Subject: Re: bug#20189: 25.0.50; Feature request: Alternative split-window-sensibly functions

From: Tassilo Horn <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 20:33:40 +0100

Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]> writes:

Hi Eli,

> I don't see how we can judge "sensibility" of what display-buffer does
> without knowing which command(s) invoked it.  Users don't invoke
> display-buffer directly, and the commands that do differ widely in the
> amount and dimensions of text they display and subsequent use of the
> displayed stuff.
>
> As a simple example, a command that calls display-buffer could prepare
> text that is best shown in a 100x10 window (think about some columnar
> display), in which case it doesn't make sense to prefer 80-column wide
> side-by-side windows that you seem to prefer.

Long story short: I agree with all that you've said.  And if there's
some optimal algorithm for splitting windows in such a way that the
least screen estate is wasted and at the same time the most buffer
contents are visible, that would be awesome.  No need to convince me
that there's something much better than what I've suggested.

But for the time being, I prefer some solution which is available right
now and good enough for my personal preferences.  And that's the point
of the issue.  Window handling is extremely hard to configure in Emacs
with the amounts of options we have.  That's why I've suggested to have
a small set of alternatives one can choose from without having to dig
into the details of window thresholds, window parameters, window
combinations, etc.

Bye,
Tassilo