayed matches `special-display-regexps',
> a special-display frame should be used.

As you know I use a similar setup to yours so I have gone through
similar thoughts.  I haven't actually tried to make C-x 5 2 "obey"
special-display-regexps, but if someone wants to try it, here are some
things to consider:
- The default behavior for special-display-* is to reuse any window that
  already displays the buffer, so in order to make C-x 5 2 meaningful
  we'd clearly want to skip this part of the usual
  special-display-* behavior.
- Maybe C-x 5 2 should be more like "clone frame" instead, i.e. don't
  pay attention to special-display-* but instead try to reproduce the
  existing frame (including dedicatedness of the window it displays).
  This opens the question of what to do when the selected frame has
  several windows, of course.

        Stefan