Subject: Scratch buffer (Summary of Xah's proposals, as I see it)

From: Jambunathan K <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:50:12 +0530

Let me rephrase ideas in Xah's post -
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-gnu-emacs/2012-04/msg00260.html.

The recommendations involve,

1. "Menu->File->Visit New File" should be changed to "File->New".  This
   will create an 'Untitled N' buffer.  This will mark the buffer as
   `potentially-file-visiting'.  Specifically it will not ask for the
   name of the file.

2. Introduce "File->Save as" will mark a `potentially-file-visiting'
   buffer as a `real-file-visiting-buffer'.

3. `potentially-file-visiting-buffer' should be queried for save on
    exit.

Speaking of scratch buffer,
--------------------------

Emacs has a notion of buffers that are *not* and *never will be (?)*
file-visiting.  Their only purpose is to do THROWAWAY work ("use and
throw") with an understanding that Emacs will promise /not/ to annoy the
user with "Should I save this THROWAWAY work?  It seems valuable to me
even though you think otherwise".

(Hmm, I like the way Emacs gives primacy to throwaway work.)

1. It is useful to have scratch buffers.  Though most users will have no
   use for it.

2. There could be mutliple user-created scratch buffers and they could
   be created in multiple programming lang modes, depending on user's
   needs.  

I think, 
--------

If Emacs *deduces* file-visitedness based on the name of the buffer, I
think much of the problem could be elegantly dealt with.

1. C-x b => Create "Untitled N".  It is potentially-file-visiting.  Such
   buffers always queried on exit.

2. C-u C-x b => Creates "*throway-%s*".  Note that the default offered
   to the user names the buffer specially with leading and trailing
   asterisks, These are non-file-visiting buffers.