It's sometimes useful to interactively make certain windows dedicated.
This allows a level of interactive control over which window
display-buffer uses.
Additionally, when a window is dedicated (even without this new
command) it can affect display-buffer behavior in ways which may be
unexpected for users. Let's display the window dedicated status in
the mode-line to help indicate what's going on.
* doc/emacs/windows.texi (Displaying Buffers): Add information about
dedicated windows and toggle-window-dedicated.
* doc/emacs/screen.texi (Mode Line): Add information about the window
dedicated indicator.
* etc/NEWS: Announce mode-line-window-dedicated and
toggle-window-dedicated.
* lisp/window.el (toggle-window-dedicated): Add. (bug#64619)
(window-prefix-map): Add C-x w d binding.
* lisp/bindings.el (mode-line-window-control): Add.
(mode-line-window-dedicated): Add.
(standard-mode-line-format): Insert mode-line-window-dedicated.
The text displayed in the mode line has the following format:
@example
- @var{cs}:@var{ch}-@var{fr} @var{buf} @var{pos} @var{line} (@var{major} @var{minor})
+ @var{cs}:@var{ch}-@var{d}@var{fr} @var{buf} @var{pos} @var{line} (@var{major} @var{minor})
@end example
@noindent
However, if @code{default-directory} (@pxref{File Names}) for the
current buffer is on a remote machine, @samp{@@} is displayed instead.
+ @var{d} appears if the window is dedicated to its current buffer.
+It appears as @samp{D} for strong dedication and @samp{d} for other
+forms of dedication. If the window is not dedicated, @var{d} does not
+appear. @xref{Dedicated Windows,, elisp, The Emacs Lisp Reference
+Manual}.
+
@var{fr} gives the selected frame name (@pxref{Frames}). It appears
only on text terminals. The initial frame's name is @samp{F1}.
window on some other frame to display the desired buffer. Several of
these commands are bound in the @kbd{C-x 5} prefix key.
+@cindex dedicated window
+ Sometimes, a window is ``dedicated'' to its current buffer.
+@xref{Dedicated Windows,, elisp, The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual}.
+@code{display-buffer} will avoid reusing dedicated windows most of the
+time. This is indicated by a @samp{d} in the mode line (@pxref{Mode
+Line}). A window can also be strongly dedicated, which prevents any
+changes to the buffer displayed in the window. This is indicated by a
+@samp{D} in the mode line.
+
+Usually, dedicated windows are used to display specialized buffers,
+but dedication can sometimes be useful interactively. For example,
+when viewing errors with @kbd{M-g M-n} @code{next-error}, newly
+displayed source code may replace a buffer you want to refer to. If
+you dedicate a window to that buffer, the command (through
+@code{display-buffer}) will prefer to use a different window instead.
+
+@kindex C-x w d
+@findex toggle-window-dedicated
+ Toggle whether the selected window is dedicated to the current
+buffer. With a prefix argument, make the window strongly dedicated
+instead.
+
@menu
* Window Choice:: How @code{display-buffer} works.
* Temporary Displays:: Displaying non-editable buffers.
When this minor mode is enabled, buttons representing modifier keys
are displayed along the tool bar.
++++
+** 'd' in the mode line now indicates that the window is dedicated.
+Windows have always been able to be dedicated to a specific buffer;
+see 'window-dedicated-p'. Now the mode line indicates the dedicated
+status of a window, with 'd' appearing in the mode line if a window is
+dedicated and 'D' if the window is strongly dedicated. This indicator
+appears before the buffer name, and after the buffer modification and
+remote buffer indicators (usually "---" together).
+
++++
+** New command 'toggle-window-dedicated'.
+This makes it easy to interactively mark a specific window as
+dedicated, so it won't be reused by 'display-buffer'. This can be
+useful for complicated window setups. It is bound to 'C-x w d'
+globally.
+
+** cl-print
+*** You can expand the "..." truncation everywhere.
+The code that allowed "..." to be expanded in the *Backtrace* should
+now work anywhere the data is generated by `cl-print`.
+
---
** New user option 'uniquify-dirname-transform'.
This can be used to customize how buffer names are uniquified, by
;;;###autoload
(put 'mode-line-frame-identification 'risky-local-variable t)
+(defvar mode-line-window-dedicated-keymap
+ (let ((map (make-sparse-keymap)))
+ (define-key map [mode-line mouse-1] #'toggle-window-dedicated)
+ (purecopy map)) "\
+Keymap for what is displayed by `mode-line-window-dedicated'.")
+
+(defun mode-line-window-control ()
+ "Compute mode line construct for window dedicated state.
+Value is used for `mode-line-window-dedicated', which see."
+ (cond
+ ((eq (window-dedicated-p) t)
+ (propertize
+ "D"
+ 'help-echo "Window strongly dedicated to its buffer\nmouse-1: Toggle"
+ 'local-map mode-line-window-dedicated-keymap
+ 'mouse-face 'mode-line-highlight))
+ ((window-dedicated-p)
+ (propertize
+ "d"
+ 'help-echo "Window dedicated to its buffer\nmouse-1: Toggle"
+ 'local-map mode-line-window-dedicated-keymap
+ 'mouse-face 'mode-line-highlight))
+ (t "")))
+
+(defvar mode-line-window-dedicated '(:eval (mode-line-window-control))
+ "Mode line construct to describe the current window.")
+;;;###autoload
+(put 'mode-line-window-dedicated 'risky-local-variable t)
+
(defvar-local mode-line-process nil
"Mode line construct for displaying info on process status.
Normally nil in most modes, since there is no process to display.")
'mode-line-mule-info
'mode-line-client
'mode-line-modified
- 'mode-line-remote)
- 'display '(min-width (5.0)))
+ 'mode-line-remote
+ 'mode-line-window-dedicated)
+ 'display '(min-width (6.0)))
'mode-line-frame-identification
'mode-line-buffer-identification
" "
The actual non-nil value of this variable will be copied to the
`window-dedicated-p' flag.")
+(defcustom toggle-window-dedicated-flag 'interactive
+ "What dedicated flag should `toggle-window-dedicated' use by default.
+
+If `toggle-window-dedicated' does not receive a flag argument,
+the value of this variable is used and passed to
+`set-window-dedicated-p'. Setting this to t will make
+`toggle-window-dedicated' use strong dedication by default. Any
+other non-nil value will result in the same kind of non-strong
+dedication."
+ :type '(choice (const :tag "Strongly dedicated" t)
+ (const :tag "Dedicated" interactive))
+ :version "30.0"
+ :group 'windows)
+
+(defun toggle-window-dedicated (&optional window flag interactive)
+ "Toggle whether WINDOW is dedicated to its current buffer.
+
+WINDOW must be a live window and defaults to the selected one.
+If FLAG is t (interactively, the prefix argument), make the window
+\"strongly\" dedicated to its buffer. FLAG defaults to a non-nil,
+non-t value, and is passed to `set-window-dedicated-p', which see.
+If INTERACTIVE is non-nil, print a message describing the dedication
+status of WINDOW, after toggling it. Interactively, this argument is
+always non-nil.
+
+When a window is dedicated to its buffer, `display-buffer' will avoid
+displaying another buffer in it, if possible. When a window is
+strongly dedicated to its buffer, changing the buffer shown in the
+window will usually signal an error.
+
+You can control the default of FLAG with
+`toggle-window-dedicated-flag'. Consequently, if you set that
+variable to t, strong dedication will be used by default and
+\\[universal-argument] will make the window weakly dedicated.
+
+See the info node `(elisp)Dedicated Windows' for more details."
+ (interactive "i\nP\np")
+ (setq window (window-normalize-window window))
+ (setq flag (cond
+ ((consp flag)
+ (if (eq toggle-window-dedicated-flag t)
+ 'interactive
+ t))
+ ((null flag) toggle-window-dedicated-flag)
+ (t flag)))
+ (if (window-dedicated-p window)
+ (set-window-dedicated-p window nil)
+ (set-window-dedicated-p window flag))
+ (when interactive
+ (message "Window is %s dedicated to buffer %s"
+ (let ((status (window-dedicated-p window)))
+ (cond
+ ((null status) "no longer")
+ ((eq status t) "now strongly")
+ (t "now")))
+ (current-buffer))
+ (force-mode-line-update)))
+
(defconst display-buffer--action-function-custom-type
'(choice :tag "Function"
(const :tag "--" ignore) ; default for insertion
"2" #'split-root-window-below
"3" #'split-root-window-right
"s" #'window-toggle-side-windows
+ "d" #'toggle-window-dedicated
"^ f" #'tear-off-window
"^ t" #'tab-window-detach
"-" #'fit-window-to-buffer