dot/emacs, el/dot-emacs.el: New gadget to force window selection.

I'm fed up with Emacs `display-buffer', which seems carefully designed
to read my mind and choose the least convenient possible window display
a buffer in.

Introduce a new command `mdw-designate-window', bound to `C-c w SPC',
which marks a window as being the target for the next buffer shown by
`display-buffer' when its caller doesn't have a better plan.  This
leaves alone things like Magit popups, which already know that they want
to go at the bottom of the current window (and that's fine).

diff --git a/dot/emacs b/dot/emacs
index 3967646..220fdd4 100644 (file)
--- a/dot/emacs
+++ b/dot/emacs
@@ -766,6 +766,7 @@
   (global-set-key [?\C-c ?v ?i] 'vm-visit-imap-folder)
   (global-set-key [?\C-c ?v ?m] 'vm-visit-folder)
   (global-set-key [?\C-c ?v ?v] 'mdw-auto-revert)
+  (global-set-key [?\C-c ?w ? ] 'mdw-designate-window)
   (global-set-key [?\C-c ?w ?b] 'w3m-bookmark-view)
   (global-set-key [?\C-c ?w ?c] 'mdw-set-frame-colour)
   (global-set-key [?\C-c ?w ?d] 'mdw-divvy-window)

diff --git a/el/dot-emacs.el b/el/dot-emacs.el
index 8b4f8f8..c7849f3 100644 (file)
--- a/el/dot-emacs.el
+++ b/el/dot-emacs.el
@@ -644,6 +644,34 @@ Evil key bindings are defined in `mdw-evil-keymap-keys'."
 
 ;; Some hacks to do with window placement.
 
+(defvar mdw-designated-window nil
+  "The window chosen by `mdw-designate-window', or nil.")
+
+(defun mdw-designate-window (cancel)
+  "Use the selected window for the next pop-up buffer.
+With a prefix argument, clear the designated window."
+  (interactive "P")
+  (cond (cancel
+        (setq mdw-designated-window nil)
+        (message "Window designation cleared."))
+       (t
+        (setq mdw-designated-window (selected-window))
+        (message "Window designated."))))
+
+(defun mdw-display-buffer-in-designated-window (buffer alist)
+  "Display function to use the designated window."
+  (prog1 mdw-designated-window
+    (when mdw-designated-window
+      (select-window mdw-designated-window)
+      (switch-to-buffer buffer nil t))
+    (setq mdw-designated-window nil)))
+
+(setq display-buffer-base-action
+      (let* ((action display-buffer-base-action)
+            (funcs (car action))
+            (alist (cdr action)))
+       (cons (cons 'mdw-display-buffer-in-designated-window funcs) alist)))
+
 (defun mdw-clobber-other-windows-showing-buffer (buffer-or-name)
   "Arrange that no windows on other frames are showing BUFFER-OR-NAME."
   (interactive "bBuffer: ")