Subject: bug#33870: 27.0.50; xref-goto-xref not configurable

From: Stefan Monnier <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 08 Jan 2019 11:06:32 -0500

>> The intention behind display-buffer-mark-dedicated is to have it set to
>> `soft` which in turn means that the window will be undedicated whenever
>> the user explicitly asks to display another buffer in it (typically via
>> switch-to-buffer).
> Who is supposed to set this and when?

The user in ~/.emacs

> Why don't we provide a normal action alist entry for this?

IIRC it was introduced before the new display-buffer-alist and its
action alists.  Also it's a global variable because I needed it to apply
to "normal" buffers (rather than those matched by
special-display-regexps), so it needs to go to
display-buffer-base-action which had no equivalent back then.

>> IOW the result is windows are dedicated as long as they have only ever
>> displayed a single buffer.
> You mean one and the same buffer all the time?

Of course: when set to `soft`, it's marked as `soft-dedicated` when
created, so as soon as some other buffer is displayed, the dedication
is removed.

> Please leave a note somewhere what the precise intended behavior is.
> So far, designers of buffer display action functions can only guess.

I'm not sure what to say there.  The intended behavior is just as it is
described: to mark windows as dedicated when they're created.

        Stefan